Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 32-39

When the Jews heard Jesus' claim to be God, they took up stones to stone Him to death. Jesus told them that they had seen Him do many good works, and He asked them for what good works they desired to stone Him. Jesus was trying to make them realize that they had never seen Him do anything but good works. Jesus had used the power of the Holy Spirit to convince the Jews that they could not find one sin that Jesus had committed. John 8:46. The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy, even though they knew that Jesus had never wronged anyone, and they knew also that Jesus had never done anything but good works. Based on these facts, they should have known that their charge of blasphemy had to be false, and since Jesus had proved Himself to be absolutely perfect, then He had to be God.

These Jews admitted to Jesus that they knew that Jesus had only done good works, but they nevertheless had to stone Him for blasphemy. They ignored the blatant contradiction in their answer. They had accused Jesus of having a demon, but they ignored the fact that demons can never do good works.

Because Jesus loved them, as He does all humans, He actually became conciliatory in His answer to them. Jesus reminded them that their own scriptures had taught them that God had made them gods. Psalm 82:6. Jesus meant that He creates all humans in His image which means He puts goodness and faith into their living souls and spirits, that all humans are His children, and that God loves all of His creations, including these Jews who hated Jesus. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38. Jesus appealed to their inner good natures to come to the realization that since He had only done good works and had never sinned, then He had to be God in human form. Every human either listens to their good inner nature; that is, the god that God put into them which is their conscience, or they give in to their evil nature that the Devil put into them. Jesus informed them that they knew that His Father had sanctified Him which meant He had to be absolutely perfect. Jesus told them that if He had done no good works of His Father, then they had every right to disbelieve in Him.

Jesus then appealed to their faith in God their Father. Jesus told them that if they could not believe that He was God in human form, then they should at least believe that God their Father had done all His good works through Jesus which could only mean that Jesus had to have come from God. Jesus knew that this kind of faith could not save them by grace, but at least this faith would arouse their good natures to win out over their evil natures that caused them to hate Him. Their hatred for Jesus obviously caused Him tremendous grief.

Jesus succeeded in His appeal to their good natures that He had put into them because He simply walked away from them, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit caused none of them to throw any stones at Him.