One of the best ways to learn what Jesus believed about the Bible is to observe how Jesus used the Bible in his earthly life and ministry. In John 10 Jesus is engaged in a heated exchange with a hostile Jewish crowd. They are hostile because Jesus has just made a very controversial claim: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 ESV).

Recently I wrote about the 3 different ways that Post Evangelicals are relating to the Bible. The more conservative group will tend to appeal to the Protestant Reformers while the more progressive folks will cite Origen or Gregory of Nyssa. While it is interesting and helpful to be guided by history, the past can be used to support just about anything. As the wise man of the Old Testament said:

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9 ESV)

Today’s novel interpretation is likely a repackaged version of yesterday’s discarded heresy. A footnote is not a foundation. Rather than grasping for a quote from the sixth or sixteenth century, Christians ought to be primarily concerned to study the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Spirit of Prophecy. He is God in the flesh, so if we’re looking for some guidance on how to relate to Holy Scripture, we ought to look no further than him.

While there is a great deal that could be said about what Jesus believed about the Bible, any honest treatment of the subject will likely start with these 3 observations.

Jesus Believed that the Old Testament was Decisive and Binding

One of the best ways to learn what Jesus believed about the Bible is to observe how Jesus used the Bible in his earthly life and ministry. In John 10 Jesus is engaged in a heated exchange with a hostile Jewish crowd. They are hostile because Jesus has just made a very controversial claim: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 ESV).

That’s a bold statement and the Jews reacted with anger. After all, doesn’t the Bible say: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV).

To state the obvious: if there is only one God, how can Jesus and the Father both be God? At first glance that seems like a very solid point. The Jews obviously thought so. John 10:31says:

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.” 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’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:22–38 ESV)

Jesus is clearly operating under the assumption here that if you have a verse and you are using it correctly, then you win the argument. The Jews were saying, ‘the Bible teaches that there is only one God – you say that you are God – therefore you must be blaspheming.’ Jesus says in response that the Bible refers to other people as “gods” as per Psalm 82:6 – therefore the issue is not “do I use the word God to refer to myself” but am I using it legitimately, and by legitimately I mean biblically. D.A. Carson says here in his commentary on John:

As Jesus uses the text, the general line of his argument is clear. This Scripture proves that the word ‘god’ is legitimately used to refer to others than God himself. If there are others whom God (the author of Scripture) can address as ‘god’ and ‘sons of the Most High’ (i.e. sons of God), on what biblical basis should anyone object when Jesus says, I am God’s Son?[1]

“You haven’t understood the whole Bible on this matter. I have. Therefore I win.”

That’s an interesting window into how Jesus understands the Bible. The approach of Jesus in this particular conflict is rooted upon his fundamental conviction that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35 ESV).

God’s Word is the last Word. Therefore, if you have a verse and you’re using it correctly, you win the argument.

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