He replies: “I told you, and yet you do not believe.” Jesus has not told them directly that he is the Christ, as he told the Samaritan woman at the well. (John 4:25, 26) He has, though, revealed his identity in saying: “Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.”​—John 8:58.

Jesus wants people to conclude for themselves that he is the Christ by comparing his works with what was foretold the Christ would do. This is why he at other times told his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. But now he tells these hostile Jews outright: “The works that I am doing in my Father’s name, these bear witness about me.

John 10:25