Did Jesus ever claim to be God?

These last words of Christ, considering, too, the place in which they were uttered, might have led them to pause, and to review their ways. Abraham was but a creature. There was a time, therefore, when he did not exist. Referring to that, it could rightly be said, "Before Abraham was." What follows was intended to mark the great difference between Abraham and Himself; for of Himself He could say, "I am." Now "I am" was God's announcement about Himself to Moses (Ex. 3:14). The Lord declared, therefore, that He was the Eternal One, who had no beginning, and will have no end. In the past He was, "I am." In the present He is, "I am." In the future, and for ever, He will be, "I am." Such was the meaning of His words, revealing to those people that He was God.

Of primary importance is what Jesus said about Himself. On sev­eral occasions, He claimed to be equal with God. See, for example, John 10:30: "I and the Father are one." On another occasion Jesus told Philip and some of the other disciples that because they had seen Him they had seen the Father (see John 14:9).

John 10:31. The Jews rightly interpret the Lord's words as the assertion of His Deity; but being infuriated that One Who was truly and manifestly a Man should claim to be God, they "took up stones again to stone Him".

John 8:59. Fully, and rightly, understanding the Lord's words to be a claim to Deity, they reject His claim and take up stones to stone Him. In the calm dignity of His way, He "went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by". A proof indeed of the truth of His claim, for Who but a divine Person could thus act?

Deniers of our Lord's deity have sought to avoid the force of this by treating this as a mere exclamation, addressed to no one in particular, but the record distinctly states that the words were said to the Lord, the form of them in the original being very emphatic, since he used the definite article twice. The risen Jesus was the Lord and the God to him. And what is more significant still, the Lord replied, "Thomas … thou hast believed." Beyond all question then He treated Thomas' joyful exclamation as faith laying hold of FACT. In other words, He accepted the confession as being true. There is no greater sin than for a mere man to accept Divine honours or adulation, as witness the drastic smiting of Herod, recorded in Acts 12. When John fell down before a holy angel as about to worship him, the instant reply was, "See thou do it not" (Rev. 22:9). Instead of rebuking Thomas, Jesus approved of his confession and called it faith.

In chapter 10 of John's Gospel the Lord says, "I and My Father are one," and once more the Jews "took up stones to stone Him." They knew very well what the Lord was claming. "Many good works have I shewed you from My Father; for which of those works do ye stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God" (John 10:32-33). The Lord's statement was a clear affirmation of His deity. Not only was He one with the Father in purpose, but one with Him in essence and being. In this the Son and the Father were inseparable: they were one. This was the issue when the Lord Jesus appeared in their council. Adjured by the High Priest to say whether He was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, His plain response was, "I am" (Mark 14:62. cf. Matt. 26:64; Luke 22:70). As the consequence of His statement He was again accused of blasphemy and condemned to death (Matt. 26:65-66; Mark 14:63-64). Likewise, when He was before Pilate the Jews said, "We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God" (John 19:7).

In the section we are considering in John 10 the Lord Jesus goes on to speak of Himself as the Sent One of the Father. "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If He called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:34-36). The Lord Jesus quoted Psalm 82 verse 6: "I have said, Ye are gods." The word for "gods" in this verse is Elohim, and in the Psalm, as elsewhere, it is used of those who were set to judge in Israel (Psa. 82:6; Ex. 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28). They were God's representatives, responsible to judge for the Lord, in His fear, and to bring the revelation which God had given in His Word to bear on the various cases brought before them (2 Chron. 19:6-7. cf. Isa. 41:23). It is not difficult to see why the Lord Jesus referred to this Scripture in the context of John 10.

Could love assure its objects of more? His love would impart to them the certainty of His own deepest joy, His Father's love as sure as His own; and so He closes His communication with it. "My Father Who hath given to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to seize out of the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one." Here we rise into that height of holy love and infinite power of which none could speak but the Son; and He speaks of the secrets of Godhead with the intimate familiarity proper to the Only-begotten Who is in the Father's bosom. He needed none to testify of man, for He knew what was in man, being Himself God; and He knew what was in God for the self-same reason. Heaven or earth made no difference, time or eternity. Not a creature is unapparent before Him, but all things are naked and laid bare in His eyes with Whom we have to do. And He declares that the Father Who had made the gift resists all that can threaten harm, and as He has given to Christ, so He is greater than all, and none can seize out of His hand. Indeed, the Son and the Father are one, not one Person (which ἐσμεν with every other Scripture bearing on it, refutes), but one thing, ἓν, one Divine nature or essence (as other Scriptures equally prove). The lowliest of men, the Shepherd of the sheep, He is the Son of the Father, true God and eternal life. And He and the Father are not more truly one in Divine essence than in the fellowship of Divine love for the sheep.

This pointed declaration stirred up the Jews to murderous hatred for the two reasons stated in verse 18. He had broken the sign of the covenant in which they boasted, and He had coupled with His action the assertion that God was His Father; thus claiming equality with God. Verse 18, be it noted, is John's explanation of why the Jews sought to kill Him, and not his record of the explanation furnished by the Jews — though of course it may have been the explanation which they gave. It is therefore the comment of the Holy Spirit through John, and proves that in the Sonship of our Lord there is no thought of any kind of inferiority to the Father. On the contrary it is the assertion of equality.

The last words of this verse, "My Father is greater than I," have been made into an occasion of stumbling to some. But here we have speaking the Word made flesh, and He speaks in His estate as the lowly Man upon earth. Hence in position or station the Father was greater than He, whilst as to being and nature He and the Father were one.

John 10:34-36. Had their interpretation been wrong, the Lord would surely have at once corrected such a terrible mistake and repudiated the claim to Deity. He does neither; on the contrary the Lord confirms His claim by an appeal to their own Scriptures, thus condemning them out of their own mouth for refusing His claim to Deity. Quoting from Psalm 82:6, the Lord asks, "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" If, then, men, who were set apart to be judges in Israel, as God's representatives, and to whom the word of God came, are called gods, can it be blasphemy for the Son, Whom the Father has set apart and sent into the world, to claim to be a divine Person?