The True Son of God | Sermon 07/30/2023

John 10:30-42

The Jewish leaders have encircled Jesus in the temple courtyard to get Him to admit His claim of messiahship and He responds with a far more intense statement than what was expected. “I and the Father are one.” The will of the Father, the will of Christ, the mission of God, the mission of Christ, the plans and decrees of the Father and those of the Son, they are eternally intertwined. That in reality, ontologically they are one.

The Old Testament speaks to this same truth: that God is Triune. For the third time the Jews seek to kill Jesus but He asks His opponents a question. They say they follow the Father but He has performed good works that belong to the Father, of which one will they stone Him? Again, we see their oneness. However, they can only see His humanity despite all His works and power. The charge is blasphemy. Jesus will now exegete Psalm 82 in defense of His statements. Some have speculated the “gods” that will die like mere men in Psalm 82 are angels with authority over the nations; others think they are the people of Israel receiving the law at Sinai; but the true interpretation here is that these so-called “gods” were judges of Israel who failed to perform justice for the weak, needy, fatherless, and widows. They will lose the special honor and title of being called “gods”. They are not fit to be called so.

This fits the context because these Jewish leaders in Jesus’s day failed as shepherds, leaders, priests, and judges. Only Jesus is worthy to be Judge. He is the righteous Judge to do what the judges of Psalm 82 and now the Jewish leaders of the first century could not do. He will serve with equity, grace, and goodness. And therefore Psalm 82:8 is fulfilled in this very moment with Jesus before the Jewish leaders. It says “Arise, O God, judge the earth! For it is You who possesses all the nations.” Men couldn’t do it right. God has to come down into His creation and He will do it. And it will touch every nation because He owns them all. If mere mortals were given such titles of “gods” and “sons of the Most Hight”, how much more does Jesus deserve to be called the Son of God? The Monogenes Theos.