John 10:33

The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

Makest thyself God ... Yes, the Pharisees fully and correctly understood, at last, exactly what Jesus meant; and their fury rose and overflowed. Jesus meant to claim unequivocally his equality and oneness with God. Significantly, if Jesus' claim was false, he was a blasphemer and deserved death; and, in this, appears the sharp dilemma concerning Christ. He either was, or was not, what he claimed to be; and there has never been a middle position. If Jesus was not the holy Christ, he deserved death as the law decreed (Leviticus 24:61). If he was in truth the divine Messiah, his enemies deserved death for charging him with blasphemy and shutting their eyes against the light. Thus it is futile and fallacious to hail Christ as a great teacher, a wise leader, a noble prophet, or as any other type of excellent person, unless his Godhead is recognized. If Jesus was not indeed God come in flesh, then he was not a noble prophet but a liar, not a great leader but a fool, not a wise teacher but an idiot. Every man confronts this dilemma, invariably receiving Christ as ALL or nothing. An equivocal or halfway reception of Jesus Christ is, in fact, a rejection of him.