John 10:22–42

10:22–30 Jesus Is the Christ. The Feast of Dedication (v. 22) is now called “Hanukkah” (from the Hebrew term hnk, meaning “to dedicate”), and it usually falls in December. As Jesus walked in the temple, the Jews gathered to see if he would declare himself to be the Messiah (vv. 22–24).

Jesus asserts that the problem is not that he has not identified himself as the Messiah but that the Jews did not believe him when he did (v. 25a). John has not presented Jesus as directly declaring, “I am the Christ,” but he has presented Jesus as being heralded as the Messiah (1:41), as acknowledging that he is the Christ to the Samaritan woman (4:25–26), and as asserting many things about himself that amount to his being not only the promised descendant of David but also much, much more (cf. 8:24–25, 53–58).

What Jesus has said of himself to this point in the Gospel of John is important for understanding what he says in this passage. Jesus has repeatedly spoken of how he was in heaven with the Father before the Father sent him to earth, and he has said that he would return to the Father. In addition, Jesus has asserted his identity and equality with God the Father, has claimed to be a unique link between heaven and earth, and has announced that he holds the power to ensure that those who believe him have eternal life:

• Jesus told Nathanael that he would see heaven opened and the angels “ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (1:51).
• Jesus told Nicodemus that the Son of Man had descended from heaven (3:13).
• Jesus referred to his Father in a way that made the Jews realize he was “calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (5:17–18).
• Jesus spoke of doing what he saw and heard the Father doing (3:11; 5:19, 30).
• Jesus asserted that the Father had given him life in himself (5:26).
• Jesus said that the Scriptures bear witness about him (5:39).
• Jesus said that he had come in the Father’s name (5:43).
• Jesus said that Moses wrote about him (5:46).
• Jesus claimed to be the “bread of life” (6:35).
• Jesus said that he had “come down from heaven, . . . to do . . . the will of him who sent me” (6:38).
• Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (6:41; cf. 6:42).
• And again, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (6:51).
• Jesus asked how people would respond if they saw “the Son of Man ascending to where he was before” (6:62).
• Jesus said that his words were spirit and life (6:63).
• Jesus said that his teaching was not his but was from the one who sent him (7:16).
• Jesus came from the true one and said he would go where his opponents could neither find him nor go themselves (7:28, 34, 36).
• Jesus called himself the “light of the world” (8:12; 9:5).
• Jesus claimed to be from above, not of this world (8:23; cf. 3:31).
• Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am” (8:28 AT; cf. 8:24).
• Jesus said, “I came from God. . . . he sent me” (8:42).
• Jesus said those who keep his word would not taste death (8:52).
• Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I am” (8:58).
• When the formerly blind man asked Jesus who the Son of Man was, Jesus said, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” Then the man worshiped Jesus (9:35–38).
• Jesus said that the Father had given him authority to lay down his life and to take it up again (10:18).

Unbelieving scholars sometimes claim that Jesus never said such things, but they can only maintain that position by assuming that John has not presented what Jesus actually said. John, however, claims to be presenting what Jesus said, and John claims to be telling the truth. Only by accepting John’s testimony that Jesus said these things can we understand what John presents Jesus as arguing in this passage. In addition to what Jesus has said, which amounts to an assertion that he is the Messiah and more, he also points to what he has done as proof that he is everything he claims to be (10:25b):

• He turned water to wine (2:6–10).
• He did things that convinced Nicodemus that God had to be with him (3:2).
• He promised to give living water (4:10–14).
• He told the Samaritan woman all she had ever done (4:29).
• He healed the man lame for thirty-eight years (5:1–16).
• He fed the five thousand (6:1–13), prompting the people to recognize him as the Prophet and to seek to make him king (6:14–15).
• He walked on water (6:16–21).
• He healed a man blind from birth (9:1–7).

Jesus appealed to the testimony of the works the Father gave him to do in chapter 5 (vv. 20, 36), and in John’s Gospel people have repeatedly recognized his works as signs (2:11, 23; 3:2; 4:39, 45, 53–54; 6:2, 14, 25; 7:31; 9:16; cf. 4:48; 6:25–26, 30). People have asked whether anyone would do more signs (7:31) and have asserted that no one ever spoke like Jesus did (7:46).

It is amazing that people who saw what Jesus did could fail to recognize his goodness. It is blasphemous that some would assert that the power in him was demonic (7:20; 8:48–49, 52; cf. 8:44; 10:10). Anyone who heard what Jesus said and saw what he did should have believed that he was from God, that he was the Messiah, that he had power to save.

Why did they not believe? Jesus explains in 10:26 that they do not believe because they are not his sheep. This explanation of why they do not believe builds upon what Jesus taught in verses 1–18 and matches what he said about no one being able to come to him unless the Father draws him (6:44), about those taught of God coming to Jesus (6:45), and about no one being able to come to Jesus unless the Father grants it (6:65). In the same way, Jesus explains in 10:27 that his sheep hear his voice, he knows them, and they follow him (cf. 10:3–4, 14, 16).

Jesus makes three assertions in verse 28. First, he states that he gives eternal life to his sheep. Second, he states that his sheep will never perish. And third, he says that no one can take his sheep from him.

As if that were not enough, Jesus makes three more assertions in verse 29. First, he says that the Father has given the sheep to him. Second, he says that his Father is greater than all. Third, he declares that no one can snatch the sheep out of the Father’s hand. When Jesus says that the Father gave the sheep to him, we receive more insight into Jesus’ statement that “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (6:37). God the Father has given certain people to Jesus. Those people are his sheep, for whom he lays down his life (10:11, 15), the ones he calls by name (v. 3), the ones who hear his voice and know him (v. 14), the ones who follow him (vv. 4, 27).

Because the Father is greater than all, the sheep can be certain that no one can take them from the Father. There is no power in heaven or on earth greater than the power that keeps those who believe in Jesus. There is no demon, no deceiver, no antichrist, no Satan that will prove stronger, more persuasive, more compelling than the Father.

Note that Jesus says no one will snatch the sheep from his hand in verse 28, and then says that no one will snatch the sheep from the Father’s hand in verse 29. Then Jesus asserts in verse 30, “I and the Father are one.” Jesus and the Father are one in essence, one in what they are as God. And Jesus and the Father are united in the great task of saving the sheep. The Father has given the sheep to Jesus (v. 29), and Jesus lays down his life for the sheep (vv. 11, 15).

10:31–42 Jesus Is God. Verses 31–39 describe the shock waves emanating from Jesus’ asserting his oneness with God the Father (v. 30); for some his words cause everything to fall into place, while for others they are an explosion provoking a counterattack.

The sheep will hear the words of Jesus and know his voice, and everything will make sense to them. Those who are not the sheep will do what the Jews do in verse 31, where they pick up stones to stone him. Jesus mercifully reasons with those who would stone their God and King. He reminds them that he has done many good works that are not the work of demons or Satan but reflect the character of the Father. Then he asks if he is being stoned for one of these good works (v. 32).

The Jews explain that they are stoning Jesus not for a good work but for blasphemy. They charge him with blasphemy because he has claimed to be God (v. 33). This charge is very similar to the one in 5:18, where the Jews intended to stone Jesus for making himself equal with God.

Jesus answers his opponents with an argument from Scripture, quoting the Psalms but referring to them as “Law,” reflecting the way “Law” (reflecting the Greek translation nomos of the Hebrew torah) came to be used as an umbrella term for all of Scripture. The argument is simple, even if we have lingering questions concerning the passage Jesus quotes (Ps. 82:6; cf. John 10:34). The argument goes like this:

1. Premise one: God calls beings other than himself “gods” in the OT.
2. Premise two: Scripture cannot be broken, so everything it says is true.
3. Premise three: God consecrated Jesus and sent him into the world.
4. Conclusion: Jesus does not blaspheme when he claims to be the Son of God.

The OT uses the word “god/s” to refer to more than just Yahweh, so it is not blasphemous for Jesus to say he is God’s Son. But what of the lingering questions prompted by Psalm 82? Some understand God to be addressing humans in Psalm 82, perhaps the nation of Israel. In that case, this would be a biblical instance of human beings being called “gods,” and therefore Jesus is not blaspheming to call himself the Son of God (cf. Ex. 7:1).

The other possibility is that God is addressing heavenly beings in Psalm 82. I am inclined to this view because all through the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of himself as having come down from heaven. If God calls other members of the divine council “gods,” and if, as Jesus indicates in John 10:36, Jesus himself was part of that divine council from which he was consecrated and sent, then there is nothing blasphemous about Jesus’ being called God. This view comports well with Daniel 7, where the “one like a son of man” is present in the heavenly council prior to his reception of the kingdom.¹

Jesus says here that Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35), something even his opponents agree with. This indicates that Jesus believes every word of Scripture to be totally true and trustworthy, reliable, unbreakable. Followers of Jesus must think about the Bible the way he does.²

Having proven in verses 34–36 that he has not blasphemed, Jesus points again to his works in verses 37–38. By framing his works as the works of his Father in verse 37, Jesus invites his audience to compare the character of his works with the character of the Father. He argues in verse 38 that if the works he does match the character of the Father, then even if people are skeptical of him they should be convinced by his works.

What do the works show? The works show that Jesus and the Father are one (v. 30), which Jesus phrases another way in verse 38, “The Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Jesus and the Father are one. They are united and yet distinct. This is the mystery of the Trinity, the glory of the Godhead, the supra-rational reality of the eternally triune God who exists as one nature in three persons.

How do the Jews respond to their God? They seek to arrest him (v. 39). It is a futile attempt, as he escapes them.

John 10:40–42 is similar to 2:11 and 4:53–54 as it speaks of belief in response to signs.