In chapter 10 He contrasts Himself with all those who pretended, or had
pretended, to be shepherds of Israel. He develops these three points; He
comes in by the door; He is the door; and He is the Shepherd of the
sheep-the good Shepherd.
He comes in by the door. That is to say, He submits to all the conditions
established by Him who built the house. Christ answers to all that is
written of the Messiah, and takes the path of God's will in presenting
Himself to the people. It is not human energy and power awakening and
attracting the passions of men; but the obedient man who bowed to Jehovah's
will, kept the lowly place of a servant, and lived by every word that
proceeded out of the mouth of God, bowed in lowliness to the place in which
Jehovah's judgment had placed and viewed Israel. All the Lord's quotations
in His conflict with Satan are from Deuteronomy. Consequently He who
watches over the sheep, Jehovah, acting in Israel by His Spirit and
providence, and arranging all things, gives Him access to the sheep in
spite of the Pharisees and priests and so many others. The elect of Israel
hear His voice. Now Israel was under condemnation: He therefore brings the
sheep out, but He goes before them. He leaves that ancient fold, under
reproach doubtless, but going before His sheep, in obedience according to
the power of God-a security to every one who believed in Him that it was
the right road, a warrant for their following Him, come what might, meeting
every danger and shewing them the way.
The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. There are many other voices,
but the sheep do not know them. Their safety consists, not in knowing them
all, but in knowing that they are not the one voice which is life to
them-the voice of Jesus. All the rest are the voices of strangers.
He is the door for the sheep. He is their authority for going out, their
means of entering in. By entering in, they are saved. They go in and out.
It is no longer the yoke of ordinances, which, in guarding them from those
without, put them in prison. The sheep of Christ are free: their safety is
in the personal care of the Shepherd; and in this liberty they feed in the
good and fat pastures which His love supplies. In a word, it is no longer
Judaism; it is salvation, and liberty, and food. The thief comes to make
his profit on the sheep by killing them. Christ is come that they might
have life, and that abundantly; that is, according to the power of this
life in Jesus, the Son of God, who would soon have this life (whose power
was in His Person) in resurrection beyond death.
The true Shepherd of Israel-at least of the remnant of the sheep-the door
to authorise their coming out of the Jewish fold, and to admit them into
the privileges of God by giving them life according to the abundance in
which He was able to bestow it-He was also in special connection with the
sheep thus set apart, the good Shepherd who thus gave His life for the
sheep. Others would think of themselves, He of His sheep. He knew them, and
they knew Him, even as the Father knew Him, and He knew the Father.
Precious principle! They could have understood an earthly knowledge and
interest on the part of the Messiah on earth with regard to His sheep. But
the Son, although He had given His life and was in heaven, knows His own,
even as the Father knew Him when He was on the earth.
Thus He laid down His life for the sheep; and He had other sheep who were
not of this fold, and His death intervened for the salvation of these poor
Gentiles. He would call them. Doubtless He had given His life for the Jews
also-for all the sheep in general, as such (v. 11). But He does not speak
distinctly of the Gentiles until after He has spoken of His death. He would
bring them also, and there should be but one flock (not "one fold," there
is no fold now) and one Shepherd .
Now this doctrine teaches the rejection of Israel, and the calling out of
the elect among that people, presents the death of Jesus as being the
effect of His love for His own, tells of His divine knowledge of His sheep
when He shall be away from them, and of the call of the Gentiles. The
importance of such instruction at that moment is obvious. Its importance,
thank God! is not lost by the lapse of time, and is not limited to the fact
of a change of dispensation. It introduces us into the substantial
realities of the grace connected with the Person of Christ. But the death
of Christ was more than love for His sheep. It had an intrinsic value in
the Father's eyes. "Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down
my life that I might take it again." He does not say here for His sheep-it
is the thing itself that is well-pleasing to the Father. We love because
God has first loved us, but Jesus, the divine Son, can furnish motives for
the Father's love. In laying down His life, He glorified the Father. Death
was owned to be the just penalty for sin (being at the same time annulled
and he who had the power of it, 2 Tim. 1: 10; Heb. 2: 14), and eternal life
brought in as the fruit of redemption-life from God. Here also the rights
of the Person of Christ are set forth. No man takes His life from Him: He
lays it down Himself. He had this power (possessed by no other, true only
of Him who had divine right) to lay it down, and power to take it again.
Nevertheless, even in this, He did not depart from the path of obedience.
He had received this commandment from His Father. But who would have been
able to perform it save He who could say, "Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it again"?
[see note #38]
They discuss what He had been saying. There were some who only saw in Him a
man beside himself, and who insulted Him. Others, moved by the power of the
miracle He had performed, felt that His words had a different character
from that of madness. To a certain point their consciences were reached.
The Jews surround Him, and ask how long He would keep them in suspense.
Jesus answers that He had already told them; and that His works bore Him
testimony. He appeals to the two testimonies which we have seen brought
forward in the previous chapter (8 and 9); namely, His word and His works.
But He adds, they were not of His sheep. He then takes occasion, without
noticing their prejudices, to add some precious truths respecting His
sheep. They hear His voice; He knows them; they follow Him; He gives them
eternal life; they shall never perish. On the one hand, there shall be no
perishing of life as within; on the other, no one shall pluck them out of
the Saviour's hand-force from without shall not overcome the power of Him
who keeps them. But there is another and an infinitely precious truth which
the Lord in His love reveals to us. The Father had given us to Jesus, and
He is greater than all who would seek to pluck us out of His hand. And
Jesus and the Father are one. Precious teaching! in which the glory of the
Person of the Son of God is identified with the safety of His sheep, with
the height and depth of the love of which they are the objects. Here it is
not a testimony which, as altogether divine, sets forth what man is. It is
the work and the efficacious love of the Son, and at the same time that of
the Father. It is not "I am"; but "I and the Father are one." If the Son
has accomplished the work, and takes care of the sheep, it was the Father
who gave them to Him. The Christ may perform a divine work, and furnish a
motive for the Father's love, but it was the Father who gave it Him to do.
Their love to the sheep is one, as those who bear that love are one.
