From Suspicion to Salvation: Understanding Jesus’ True Identity
John 10:22–42
SERMON • Who was Jesus, really? John 10:22–42 narrates Jesus’ unequivocal claims to deity as the Good Shepherd, as the Giver of eternal life, and as God the Son. Listen in to better grasp how Jesus affirmed his true identity while averting an angry mob intent on killing him for blasphemy.
The famous atheist of the last century, Bertrand Russell, was once asked what he would say if, upon death, he discovered Christianity were true and as a result of his atheism faced divine judgment. Russell's famous response was this: "I would say, 'Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!'"
As we turn to John's gospel this morning, it would seem that those to whom Jesus spoke in our text felt much the same way. The Jews that gathered around Jesus were saying to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly" (v.24). In other words, everything you've done so far isn't enough. We need more evidence. Perhaps some of you this morning have come wishing Jesus would have made it clearer who he really was. If that doesn’t describe you, it likely does someone near you—a friend, coworker, or family member.
I’ll never forget a time in college when my roommate for a month on a study abroad trip to Mexico—a 30-year-old former marine—was actively weeping in our room and saying, "Tim, I want to believe! I want to believe, but it’s sooo hard!" He had been reading Dan Brown’s 2003 bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, a work of pure fiction that made skepticism about Jesus seem not only plausible but credible. Much of the success of opponents of Christianity in modern times has not been providing incontrovertible evidence against Jesus but rather filling textbooks and novels and Amazon warehouses with alternative theories and plausible denials to leave many wondering exactly who Jesus really was.
I’m entitling my sermon, From Suspicion to Salvation: Understanding Jesus’ True Identity. In our text, Jesus is going to respond with some of the clearest words you’ll find in John's gospel to answer this very feeling of suspense, suspicion, conjecture, and doubt. Let’s read the first of three sections of our text:
“22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.' 25 Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one'“ (John 10:22–30).
Like numerous earlier passages in John’s gospel, our text is comprised predominantly of dialogue between Jesus and the Jews. As we read, the setting is the season of winter, and it occurs during the Feast of Dedication. The Jewish Feast of Dedication, known more commonly today as Hanukkah, was a Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC. And in these verses, we find Jesus answering the Jews with clear statements about his identity as the truly human and truly divine, incarnate God the Son of God the Father.
Jesus Tells Us His True Identity (vv.22–30)
In vv.22–30, Jesus makes three claims in a crescendoing order of clarity:
1. "I am the Good Shepherd" (vv.25–27).
"25 Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
Here, Jesus restates his claim from the preceding verses in John 10 about his identity as the Good Shepherd of his sheep. He also reminds them of the many miracles he had performed already. The SIX miracles John has so far recorded include: (1) Turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, (2) Healing the royal official's son in Capernaum, (3) Healing the paralytic at Bethesda, (4) Feeding the 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee, (5) Walking on water on the Sea of Galilee, and (6) Healing a man born blind. But Jesus further diagnoses the ROOT cause of their unbelief despite the remarkable signs of his messianic and divine identity: Why did they not believe? Because they were not his sheep. "You do not believe because you are not among my sheep" (v.26).
This doesn’t mean that true Christians will never question their faith or go through seasons of doubt. We all—and rightly so—want to be critical thinkers and not base our lives on “blind faith.” Additionally, our sin and plain old discouragements often dim our sight of the Lord. Jesus is saying that there’s a fundamental difference between those who trust in Jesus—although falteringly—and those who refuse to believe in Jesus. What’s that key difference? It’s not the “blind faith” of believers but the “blind unbelief” of unbelievers: hearts that will not believe regardless of the abundance of the evidence of Jesus’ history-defining life, death, and resurrection. Like many today, Jesus’ contemporaries laid the blame on Jesus for not proving himself enough, when according to his spiritual diagnosis, the problem was not a lack of his evidence but a surplus of spiritual blindness.
But there’s a second claim Jesus makes:
2. “I am the the Giver of eternal life (vv.28–29).
Jesus says, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." This highlights not only Jesus' role as our Shepherd, to whom we owe faith, love, and obedience, but also His unique ability to satisfy our greatest need: eternal life. While many significant figures have lived and died, Jesus stands alone as the one who can grant eternal life.
To fully appreciate the significance of Jesus' radical claims, we must consider not just what He says about Himself but also what He says about us. The passage suggests that being made a new creature precedes knowing and trusting in Jesus. Jesus does not say, "you are not my sheep because you do not believe," but rather, "you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." This indicates that knowing, loving, trusting, and obeying Jesus are the actions of a new creature with a new heart and redeemed capacities.
Contrary to popular notions of salvation, we do not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior in order for Him to make us new creatures. Instead, Christ transforms the hearts of those opposed to Him, creating new hearts as promised in the New Covenant sealed by His blood. Ezekiel 36:26-27 promises, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules... and you shall be my people, and I will be your God." God does not wait for hard, rocky soil to become fertile on its own. Instead, He prepares the soil for the seed of His word, which then grows into abundant fruit.
Thus, Jesus claims to be both the Good Shepherd of His sheep and the giver of eternal life. In verse 30, He further clarifies His identity with words that are unmistakably clear.
3. "I and the Father are one" (v.30).
This statement does not conflate Jesus with the Father but rather affirms their distinct personhood while also declaring their essential unity. This assertion is foundational to the doctrine of the Trinity, which teaches that God is one Being in three distinct Persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, with each Person being fully God, yet there is only one God. This concept, while beyond full human comprehension, is clearly supported by Scripture. Throughout history, some have misconceived Jesus as merely "a god" alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit, a misunderstanding known as Tritheism. However, Jesus' claim surpasses such interpretations, emphasizing not just His divinity but His oneness with the Father in the Trinity.
Jesus' declaration would have been astonishing to His Jewish audience, as it recalled the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4, a foundational statement of Jewish monotheism recited daily: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Jesus' claim, far more profound than simply identifying Himself as God, asserts His identity as God the Son within the triune Godhead. This is echoed in the opening of John's gospel, which states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1-2). This passage highlights the mystery of Christ as both God and distinct from God, a truth not readily accepted without divine revelation.
Many reject Jesus' claims as blasphemy (vv.31–39).
The passage begins with the Jews picking up stones again to stone Him. Jesus responds by highlighting the good works He has performed, which were from the Father, and questions for which of these works they are stoning Him. The Jews accuse Him of blasphemy, not for any good work, but because, being a man, He made Himself God. Jesus counters by referencing their own Law, which says, "I said, you are gods," arguing that if those to whom the word of God came were called 'gods,' how then can He be accused of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God, especially since He was consecrated and sent into the world by the Father. Jesus challenges them to believe in the works He does, so they may know and understand that the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father. Despite His explanation, they sought again to arrest Him, but He escaped.
John consistently records both the revelation of Christ and the rejection of Christ. This narrative is another example, where the Jews' response to Jesus' claim of equality and oneness with the Father is to attempt to stone Him. This rejection is rooted not in a mere ambivalence or disbelief in facts or claims but in a spiritual blindness and a heart that has not been changed by God to receive Jesus' words. They were ready to enact the punishment prescribed in Leviticus 24:16 for blasphemy against the name of the LORD.
However, what they overlook is the revelation throughout the Old Testament of one God in multiple persons. Examples include Genesis 1:26, where God speaks in plural terms about creating man in "our image," Psalm 45:6–7 and Psalm 110:1, where God refers to another as "God" and speaks of a Lord who is to sit at His right hand, and Daniel 7:13–14, which describes a "son of man" coming on the clouds of heaven, presented before the Ancient of Days. These passages, among others, reveal a complexity in the nature of God that includes multiple persons, which Jesus Himself affirms by referring to Himself as both the Son of God and the "Son of man," quoting directly from Daniel 7:13 during His trial before the Jewish leaders. This understanding of God as subsisting in multiple persons is foundational to grasping the identity and mission of Jesus as presented in the Gospels.
But this brings us to a seemingly difficult part in our passage: verses 34–36. Despite his appeal to numerous miracles, which were signs of his divine nature, the crowd was unmoved and began to call for his execution. 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 Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
Facing stoning by the angry mob, Jesus makes an appeal to Old Testament Scripture by quoting Psalm 82:6–7: “I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.’” We believe all Scripture is inspired and profitable. I say that because verses 34–36 are tempting to bypass in a sermon on Christ’s exclusive claims to deity. Why? Well, because there are some, such as our Mormon friends, who would point to John 10:34–36 to claim that, yes, Jesus was divine... much like you and I are. As Lorenzo Snow, the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, put it, “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.” In other words, we’re all gods, all offspring of the God of the Bible, as part of a pantheon of gods inhabiting multiple universes.
“Every heresy is one aspect of the truth, pushed to the exclusion of all others.”
You can see how taking Jesus’ argument in verses 34–36 in isolation from the rest of Scripture and running with it might lead someone to that conclusion. Right? But as theologian Carl Trueman perceptively once said, “Every heresy is one aspect of the truth, pushed to the exclusion of all others.” In other words, if we take one statement in the Bible and ignore the rest, there is no end to the kinds of heresies that may be spawned.
What is Jesus saying?
How then should we understand Jesus’ argument here? Is he on one hand backing up and saying, “Don’t stone me, you’re all gods also!” (and thus, in the process diminishing his own claim to deity that he just made in saying he is one with the Father)? Not even close. Let’s work to understand what Jesus is saying. Remember, Jesus is about to be stoned to death. So, he is going to masterfully defuse the volatile situation by a clever use of logic in such a way that he disarms his Jewish attackers AND simultaneously reaffirms his unique claim to being the incarnate Son of God.
His tactic involves a scriptural reference to Psalm 82:6 to offset his seemingly blasphemous claim to oneness with the Father. But when we look at Psalm 82, we find there that God is, in context, addressing not humans but pronouncing judgment on the fallen, wicked angelic hosts, since Psalm 82:7 notes, “like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” In other words, these “elohim” or “gods” in Hebrew were not human but would nonetheless be cut down like humans rise and fall.
So even a brief look at Psalm 82 reveals this reference to these “gods” is in no way saying humans are “gods.” We can take that off the table. But that still leaves us with a crucial question: “Does this diminish Jesus himself to the status of a lesser divine being, like Satan or perhaps Michael the Archangel of God?” No, again. Jesus is arguing that if Psalm 82 could refer to even lesser beings as “gods” without blaspheming (since certainly Psalm 82 is not blaspheming), then his claim is also not on its face blasphemous either.
In the Old Testament, the term elohim is a flexible word that could mean God or lesser powers and authority figures, depending on the context. We see that this right hook from left field took them off-guard and worked to confuse his would-be attackers enough for Jesus to escape through the crowd, because the appointed hour for Jesus to turn himself over for death had not yet come.
An Argument from the Lesser to the Greater
Jesus argues: “If the monotheistic Psalms could call angels elohim, how much more should not He who is one with the Father?”
We conclude that Jesus was in no way recanting his claim to being uniquely one with God the Father as God’s Son, but rather he was distracting the crowd with a clever interpretive challenge so he could escape. He did something similar in Matthew 22: when the doctors of the Torah came to catch Jesus in his words, he brought up a logical puzzle about King David’s relationship to Messiah. He stumped them and put them to silence by asking them, “If Messiah predated and was David’s Lord—according to Psalm 110:1—then how is Messiah also David’s descendant?” They couldn’t say, but the answer was because Messiah was both eternally divine and incarnate human born in David’s lineage. All this leaves us marveling at Jesus’ unmatched knowledge of God, of man, and of the Jewish Scriptures and his ability to poke holes in the errant assumptions of even the shrewdest critics of his day. This brings us to the final part of our text, in vv.40–42.
Many Believe in Jesus (vv.40–42)
“40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
In other words, if John’s claims about Jesus were true, even not being accompanied by miraculous signs, how much more credible are not Jesus’ own claims given all the signs he has given? Jesus withdrew to where his ministry had begun, where he had been baptized by John the Baptist. Here John’s gospel intends to show that what was true at the beginning was still true. John the Baptizer had declared about Jesus in John 1: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ . . . 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29–30, 34).
A Concluding Word
This brings us back to today. Many people (maybe including yourself) stumble over the person of Jesus, wishing there was some way we could be sure about who he really was. But the testimony of his numerous fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies, confirm his claims. The testimony of angels at his birth, the testimony of John the Baptist at his baptism, the testimony of the voice of the Father from heaven on at least three occasions witnessed by his apostles, the testimony of his seven nature-defying miracles documented in John’s gospel, and here, the testimony of Jesus himself all lead those with ears to hear and eyes to see that Jesus was in the Father and the Father in him, that he is the Son of God, the true shepherd, and the giver of eternal life to his sheep, being God the Son, one with God the Father. So, do you believe in him? Do you entrust your soul to him for eternal life? Do you hear his voice in Scripture and know him? Does his word resonate in your heart? Will you follow him today?
A Glorious Promise
If so, a glorious promise is before you to claim as your own. Jesus promised, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Oh, believing family of God, rejoice in this security of being held within the omnipotent grasp of your Savior! No matter who or what threatens you in this life, the promise is sure, eternal life is yours at this very moment. And nobody or nothing can separate you from the love and safety of your good shepherd.
My prayer this morning is that whatever assails the peace and security of your soul today, whatever tempts you to doubt your Lord, will be washed away in the stream of blood that poured forth from the body of our good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep. If you’ve never professed Jesus as your Savior and Lord, I pray that for the first time you will today and find in him eternal access into the arms of your heavenly Father, for there alone are we saved, safe, and sanctified unto eternal life. ❖
