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Isaiah 44:6
John 10:30
John 10:38
John 17:11
John 17:21-23
John 5:18
Philippians 2:6
Colossians 1:19
Colossians 2:9
Revelation 1:8
2 Corinthians 4:13
When God says "Beside Me there is no other God", Yahweh and His Redeemer, Jesus, are talking as One. They are the first and last as One. John 10:22-42 is labeled as "I and the Father Are One", which Jesus says in verse 30. The Jews in the crowd pick up stones to kill Him for this so-called blasphemy. (a group also sought to kill Him in John 5:18, because He was making Himself equal with God.) Jesus answers by saying "My works speak for themselves, and point to the truth that I Am equal with God. We are One." In John 17, Jesus is praying for His followers, then and now. He is laying out a pattern of communion and unity that will, if His church will conform, point others to salvation. Jesus was not bragging that He was One with God; He is actually proving His humility, because He emptied Himself to be a servant. The whole fulness of God dwells in Jesus for His glory. We bookended our reading in Revelation 1:8, with God, all of God as One, repeating Isaiah 44:6--I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.
I've always loved the fact that Jesus was praying For Us in the garden, right before His crucifixion. With death around the corner, we were on His mind. It gets me right in the emotions. 😠But this isn't just an "awwww, that was so nice" moment. Jesus is praying that we understand that He is One being with the Father. He knows it will be confusing to our one-dimensional minds. He wants us to wrap our minds and our hearts around it, and conform ourselves to it. When we live united with other believers, in a joining together of mind and spirit, we most clearly project the nature of God. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, we believe, and so we also speak. For our good, for the extension of grace to more and more people, and to increase thanksgiving, for the glory of God.
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