John 10:34-39 : Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’ If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken), do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’ If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” They sought again to seize him, and he went out of their hand.
Jesus brings up a very interesting Old Testament quote here. He is quoting from the book of Psalms. Jesus calls the Psalms here a part of the law. This is good to note when considering what the Jews mean when they refer to the law. They are not just talking about the first five books of the Bible. Also notice that Jesus calls the Psalms “Scripture”. More on this later, but first let’s read this “Scripture” that Jesus is quoting:
Psalms 82:6 :
I said, “You are gods,
all of you are sons of the Most High.”
When God gives a government official the power to judge over another person, He has made this leader like a god. There is a grave responsibility that is taken when a government official stands in the power of God to judge between men. This is not something to take lightly, and these leaders needed to hear that.
Jesus reminds these men that God calls government officials gods but that Jesus was set apart from them. That’s what “sanctified” means. Jesus isn’t a “god” in that sense, He really was God.
It may not be what Jesus was referring to here, but we do have another problem as humans. We are trying to be God. You see, we became “gods” by sinning and we prove it by the way we live. There can only be one God. Our problem is that each person is born trying to be a god. We are naturally trying to make ourselves the top person in the world. This sinful state of mankind becomes more obvious when we are faced with a choice to help ourselves or help someone else. These Jews should have killed everyone except Jesus because everyone else is attempting to be gods when Jesus only one was “sanctified and sent” by God the Father.
This problem started in the Garden of Eden. The first man and women sinned by taking Satan’s word and disobeying God’s command. This is what happened:
Genesis 3:3-6 : but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
Notice what the serpent said: “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” This is the problem we have. We are little god’s and we cannot continue this way. We must die. As Jesus has been saying, He came to save us from this problem. Jesus was still trying to communicate to these Jews but they were missing the chance. Not all of the Jews missed the chance and we are soon to learn about a large group of them.
Theology: This is a critical theological passage. Jesus clearly states that “Scripture” or the Bible as we call it today “can’t be broken.” This tells us that Jesus believed that it wasn’t possible for the Bible to be wrong. It’s as if He knew that the world would be made to conform to it no matter what it said. I have found that there are errors in man’s translation from the original languages, but these can be studied and exposed. I’ve found many parts that are difficult to understand, but the Bible remains more accurate and meaningful than any book that I have ever read.