I Have Said, "You are gods."

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Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, 
‘I have said you are “gods”’
- John 10.34


This truth ought to be among basic lessons in discipleship, or perhaps in evangelism. It will clearly show what receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior really is, not just having an active church life doing ministries and planting churches that highlight man, his achievements and ministries, not Jesus and what he did. And yet, you very rarely hear this taught in church today, not realizing that this is God's all-time move and also God's Next move.

The word god is with a small "g." I'm sure God didn't mean we are Gods like him, or we are gods like pagan idols. But he did say it. "You are gods." He told sons of the Most High, "You are gods," [Psalm 82]. We are sons and daughters of the Most High in Christ, aren't we?

Yet he also told them they'd die like mortals because they understood nothing---particularly, nothing about God's will on justice. They sided with the unjust and wicked. They did nothing about the weak and needy, the oppressed and the fatherless. God's justice is really how we treat people fairly, especially the poor and those who ask for money or borrow money from us.

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. [Matthew 5.42]



I've read expert commentaries that said this statement was about God mocking those who claimed to be God's people and yet disobeyed his will. So it was just God's joke, as it were, and we shouldn't take his, "you are gods" seriously. They're saying it wasn't literal. That's how the wisdom of worldly Christianity often dismisses Jesus' revelatory teachings in the Gospel.

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But then, somewhere in the Gospel, Jesus made it clear (and took it seriously) that there was nothing wrong if the Jews thought he was claiming to be God. The Jews were furious when Jesus said he and the Father were one. He then quoted this verse in Psalms. Would he back up his ministry and claim with a "joke"? He even said Scripture cannot be "set aside" or "broken," Psalm 82.6 included. Here's the whole passage:
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
The Word of God came to God's people so he called them "gods." But they ignored the Word so they lost their god status. If they hadn't, they would've lived as "gods" and enjoyed the perks of being "gods" on the earthly level by the mere fact that God's Word came to them. Ordinary people read the bible, but it's a different thing when God's Word "comes" to you, as when "the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah," [Jer. 33.19] or when "the word of the Lord came to Samuel" [1 Sam.15.10].

People without relationship with God read the bible the way they read newspapers. But the word of the Lord comes to true servants of God. This coming or proceeding Word radically transforms believers. Ordinary folks have to read the bible to get the Word, but God's true servants enjoy the Word even without bibles---because God "sends" His Word and the Word "comes" to them. They declare God's Word sharply and accurately even without preparations while ordinary preachers get rattled with sermon outlines. 

Hence, prophets who obeyed God and did his will enjoyed performing signs and wonders only God could do. They were given "god status" because the Word came to them. The Word from God's mouth is accomplished only with God's raw power. A lot of things in church today are accomplished with human efforts and gimmicks. But only the Word released from God's own mouth is accompanied with God's own Presence, Life and tremendous supernatural power when obeyed. Thus, the execution becomes godly. 

HE SAT BY THE WELL

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I believe we were supposed to be the "god of this world" before Satan tricked Adam and Eve and stole the title from them. God had created Adam and Eve in God's own image and likeness (and God wasn't joking when he did this) and let them have "dominion" over all creation on earth. That's nothing short of being god of this world. Google sees "dominion" as sovereignty. Dominion means in complete control of all creation on earth.

But we lost all that in the Fall. 

Now, Jesus Christ took back that title from Satan when he "disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities" through the cross, says Colossians. Today, in Christ, we call God our own Father, which to the Jews meant being "equal with God," [John 5.18]. Here's the passage:
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Well, the Jews had different ideas about God to the point that they hated and killed God without knowing it. At one time, Herod's bible scholars failed to pinpoint the exact location of the boy Jesus. They thought he was in Bethlehem when in fact the boy Jesus (no longer an infant) was in Nazareth. The wise men who were pagans and sought the boy Jesus through a star (astrology?) found him. Don't be alarmed that I wondered if it was astrology. God owns everything, the devil owns nothing. But the Fall enabled the devil to steal a lot from man during the Fall. 

Thus, to Jews at the time, calling God your Father made you equal with God. That's what they thought. But actually, the idea wasn't new. God had been insisting that he was a Father to Israel but they just wouldn't listen. He told Israel, "I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son," [Jeremiah 31.9]. And Isaiah called God "Father" when he prayed, "Yet you, Lord, are our Father," [64.8]. 

We are NOT equal with God when we call him our own Father, but with that relationship our god status is restored in Christ. Paul said we are no longer "mere men." Here's the passage:
For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? [1 Cor.3.3]
We are not mere men or humans in Christ. So what have we become? We have become sons and daughters of God, with God's very own supernatural life, power and spiritual DNA full-packed in us, plus God's own authority at our bidding through the Name (or nature) of Jesus Christ. The same power God used to raise up Jesus from death is in us.

Jesus even promised that anyone who has faith in him "will do the same things" he was doing, and greater works shall he do.

No wonder, people started saying "The gods have come down to us in human form!" after Paul miraculously healed a lame man in Lystra. Mind you, Paul merely said, "Stand up on your feet!" without saying "in Jesus' name." Why this? It was because in Christ you are endowed a god status. It's the result of having Jesus Christ living in you 100 percent. It's no longer you who live but Jesus Christ who lives in you.

We are gods, says the bible. But don't go around saying so. Just imitate Jesus and live like him. Let people see God in you and say, "you are god." And that's when you say, "I'm only human," as Paul and Barnabas did.

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.



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