The Father and I are one.
The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good works that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ — and the scripture cannot be annulled — can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
I say, “You are gods,
children of the Most High,
all of you.”
(John 10:30-36 and Psalm 82:6)
Jesus, a human being, accepts the charge of making Himself God. (I am touching on the fullness of Jesus’ humanity and divinity here, but will save that for another day.) He then looks at those around Him and says, in essence, “So are you!”
What is happening here?
Jesus refers to an Old Testament text, and then validates the authority of that text. He uses that text to remind the people around them who they are as defined by scripture. And the words that Jesus quotes are coming from the Most High God…”You are gods, all of you, children of the Most High.”
Jesus, fully God and fully human,
declares that God said,
we are gods.
I am more than what I think I am. It is likely that I think less of myself than my created reality would suggest, because of what has happened to me. At some point, someone told me I was less and not enough, and I believed them. There is more going on with me than I am aware of.
When I forget my identity in the created order, a lot problems begin to unfold, for me and for the world around me. One of those is injustice. Psalm 82:1-5 identifies the problems of injustice that are taking place in regard to the weak and the orphan, the lowly and the destitute, the weak and the needy. The Most High God is calling on those that God calls ‘gods’ to “deliver [these oppressed people] from the hand of the wicked. That is what ‘gods’ do and it is exactly what Jesus was doing when he spoke of the good works He was doing. But the gods are failing to bring about justice, and though they are “children of the Most High God, they will die like mortals.”
We have a place in the created order, made in the image of God, that is a little lower than God, crowned with glory and honor. And we are called to live out our lives from this identity.
I am not saying we should go around declaring ourselves to be gods
…or am I?
Journey to BE Still 