There is the kind of God which is one God. Then there is another kind of “gods,” of which there are many—human rulers, authorities, and heavenly beings of power. Jesus puts himself in the second category. These gods are those given their power by the One God, “the one true God”, the Father.
So there is the kind of God which is one God. Scripture affirms:
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deut 6:4)
Paul echoes this explicitly:
“We know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one.” (1 Cor 8:4)
And Jesus identifies the Father as that One:
“This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
Thus the Father is the first kind—the One God, the source of all.
Paul reinforces this distinction:
“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist.” (1 Cor 8:6)
Then there is another kind of “gods,” of which there are many—created rulers, authorities, and heavenly beings. Jesus refers to this category when he cites Psalm 82:
“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” (John 10:34; cf. Ps 82:6)
Here Jesus places himself within that same category—among those addressed with the term “gods.”
But at the same time, he distinguishes himself from them by immediately stressing his unique consecration and divine appointment:
“If he called them gods to whom the word of God came… do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (John 10:35–36)
In other words, Jesus acknowledges that he stands in the Psalm 82 “gods” category, yet he is unlike the rest of them:
• He alone is sanctified (set apart) by the Father.
• He alone is sent into the world.
• He alone is the Christ, God’s appointed ruler and judge.
Thus Jesus is both within that category and above it. But he is given that exalted power by God who sent him, appointed him, raised him from the dead, keeps him alive forever, and anointed him.
