Did Jesus Tell a Lie In John 10:30-36 to Save Himself?

“I and the Father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. …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’? (John 10:30-36).

Some critics of the Bible and religious debaters accuse Jesus Christ of telling a lie in John 10:30-36 to save Himself from being lynched by the Jews. One of them, Avram Ben Moshe, a Ghanaian, is heard in a viral video on social media calling the Lord a liar.

This article, therefore, attempts to expose the ignorance of these critics and educate them on the proper contextual  meaning of the text. It is also purposed to disabuse the minds of Christians who might have heard the criticisms of these mockers.

Two verses in the passage above which these critics use to attack Jesus are the verse 30 where Jesus said, “I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE” and verse 36 where He questioned, “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’?

According to the religious debaters, Jesus spoke a lie when in verse 30, He described Himself as being one with the Father, but in verse 36, He described Himself differently, saying, He was the Son of God.

Therefore, the whole accusation against Jesus Christ is centered on “I and the Father are one” and “…I am the Son of God.” In the opinion of the critics, Jesus should have repeated “I and the Father are one” in verse 36 if He cared to be truthful. But He deliberately changed those words to “I am the Son of God” to prevent the Jews from killing Him.

Now, did Jesus really tell a lie, or He spoke in a language too deep for the unregenerate folks to understand? We need to understand the contextual meaning and the relationship between “I and the Father are one” and “I am the Son of God.”

The first emphasis should be on “I” in verse 30 and “I am the Son of God” in verse 36. Jesus uses the first person singular pronoun “I” in the place of His name which can take an apposition, “the Son of God.” 

Thus, John 10:30 can read: “I, the Son of God, and the Father are one.” This means the Son and the Father are the same. They are the same in the sense that Jesus says, “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38). And then He says in John 14:9 that “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

The Jews understood this as they answered Jesus, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:33).

The second emphasis should be placed on “I am the Son of God” in verse 36. The term “the Son of God, referring to Jesus Christ appear many times in the gospel books. But Jesus is not the only Son of God. All believers are referred to as sons of God (Romans 8:14). Angels are called sons of God (Genesis 6:2). 

However, we need to understand that the sonship of Jesus is unique and without peer. He is not a created son of God but the creator Son of God who existed before the creation of the world. He was with the Father in the beginning. That Jesus is the Son of God talks about His deity, emphasizing the fact that He is God. And the Jews understood this.

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18) 

“The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7).

You see, anytime the Jews heard Jesus calling Himself the Son of God, they accused Him of blasphemy. That was because they understood the term “Son of God” to mean God manifested in the flesh. 

So it is clear now that Jesus was not telling a lie to save Himself from being lynched prematurely when He said, “I and the Father are one” and “I am the Son of God”, He was boldly declaring that He was God. And He is God today. 

It is our prayer that Christians, especially those in Africa will read this article, learn and have their faith strengthened in Christ Jesus. We should all know that Jesus did not speak a lie and cannot tell a lie because He is the truth.

By James Quansah