Question: Hi
Greg,
Does it say in Psalms 82 (which Jesus I believe quoted) that “if you be
the children of God, then you are gods?”
Now, the way I seem to understand this is we will never be a part of the
Godhead. That will always be God
the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But
Christ’s body (because Jesus is also a deity of that Godhead) is also the body
of God. So, in a sense you are
still a god but not equal to the Godhead. Just
like when you have a family you in a sense are the parent of that family and you
will always be that head. But your
children are still gods. So, what
do you think of the way I approach that? Do
you agree or disagree? Thank you
again!
John
Answer: Dear
John,
You quote Psalms 82 as support for the idea that while we will never be
God (as God is God—for God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit), we may be gods. You then
note the analogy of a family, and that the children are never the parents, but
they still have the family name.
1.
Psalms 82, verse 1—“God presides in the great assembly; he gives
judgment
God
is not referring to created humans as gods in Psalms 82, but as human rulers
(see verse 7—“every other ruler”). The
word used for gods here is elohim, a word that is used for God (Genesis
1:1—among other words that are only used for God), angels (Psalms 8:4-6), and
human beings (here in Psalms 82).
In
the psalm God is addressing Hebrew judges who, because they exercised life and
death decisions over people, were loosely called “gods.”
Notice in the NIV I quote above, the use of quotes around the use of
elohim, translated “gods”—quotes here used to denote an ironical usage,
not literal. Also note, although
these judges were called gods, they would die like “every other ruler”
(verse 7).
You are correct—Jesus quoted Psalms 82.
But first we should ask, in what context?
Failure to understand the context can make a biblical verse a pretext, a
proof text of some premise that God did not inspire or intend.
In John 10, Jesus is addressing Jews who were monotheists (just as
Christians are). Jews and
Christians (and Moslems, for that matter) believe in only one God—not two, not
three, and not hundreds of billions who will be born into the family of God. That would be polytheism.
The Bible, from beginning to end, old covenant and new covenant, insists
upon one true God. No more.
Just one.
The context of this passage is based upon Jesus’ teaching that he was
the good shepherd (verses 1-21)—during which he makes overt claims to divinity
(“I am the good shepherd”—verse 11—“my Father knows me and I know the
Father”—verse 15). Following
this passage, the Jewish religious leaders asked him if he was the Christ, and
to tell them plainly (verse 24).
Jesus responded—“the miracles I do should speak for me”—meaning,
his divinity (verse 25); “my sheep know me, they have eternal life, they will
never perish (verse 28); “my Father, who has given the sheep to me, my Father
and I are one (verse 30).
The Jewish religious leaders picked up stones to stone him (verse 31).
Why? Because they were
monotheists. They believed,
carefully and religiously, the first commandment—“You shall have no other
gods before me.” Now Jesus was
claiming to be one with God. Jesus asked them, “For which of the miracles that I have
done are you stoning me?” (verse 31). The
Jewish religious leaders responded that they were not stoning him because of the
miracles he had done, but because of blasphemy—“because you, a mere man,
claim to be God” (verse 33).
Now we come to your question—assertion—in verse 34. That entire context is necessary to answer the question—and
to avoid misunderstanding of what Jesus was saying.
1.
Jesus may have been making a clear connection between what God said to
2.
Jesus was also saying if God even called human judges “gods”, then
how
We should note that Jesus did not refer to all human beings as
“gods”—neither does Psalms 82. Only
a special class or type of human beings—judges and rulers.
Jesus was referring to Psalms 82 because it noted that judges and rulers
have a divine appointment (further elaborated on by Paul in Romans 13), and
because they made decisions in life and death issues.
How much more appropriate is it to address the literal Son of God, one
who was not spoken of as a god in an ironic sense, with quote marks around the
word, but the Unique One and Only, God with us, God in the flesh.
To your question/comment about the family analogy, and if it is
appropriate to use this analogy to establish spiritual reality: God reveals
himself to humans in many ways. One
of the ways is as Father. He is our
Father in heaven, our spiritual Father, but of course, he is not our literal
father.
It is true that we are born again (John 3)—that we are new men and
women in Christ, that we pass from death to life (John 5:24), that we rise from
the watery grave of baptism, resurrected to new life in Christ (Romans 6).
We are thus God’s children. But
does this speak of a spiritual reality—that we are the very essence and nature
of God? No.
There is a monumental difference between Jesus, the Son of God, and human
beings that are the sons of God. Note
the lack of capitalization for human sons.
Jesus was the Son of God by eternal right of inheritance (Colossians
1:15), we are sons of God by adoption (Romans 8:15).
He was the Son of God by nature, we are created in the image of God
(Genesis 1:27) and remade in the image of Him by redemption (Colossians 3:10).
To summarize—Jesus is the natural Son of God—God by nature.
We are adopted sons. Jesus
has no beginning; he is uncreated. We
have a beginning—we are created. Jesus
is the Creator—we are the being or creature that is created.
Jesus is God by nature, we are not God by nature, and we never will be.
We are given eternal life by God’s grace; Jesus is eternal by nature.
He has no beginning and no end, “the Alpha and Omega…who is, and who
was, and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8).
We are not in God’s family by nature or by essence, we are his children
by grace, by spiritual re-birth, and by divine adoption.
We are not God and never will be. We
are humans who are given, by God’s grace, eternal life.
In Christ,
Greg Albrecht