"You are gods..." What Did Jesus Mean?

next one we have is this is a huge one this is how a lot of people think that uh we're gods we're divine and hopefully it'll be as simplistic to break down we have john 10 john chapter 10 verses 34-35 and there's a lot more to the passage but i'll read it jesus answered them he's talking to the pharisees because they're bickering together with him it is is it not written in your law i have said ye are gods and it goes down basically you know to more but people will take that little scripture and of course this is self-explanatory this is basically jesus saying we're enlightened we're divine so what is the biblical view of this passage okay so this one actually gets it just genuinely gets complicated this is a a passage that is easily becomes complicated i'll just put it that way and to do like a full teaching on it it would take like an hour so i will say this um a lot of people will take weird unbiblical beliefs and they'll try to shoehorn them into tough passages so you get to a passage you go well that's a difficult passage i wonder what it means and then they'll come and they'll cram doctrines that are totally unbiblical and it becomes hard to fight because you just find this to be a challenging passage so you you don't think it means what they think but you're trying to figure out what it means you know um so let me give you like the short summary hopefully it'll help and you can ask questions um jesus is actually quoting psalm 82 in john 10. he quote he's quoting psalm 82. so we need to look at psalm 82 and ask what is this about so i'm going to give you a summary of psalm 82 then we're going to read it because it's very short it's only eight verses so here's the summary um the leaders of governments or nations or cities they're being rebuked in psalm 82 for ruling unjustly that's the leaders of either governments nations or cities they're being rebuked for judging or ruling unjustly and for not protecting the weak and the fatherless i i think that in psalm 82 is referring to human rulers because and i'll give you more support here's the biblical context right in exodus when people would go to the rulers it's said that they're going to god so they would have a problem and it says go to god but the people they're going to are the rulers and that's the same word referenced in psalm 82 it's elohim elohim is a much more flexible word in hebrew than the word god in english so it's a little clumsy when we try to use the term uh you know across languages but that's where it gets into a long explanation so yeah um also if you ask like why do why is it said to be going to god when i'm going to rulers of the people of god well the answer is in romans 13 it's because their authority represents god romans 13 tells us that governmental power comes from god and they're there as god's representatives or god's ministers to basically help i mean god cares about society and any authority that anyone has in society ultimately comes from god okay so we can see the connection between human rulers and god not in identity but because of authority they're borrowing from god as they're ruling over other people and put it that way so let me read the psalm 82 to us and point out what it means in context and then we'll see why jesus used it that way so psalm 82 it says a psalm of asaph god has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods he holds judgment how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked now he's he's rebuking these rulers these people that are ruling over others he says how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked give justice to the weak and the fatherless maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute rescue the weak and needy deliver them from the hand of the wicked so there's this rebuke you're not taking care of the needy you're not you're not using your power to take care of those who have no power that's the idea government's out of balance as it usually is it seems right and then um as he goes on in verse five he says about these rulers about these things he calls gods in this text they neither they have neither knowledge nor understanding they walk about in darkness all the foundations of the earth are shaken so they're basically they're stupid rulers they don't get their job and they're not doing it right and so god then now he cast judgment on them now here's what's going to happen he says i said you are gods sons of the most high all of you nevertheless like men you shall die and fall like any prince then it can so he's going to he's going to destroy them then in verse 8 he concludes the whole psalm by saying arise oh god judge the earth for you shall inherit all the nations so to summarize psalm 82 there's these rulers that are unjust god's going to destroy them and then in verse 8 he's going to take over the nations himself when jesus uses it the one thing to understand is this is not a comparison it's a contrast and that one key really helps us with this it's like a how much more thing hey if this can be said of human rulers how much more can it be said of god who comes in in human form and the difference in the psalm is or in in the passage in john 10 jesus he makes a contrast between these uh ye are god's people and himself he says of the ye are gods they're the ones to whom the word of god came so there on earth the word of god comes to them but in verse 36 he says deed you know he speaks of himself as the one whom the father consecrated and sent into the world so there on the earth the word of god comes to them jesus he comes from heaven is sent into the world and he says hey if the word of god came to them and they could be in any sense called gods how much more how much more can the one who comes from heaven be called uh you know call himself god even he's contrasting look at look at how much greater i am than all of these things so jesus is uniquely different in john we see this he's he's he's the one who's with god and he is god equal with god in john 5. he's the creator of all things in john 1. in the in john 10 the same passage he's in the father and the father is in him in john 8 he calls himself the i am yep like so he's clearly god and what i love about psalm 82 is this um the last verse after rebuking these rulers i said to your god that you're going to die it says that god's going to arise and he's going to judge the earth and god will inherit the nations that's jesus's role he's the inheritor of all nations he's the king of kings lord of lords yeah he inherits all things so in psalm 82 8 god will inherit all things and jesus is going to be the one who inherits all things so this is actually implying the deity of christ even in this psalm but here's the key um oh i should mention one thing before uh some people don't interpret these as human rulers yeah they interpret it as being angelic beings or like um spiritual forces of powerful forces that are sort of behind the human rulers behind the nations and that's that's fine it doesn't change the fact that jesus is doing this contrast he's saying i'm greater than those things um that's the point um but so in no case under no interpretation does it make us gods no interpretation doesn't make us gods that's the point is that yeah under no interpretation am i now some sort of deity type thing that was satan's lie in the garden oh you will be like god that was the other lie he told himself we read about isaiah where he says i will be like god no matter how you define it it doesn't mean what people are saying that it means in the new age yeah because the people who would disagree like mike those aren't human rulers that's the majority position but those who would disagree would um and with with that position they would stand locked arm with me and fully agree yeah he ain't calling people gods like that's not on the table as an option for this passage if you look at the rest of the text of scripture um we can see jesus is there's only one god there's no one like him the scripture says there's no one like him and jesus comes and he's he's that one god who's with us you know he's god the son but there's there's indeed no idea that humans are like god right that was the original lie that was why the pharisees when jesus claimed to be equal with god they tried to kill jesus they're gonna pick up stones and kill him because the only options in the jewish mind are either your god or you've blasphemed so i would say those are still the only two options for those who say we're little gods right yeah either you really are god or you're blaspheming the scripture shows you're not god so you're definitely [Music]

Channel: Melissa Dougherty

Views: 63,653

Keywords: psalm 82, bible, john 10, psalms, melissa dougherty and mike winger, mike winger, melissa dougherty, ye are gods, ye are gods what did jesus mean, theology, christian apologetics, new age movement, christian theology, christian, god, i have said you are gods, little gods heresy, john 10 34, psalm 82 6, melissa dougherty bethel, sing psalm 82, psalm 82 song

Id: B5r8Cl4mPjo

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021