Memory Verse — John 10:28-29

Again and again in the Gospel of John we find Jesus' Deity set forth. The thoughtful reader cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that the main reason for writing the book, viz., to convince the reader that Jesus is the Son of God, is never lost sight of. So in this chapter we find a clear testimony from Jesus' own lips to the fact that He and the Father are one, and we also find some very clear and vital teaching as to what is involved in that fact. His oneness with the Father means judgment to the unbeliever, but it means eternal security to the believer. It offends, human thought because it is so much higher than human ideals that the mind of man cannot grasp it. However, men should believe in His Deity because it is manifested in His works. These are the essential facts concerning His Deity which Jesus sets forth here. Jno. 20:31.

I. JESUS' ONENESS WITH THE FATHER BRINGS JUDGMENT TO THE UNBELIEVER.

John 10:22-26.

If Jesus be one with the Father, as He declares, God must hold them responsible who reject His Son. One cannot honor the Father and refuse to receive the Son. He who rejects the Son can hope for no mercy from the Father, for they are one, and the man who rejects Jesus rejects the Father also. Herein lies the mistake of the unbelieving Jew. He tries to divorce Jesus the Son and God the Father. He seeks to reject the One and please the Other. It cannot be done. This is the mistake of the Mohammedan. He believes that there is one God, and in this seeks to honor the Father, but he degrades Jesus to a mere human prophet, and second to Mohammed whom he declares to be the prophet of God. In thus rejecting the Son he does despite unto the Father, and cannot please Him. This, too, is the mistake of the unbelieving moralist. He believes in God, but he hopes to be saved by his own good works and can see no necessity for accepting Jesus as his Saviour. In this he fails to realize that God has ordained only one way by which men can come to Him, and please Him, and that Way is Jesus. God provided this Way in grace, seeking thus to save every man, but if the unbeliever will not accept His ordained Way of salvation surely he can hope for mercy on no other grounds. So these Jews who believed not in Jesus were not His sheep and were condemned before God. Jno. 3:18; Acts 4:12; Jno. 14:6; Heb. 11:6; II Thess. 1:7-10.

II. JESUS' ONENESS WITH THE FATHER GUARANTEES THE ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER.

John 10:27-29.

The fact of Jesus' oneness with the Father affects the believer in a very different way, for it guarantees his security from judgment. Because Jesus is God it is God Who undertakes to save the believer. And the work of Jesus in the believer's behalf cannot fail to be acceptable to Him. The Judge is the One Who pleads for the sinner, and if He be for us who can be against us? Listen to the promise which fell from His lips that day: "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all ; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." Five times is this one truth of the believer's security affirmed in this statement. In the first place his salvation is said to be a gift, and the gifts of God are not to be repented of. Then too it is eternal life which the believer receives, and eternal life cannot end. This fact is emphasized by the third affirmation, "They shall never perish." But Jesus does not stop with these glorious affirmations. He pledges His omnipotence to keep the believer secure, "Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." And to cap this marvelous teaching Jesus shows that in this He is only in partnership with the Father, for He says, "My Father which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." How wonderfully secure the believer is. His security is bound up in the Deity of Christ. The five-fold promise which we find here is the promise of God, and has behind it the guarantee of all of God's power. Praise God for such grace! Jno. 5:24; Rom. 8:32-39; Heb. 7:25; Rom. 11:29.

III. JESUS' ONENESS WITH THE FATHER OFFENDS HUMAN THOUGHT.

John 10:30-33.

Human thought was never attained the heights presented in the truth of Jesus' Deity, so is offended when this truth is taught. No truth is more fundamental in God's plan of salvation than this, and none has suffered more at the hands of enemies of the truth. The Modernist, the Christian Scientist, the Unitarian, the Jew, the Mohammedan, the Mormon, the Evolutionist, and the infidel are on common ground whenever the Deity of Christ is mentioned. They join hands in the endeavor to disprove this fact. Some do the dastardly deed by blank denial, others do it by claiming for all men the Deity which was His alone. But in the logical end it is all the same. No human philosophy can accept the Deity of Christ. To do that would be to admit the depravity of man, and that would destroy the very foundations of such philosophies. So today we have the shameful spectacle of so-called "Christian" churches and ministers joining with the infidels of all times, and with the Jews of Jesus' own time, in the attempt to discredit His Deity. The Jews would have thrown stones at Jesus, but the Modernist, while trying to smooth over the insult with honeyed words, throws mud at Him. Thank God, their puny attacks can no more shake the eternal fact of His Deity than the buzzing of a mosquito can disturb the poise or dim the radiance of the sun. They may distract the attention of men, but the fact remains in all of its pristine glory. Jesus the Sun of righteousness is the Son of God. John 1:1-5.

IV, JESUS' ONENESS WITH THE FATHER MANIFESTS ITSELF IN HIS WORKS.

John 10:34-36.

As has already been said, human thought has never risen to the heights suggested by the truth of Jesus' Deity. Those eminences are attainable only to faith. They cannot be reached by reason. Men speak of the sublimity of the conception that all men are divine. But such a conception instead of elevating man drags his ideals of godliness in the dust. The very best productions of human thought can bring man no nearer to the divine, but must besmirch his ideals of divinity. Ever since man, made in God's image, fell from his innocent state he has been trying to excuse his sin by degrading God to his own fallen level. But God has far greater thoughts than those of men. He holds before us a standard which we cannot attain in our own strength, nor comprehend with our intellects. But when we simply believe His Word He lifts us, and makes us to partake in that glorious nature which He has revealed in His Son. This is what the Scripture to which Jesus referred really teaches. , It teaches that when men believe in Jesus they are made children of God, and partakers of the Divine Nature. If God can do this for men, how much more shall His Son be Divine? He is one with the Father. He is God manifest in the flesh. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9.) I Pet. 1:4; Rom. 1:20-25.

V. JESUS' ONENESS WITH THE FATHER MANIFESTS ITSELF IN HIS WORKS

John 10:37-42.

One cannot stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus, and consider frankly the facts of His earthly life without being convinced of His Deity. Every word which He uttered, — every deed which He did, breathed the atmosphere of Deity. As we listen to His teaching we are compelled to say with the temple officers, "Never man spake like this man." As we follow Him from place to place, and see His matchless love and holiness manifest in every step of His life, we are constrained to cry with Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." As we face the mystery of the grace manifested in His death on the Cross we are moved to exclaim with the centurion, "Truly this man was the Son of God." And as we stand in the presence of the resurrected Christ we cannot but bow in worship and adoration with Thomas, and say with him, "My Lord and my God." Jesus' works bear witness that He is one with the Father. John 7:46; Matt. 16:16; Matt. 27:54; Mark 15:39: John 20:28.