“Jesus was accused of blasphemy for saying, ‘I and my Father are one,’ but when He replied by quoting Psalm 82, ‘Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?’ He made it clear that He was not making special claims about Himself but rather was quoting from a highly revered Old Testament source, reminding us of our own divinity. The passage says, ‘Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.’
This principle, that we are gods, is one of the most important ways of stating the gospel, and it is good news indeed. Yet it is not simply news for the intellect — it is for the heart as well. The Word is not lived in the words of our mouths but through the loving spirit of our hearts and the selfless actions of our lives. Thus, this gospel is good news for all people and not the exclusive property of any one hemisphere, civilization, culture, or religious organization simply because certain words are used.
The good news is not only that the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (that is, the Infinite into the finite) but also that He said ‘I call you not servants but friends.’ (John 15:15)
His claim to divinity, a block upon which we seem to enjoy stumbling, was in truth His claim for the divine origin and sonship of all people. Though He said, ‘If you have seen me you have seen the Father,’ He also said, ‘I in the Father and the Father in me and I in you and you in me’ — Oneness. The question of the divinity of Jesus is answered by the realization that there is only One and that One is God.”
Venture Inward, Herbert Puryear, PhD., A.R.E., p. 23.
