John 10:34-36

John 10:34-36. "Jesus answered them, It is written in your law, I said, Ye are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the Word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him," etc. The rulers of God's people were called gods, because unto them the Word of God came, i.e. his law was come to them, was committed to them, and trusted with them for them to enforce and execute: there were herein instead of God to the people. Because they held forth the law, or Word of God, the law of God was in a sense their law. They were judges or executors of the law for God, for the judgment was God's, Deuteronomy 1:17 and 2 Chronicles 19:6. Herein they were types of Christ, to whom the Father hath committed all judgment. Thus it was a ceremony in Israel, in inaugurating a king, to bring the law and commit it to him; as 2 Kings 11:12, "And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and they made him king, and anointed him, and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king." Thus the Word of God came to him. This interpretation of this exposition of Christ is confirmed by what God says to Moses, Exodus 4:16, "And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be, even he shall be unto thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God;" i.e. by speaking the Word of God to him, he was instead of God, because the Word of God came to him, and was committed to him to speak in God's name, and so in the 7th chap., verse 1, "And the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet:" he represented God before Pharaoh, by the Word of God in his mouth, as he spake in his name, and by his word wrought miracles before him.

These earthly rulers were called gods, because the external Word of God came thus to them; whereby they were rendered types and images of the Son of God, the internal Word of God; hence they are not only called gods, but the sons of God. Psalms 82:6, "I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you children of the Most High;" and if they were called gods, only for thus resembling God's Son, how much is Christ to be justified, who was himself the Son of God, when he called himself God!

John 10:34; John 10:35; John 10:36, "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I have said, Ye are gods," etc. In the 82nd Psalm, to which this refers, we see, verse 6, those who are called sons of the Highest by the Word of God that came to them, are by that same word called gods. So that in that passage, son of the Highest, is the same with God. Jesus takes notice that they are called gods, and he says the scripture cannot be broken, i.e. it must be verified; but verified it could not be in them who died like men, and fell thereby like other princes (who were not called gods), from that eminent station wherein they were called gods. It is not every prince or potentate among men that is called god in this psalm. Those called gods, are plainly the princes of Israel, the judges in God's land, who stood and judged among them in that theocracy; and they are manifestly distinguished from other princes on the very same account on which they are called gods. For in their office as rulers and judges of Israel, they prefigured him who was to rule the house of Jacob forever, and they stood in that office as his types, even as the priests prefigured him in his priesthood; therefore they are called gods; and the scripture calling them so is not broken, because what is said of these types holds fully true in their antitype; who is plainly enough pointed at in that same psalm, verse 8, "Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations." they shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes: but he arises from the dead to judge and inherit the church of all nations. His resurrection manifests him to be truly God; the same God that stood in the congregation of these mighty, and judged among them, to whom the Word of God came, "Ye are gods, and sons of the highest." Vid. Glass's Notes on Scripture Texts, No. 1, pp. 11, 12.

They are called gods, as the manna is called the bread from heaven, and angels' food, and as Cyrus is called God's Christ and his beloved, Isaiah 45:1; Isaiah 48:14; and as Saul (whom the psalmist has a special respect to in Psalms 82) is called the Lord's Christ (he fell like on of the other princes who were not called gods), and as the rock in the wilderness is said to be Christ, and as many things are said of Solomon in the 72nd Psalm, that are verified only in Christ. That passage, 1 Kings 18:31 may serve to explain these words, To whom the Word of God came; "According to the number of the tribes of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel (i.e. the Prince of God) shall be thy name. The Word of God came to Jacob in his prevailing with God, two ways.

1. God said to him, I have called you ISRAEL, Prince of God; as here, Psalms 82 he says to the princes of Israel, "I have called you gods;" and that Word of God came to them in Exodus 22:28.

2. God, by a special designation, made Jacob, in what he ordered concerning him, to be a type. Now, types are a sort of words; they are a language, or signs of things which God would reveal, point forth, and teach, as well as vocal or written words, and they are called the word of the Lord, in Zechariah 4:6; Zechariah 11:11, "And thus also the word of the Lord came to the princes of Israel," i.e. that state and those circumstances came to them, and were ordered to them, that were typical of the Son of God, and were as it were God's Word, signifying the dignity and office of the Messiah. Such divine significations, when persons were made the inherent subjects of them, were generally of the Son of God, the eternal personal Word; and therefore when such a typification happened, or was ordered to a person, or any person became the inherent subject of such a divine signification, the Word of God was said to come to him. It was the signification or typification (if I may so speak) of the Word of God, both as it was God's signification, and also as the thing signified was the personal Word of God.

John 11:51