CHRIST’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE FATHER

We conclude this week’s study of Christ as the Good Shepherd today. There are three relationships Jesus identifies in John 10:11-42. Two of these that we have previously considered are Christ’s relationship to the false shepherds and to His flock. Today, we will ponder His relationship to His Father.

We know that the Father identifies Himself as the LORD, our Shepherd, in the twenty-third Psalm. Now, in John 10, Jesus identifies Himself with Yahweh Rohi of Psalm 23.

Jesus and the Father are UNITED AS ONE. “I and My Father are one.” (John 10:30). This is a direct claim to Deity. The Father and Son are not the same Person, but One in essence.   The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father, but the Son is as much God as God the Father.

Jesus is UNIQUE AS THE ONLY ONE. “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, ‘Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?’ The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, ‘You are gods’?” If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.’ Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.” (John‬ ‭10:31-39).

Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6.  There, human judges, as God’s representatives, are referred to as “gods,”—the Hebrew word, “elohim”—thus, expected to judge righteously, as God does (for further study see: https://www.gotquestions.org/you-are-gods.html ). The thought is that since a human judge can be called a “god,” how much more proper is it for the Son of God to claim to be God. Yet, He was uniquely, the Son of God—not just God’s representative as an elohim, but Elohim in the flesh!  Jesus deserves our worship and demands our allegiance.

Are you a sheep or a goat? Are you part of Christ’s flock and following Him?  It is the difference between heaven and hell.