Jesus in John 10 shows us we should not really be looking up to gods who are sons of the Most High God by divinity alone. He himself being a human in the flesh does not seek to be a son by that kind of divinity, but rather by living up standards we see God has set for what a son of His should be, by virtue of using status for delivering justice to the poor and weak. Jesus fulfilled and ever will fulfil this. Jesus, by quoting Psalm 82, is holding up this standard of what a son of God should be like, but living it not as a higher than human deity but as a human who is already mortal. The result of living such a life as a human—a life the Most High Father regards as worthy of a true Son of Him—is that despite dying, there is resurrection to eternal life. The gods who were sons of God by status but did not fulfil the standard God set them—of upholding the hope the weak were putting in them as gods—these God condemned to have a demise similar to the death of mortal humans. This is what Psalm 82, quoted by Jesus, was saying. Jesus showed a new way. No more failing and letting down those weak who need a saving god, but rather, as a human to live a life of saving the weak who came to him and called on him, and so in pleasing God this way, to endure death as a true human, then have God resurrect him to live forever by God’s power. This is the true Sonship God had been seeking. This is what pleased God such that He had set apart Jesus and sent him into the world as His beloved chosen Son, to anoint him for rule over all as the true Christ, raising him from the dead to become ultimately Lord over all. Glorious truth out of this is that, as John’s gospel clearly attests, those who believe in Jesus can by his teachings become this pleasing kind of son for God too, and likewise hope for resurrection to eternal life when Jesus returns. Jesus knows the Father so well, such that he has been able to live to please Him perfectly and be raised like this, that Jesus can impart to those who believe and follow his teachings this same knowledge of the Father necessary to live this life which becomes eternal by such resurrection. This is why not only belief in Jesus but discipleship in his teachings is the way taught in the gospel of John (for example in chapter 8). The light of Jesus is something we need to live by, not merely know about. As Jesus later revealed to Paul, it is not something that needs first conversion to Judaism and keeping of the Law of Moses, it is for all including not only those living by Judaic Law but those outside of it—for everyone who believes this message of God. Christ Jesus died for all so that all who believe can be purified from their sins whether or not they live by the Old Testament Law. It is for all. He rose from the dead because God found full satisfaction and good pleasure in his obedience and his upholding of the hopes of those who called on him. Living this way, believing his teachings and learning from them, we learn that with truthful speech when speaking to our neighbour, and without letting anger turn to murderous hatred, and without being unfaithful in marriage, we too can live as pleasing children of God if we believe and receive the Holy Spirit given by God to those who believe. The giving of the Holy Spirit is God’s way of showing the adoption of those who believe—adoption as children of God.
