“Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said you are gods?’” John 10: 34.

That is Jesus’ response to some Jews who took offense at His claim to be God. They considered that to be blasphemy and wanted to kill Him for it.

We, of course, knowing more about Jesus than the Jews of his time, know that His assessment of Himself is correct—that He is God. Therefore, what He said about us being gods must be true.

Obviously, though, He stated this truth in a sense other than being exactly made up like God Himself. After all, our intrinsic nature is not divine. We are not immortal, having always self-existed. Nor are we omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.

In what sense did Jesus mean, then, that we are gods? Well, to begin with, we are made in His image. Scripture describes God’s appearance as being like ours, having a head, eyes, mouth, arms, legs, and feet.

Moreover, internally, He has a loving heart.

Also, like Him, our role is one of leadership and governance. We were given authority over this planet.

Furthermore, we have the ability to bring life into existence in our image too; this, of course, from the union of a man and woman.

There are other aspects of our creative power as well. From our thoughts, we can bring things that are not…into reality: paintings, music, written words, buildings, motor craft, etc.

I remember one day in which I was drowned in a flood of spirituality. I was a college student, writing and editing audio for a radio program. This was some thirty years before I was converted.

There were busybodies all around me; but during those hours, I felt as if I were separated and alone in an enclosed, still, quiet, bubble of a moment. I felt for the first time a kinship with God. And even then, I knew why. I was doing something He does. I was creating.

In Psalm 82: 6, we are called gods. That’s probably the scripture Jesus was referencing to the Jews. However, in verse 7, it plainly says we are susceptible to death. Divinity, as our all and all, we don’t have.

It is only in the sense of creativity; giving birth to life; sovereignty; the capacity to love; and body reflection, that Jesus called us gods. That’s small “g,” mind you.

In these ways are we lesser gods of this world—a type and shadow of the one and only true God.