John 10:33

“The only Christ for whom there is a shred of evidence is a miraculous figure making stupendous claims.” C. S. Lewis

In our verse for today we see Jesus’ enemies attempting to vindicate their actions through a feigned zeal for the Law. In an effort to gloss over their vile and murderous ways they set forth a plausible pretense of blasphemy.

“As nothing is more courageous than a well-informed conscience, so nothing is more outrageous than a mistaken one.” Matthew Henry

Their allegation was that Jesus claimed to be God – and rightly so – to be sure, what Christ had stated of Himself amounted to this Truth. He had said He was One with the Father. He had said He would give eternal life. We find Jesus giving a clear statement of His Deity in Matthew:

The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?" "He is worthy of death," they answered. Matt 26:63-66 (NIV)

The fact that eluded these Jews was that Jesus was no mere ordinary man. While He was fully Man, He was also fully God. Paul gives us an unrivaled description of our Messiah in Colossians:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Col 1:15-20 (NIV)

9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, Col 2:9 (NIV)

Paul also writes in Philippians the following regarding the Lord Jesus:

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:5-11 (NIV)

The writer of Hebrews also gives us the following Truth regarding Christ:

3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Heb 1:3 (NIV)

These Jews did not want to believe because they did not want to change. When confronted with Truth we must do something with it – embrace and apply or refute and deny. They could not prove any evil against His miraculous works and therefore clung decidedly to the shreds of pretense of honoring the Law. They did themselves great harm. Wicked men - those who persecute the followers of our Lord - often have an affected zeal for God’s glory while in reality, like these Jews in our verse for today, they simply hate Jesus without rational cause. Jesus states this fact later in John:

18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.' John 15:18-25 (NIV)

“It costs much to obtain the power of the Spirit: It costs self-surrender and humiliation and a yielding up of our most precious things to God; it costs the perseverance of long waiting, and the faith of strong trust. But when we are really in that power, we shall find this difference, that whereas before, it was hard for us to do the easiest things, now it is easy for us to do the hard things.” A J. Gordon