¹⁰ “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

Incredulity balanced with love, Jesus does not reject the disciples for their unbelief. Though that is the one thing He chides them most about in His training of them, He does not reject them. Even in the case of Judas, it was that disciple who rejected Jesus. Faith is the key issue, because it is faith that leads to true obedience. So He questioned their lack of faith in what He had taught them. But He doesn’t give up on them; this is His final pre-crucifixion prepping of them for a world-shaking, life-long ministry of carrying His message into the lost, broken world, in need of a Shepherd and a King.

Possibly, at this juncture, the gravity of Jesus’ words, that He Himself is deity on the same level as God the Father, besides understanding that theologically, may probably lead to the easiest, most natural conclusion – namely that Jesus was arrogating this distinction to Himself. Certainly, future generations who move beyond the condescending nonsense of Jesus’ being nothing more than a good teacher and a prophet, must of necessity conclude that either He was mistaken about being deity (which has tremendous implications about Jesus’ credibility), or else He was quite arrogant, taking upon Himself self-identified deity on the order of the multitude of others who have made similar claims. In the best possible argument that philosophical Jesus Christ rejecters have, it is impossible for a man to become God, for if God is the creator of the universe, than it is self-defeating to say a part of His creation become Him.

Yet, Jesus said clearly that this was not of “My own initiative.” He didn’t just think up the idea of becoming God and then somehow made it happen. That is not what He said at all. What He did say was that God was “abiding in Me” and doing “His works.” God had invaded humanity, not vice versa. Man did not become God, but God became a man. And that is not impossible.

And that idea, that God became a man, was not compatible with Jewish theology as defined by the Old Testament. The gospel writer John wants us to see that connection from the beginning of this biography of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” For those religions that teach Jesus was a god, but not the same as God the Father, John would respond, with Isaiah, there is only one God: the Father is God and Jesus is God. This is the profound truth that, together with the Holy Spirit, we call the Trinity. All on the authority of Jesus Christ Himself.

Lord, I worship You –Father, Son and Holy Spirit.