[30] “I and My Father are one.”

[31] Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. [32] Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” [33] The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” [34] Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? [35] “If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), [36] “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’? [37] “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; [38] “but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” [39] Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.

• (Verse 30) - Jesus proclaims He and His Father to be One. 

• (Verse 31) - The Jews take up stones to kill Him. 

• (Verse 32) - Jesus asks them for which of His good works they were about to stone Him? 

• (Verse 33) - The Jews tell Him that it was for blasphemy, making Himself out to be God. 

• (Verse 34-38) - Jesus demonstrates the truth of His claim and again cites the miracles as testimony from God as to the truth of His claim. 

• (Verse 39) - They seek to kill Him again, but He escapes again. 

• (Verse 40) - Jesus then goes beyond the Jordan to where John was baptizing. 

• (Verse 41-42) - Many testify to the truth of John's testimony to Christ's identity and many believed as a result.

(Verse 30) - The Word translated ''One" is not in the masculine, but in the neuter gender. It expresses union, but says nothing of the specific type of union. Were it masculine, it would speak of a union of essence essentially speaking of the self-same person. The union that it spoken of here is not that kind of union. In this kind of grammatical construction, the particular kind of union is left to be inferred by the connection.

In the previous section Christ had said He and His Father were united in a couple ways. They were united in the purpose of redeeming and preserving His (the Father's) people. He had also said they were united in the calling and authorizing of those who lead and minister to those people. Additionally, He had said they were united in exercising authority over those false leaders (called thieves and robbers) that snuck into the sheepfold.

There is also the larger issue of the sharing of the Father's authority by Christ. The Father is immutable (unchangeable) and even the Jews saw His purposes, His design and plan as being unchanged from eternity past. This being so, it is clear that if Christ shares that purpose, design and plan in redemption now, He has shared it always. This is what the Jews found unacceptable.

What we are speaking of here is a oneness of power and authority. As we have noted, this implies (if not outright proclaims) a oneness of person. Christ had claimed the power to redeem, rescue and protect the flock of God against all enemies. Ite claimed power supreme over all men (healing), devils (exorcisms), nature (natural miracles), essentially saying that He had supreme power over all creation. Only God has that kind of power.

The Jews clearly understood that Jesus was claiming exactly that. We know this from the next verse where they take up stones to stone Him to death - the traditional penalty for blasphemy. Verse 33 tells us they clearly understood that He was claiming to be God, a claim He does not deny. Rather, He makes yet another declaration of precisely the same nature for which they attempt exactly the same punishment.

It should be noted that if Jesus did not intend this understanding, we have a real problem with His moral and ethical honesty here. He had the opportunity, particularly the second time, to clearly disavow that such was His intention and He did not. They Jews were quite familiar with their own language. They understood Him to be saying He was equal with God and He left them with that perception. 

How do those facts apply to my life?:

What could possibly make more of a difference to any one? There are only 3 possible ways to respond to this. Hostility, as the Jewish Leaders responded. Faith, as many others responded. Indifference, as the vast majority of people respond.