Chapter 10 pursues the subject and opens out into a development, not of the spiritual history of a sheep of Christ, but of the Shepherd Himself, from first to last, here below. Hence, the Lord does not rest in a judgment extorted by their unbelief, and in contrast with the deliverance of faith, but develops the ways of grace here, as always in marked antithesis with the Jewish system, though connected with the man for His sake turned out of the synagogue, then found by Himself, and led into the fullest perception of His own glory outside the Jews, where alone real worship is possible. Accordingly our Lord traces this new history—His own from the beginning.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” It was not so with Jesus. He had entered in by the door, according to every requisition of the scriptures. Although Son, He had submitted to each ordinance which God had laid down for the Shepherd of His earthly people. He accomplished the work that God had marked out for Him in prophecy and type. What had been required or stipulated, according to the law, that He had not rendered in full tale? He was born at the measured time, in the due place, from the sworn stock, and of the defined mother, according to the written word. God had taken care beforehand to make each important point plain, by which the true Christ of God was to be recognized; and all had been fulfilled thus far in Jesus—thus far; for it is quite allowed that all the prophecies of subjugation and judgment, with the reign over the earth, remain to be accomplished. “To him,” He says, “the porter openeth.” This had been realized. Witness the Holy Spirit’s action. in Simeon and Anna, not to speak of the mass; and, above all, in John the Baptist. God had wrought by His grace in Israel, and there were godly hearts prepared for Him there.
“And the sheep hear his voice” (vs. 3). So we find in the Gospels, particularly Luke’s, from the beginning. “And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out”—an evident allusion to what had befallen the blind man. No doubt he had been turned out of the synagogue; but Christ imprints on this their wicked act His own interpretation, according to divine counsels. Little did that man know at that painful moment, that it was in reality grace which was leading him out. If it was a little before His own public and final rejection, it was, after all, the same principle at the bottom. The disciple is not above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. “He goeth before them.” This seems to refer to the manner in which it had been, and should be, accomplished. Already had the Lord tasted the enmity and scorn of man, and especially of the Jews; but He also knew the depths of shame and suffering which He must soon pass through, before there was an open separation of the sheep. Thus, whether it were done virtually or formally, in either case Jesus went before, and the sheep followed; “for they know his voice.” This is their spiritual instinct, as it is their security—not skill in determining or refuting error, but simple cleaving to Christ and the truth. See this exemplified in the once blind man. What weight had the Pharisees with his conscience? None whatever. They, on the contrary, felt he taught them. “A stranger will they not follow,” any more than he would follow the Pharisees. For now, by the new eyes which the Lord had given him, he could discern their vain pretensions, and their hostility against Jesus so much the worse, because coupled with “Give God the praise.” “A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him,” not because they are learned in the injurious jargon of strangers, “for they know not the voice of strangers.”
They know the Shepherd’s voice, and this they follow. It is the love of what is good, and not skill in finding out what is evil. Some may have power to sift and discern the unsound; but this is not the true, direct, divine means of safety for the sheep of Christ. There is a much more real, immediate, and sure way. It is simply this: they cannot rest without the voice of Christ; and that which is not the voice of Christ they do not follow. What more suitable to them, or more worthy of Him?
As these things were not understood, the Lord opens out the truth still more plainly in what follows. Here (vs. 7) He begins by taking the place of “the door of the sheep;” not, be it observed, of the sheepfold, but of the sheep. He had entered in Himself by the door, not of the sheep, of course, but by the door into the sheepfold. He entered in according to each sign and token —moral, miraculous, prophetic, or personal—which God had given to His ancient people to know Him by. But enter as He might, the people who broke the law refused the Shepherd; and the end of it was, that He leads His own sheep outside, Himself going before them. Now, there is more, and He says, “I am the door of the sheep.” The contrast of pretended or merely human shepherds is given in the next verse, which is parenthetical. “All that ever came before me [such as Theudas, and Judas] are thieves and robbers [they secretly or openly enriched themselves by the sheep]: but the sheep did not hear them” (John 10:88All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. (John 10:8)).
In verse 9 He enlarges. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” The portion He gives the sheep is a contrast with the law in another way; not as light simply, as in the beginning of chapter 9, in detecting all sin and every sinner. Now, it is grace in its fullness. “By me,” He says—not by circumcision, or the law—“By me if any man enter in.” There was no question of entering in by the law; for it dealt with those who were already in a recognized relation with God. But now there is an invitation to those without. “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Salvation is the first need of a sinner, and certainly the Gentile needs it as much as the Jew. “By me if any man”—no matter who he may be, if he enter, he shall be saved. Nevertheless, it is only for those that enter in. There is no salvation for such as abide outside Christ. But this is not all; for grace with Christ freely gives, not salvation alone, but all things. Even now too, “he shall go in and out.” It is not only that there is life and salvation in Christ, but there is liberty in contrast with the law. “And he shall find pasture.” Besides there is food assured. Thus we have here an ample provision for the sheep. To him that enters by Christ there is salvation, there is liberty, there is food.
Again, the Lord contrasts others with Himself. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” By their fruits they should know them. How could the sheep trust such shepherds as these? “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” There had been life when there was only a promise; there had been life all through the dealings of law. Clearly, Christ had ever been the means of life from the day death entered the world. But now He was come, it was not only that they might have life, but that they might have it “more abundantly.” This was the effect of the presence of God’s Son in this world. Was it not right and becoming, that when the one of God did humble Himself in this world, even to death, the death of the cross, dying also in atonement for sinners, God should mark this infinite fact and work and person by an incomparably richer blessing than ever had been diffused before? I cannot conceive it otherwise than the Word shows it is, consistently with the glory of God, even the Father.
Further, He was not only the door of the sheep, and then the door for others to enter in, but He says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (vs. 11). It is no longer only in contrast with a thief or a robber with murderous intent or evidently selfish purposes of the worst kind, but there might be others characterized by a milder form of human iniquity—not destroyers of the sheep, but self-seeking men. “He that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” Christ, as the good shepherd, does nothing of the kind, but remains to suffer all for them, instead of running away when the wolf came. “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known by mine, as the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father” (John 10:14-1514I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14‑15)). Such is the true sense of the verse. Verses 14 and 15 really form one sentence. They are not divided as we have them in our Bibles. The meaning is, that He showed Himself as the good Shepherd because he knew the sheep, and was known of them, just as He knew the Father, and was known of the Father. The mutuality of knowledge between the Father and the Son is the pattern of the knowledge between the Shepherd and the sheep. In what a wondrous place this puts us and the character of knowledge we possess. The knowledge which grace gives to the sheep is so truly divine that the Lord has nothing to compare it with, except the knowledge that exists between the Father and the Son. Nor is it merely a question of knowledge, intimate and perfect and divine as it is; but, moreover, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Other sheep, too, He intimates here, He had, who were to be brought in, that did not belong to the Jewish fold; He clearly looks out into the world, as always in the Gospel of John. There was to be one flock (not fold), one Shepherd.
Moreover, in order to open yet more the ineffable complacency of the Father in His work abstractedly, He adds, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.” Not here “for the sheep,” but simply, “that I might take it again” (vs. 17). That is to say, besides laying down His life for the sheep, He laid down His life to prove His perfect confidence in His Father. Impossible for another, or all others, to give so much. Even He could not give more than His life. Any other thing would not be comparable to the laying down of His life. It was the most complete, absolute giving up of Himself; and He did give up Himself, not merely for the gracious end of winning the sheep to God from the spoiler, but with the still more blessed and glorious aim of manifesting, in a world where man had from the first dishonored God, His own perfect confidence in His Father, and this as man. He laid it down that He might take it again. Thus; instead of continuing His life in dependence on His Father, He gives it up out of a still profounder and truly absolute dependence. “Therefore,” says He, “doth my Father love me” (vs. 17). This becomes a positive ground for the Father to love Him, additional to the perfection which had ever been seen in Him all His pathway through. Even more than this; although it is so expressly an act of His own, another astonishing principle is seen—the union of absolute devotedness on His own part, in perfect freeness of His will, with obedience (vs. 18). Thus the very same act may be, and is (as we find it in all its perfection in Christ) His own will, and yet along with this simple submission to His Father’s commandment. In truth, He and the Father were one; and so He does not stop till we have this fully expressed in verse 30. He and His Father were one—one in everything; not only in love and gracious counsel for the sheep, but in nature, too—in that divine nature which, of course, was the ground of all the grace.
But, besides this, the unbelief of the Jews brings out another thing; that is, the perfect security of the sheep —a very important question, because He was going to die. His death is in view: what will the sheep do then? Would the death of Christ in any way imperil the sheep? The very reverse. The Lord declares this in a most distinct manner. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (vss. 27- 28.) First of all, the life is everlasting. But then it is not merely that the thing itself is eternal, but they shall never perish; for it might be pretended, that though the life lasts forever, this is conditional on something in its recipients. Nay, “they shall never perish”—the sheep themselves. Thus, not merely the life, but those who have it by grace in Christ, shall never perish. To conclude and crown all, as far as their security was concerned, the question is answered as to any hostile power. ‘What about some one external to them? Nay; there again, as there was no internal source of weakness that could jeopard the life, so there should be no external power to cause anxiety. If there was any power that might do so righteously, surely it must be God’s own; but, contrariwise, they were in the Father’s hand, no, less than in the Son’s hand—none could pluck them out. Thus the Lord fenced them round even by His death, as well as by that eternal life which was in Him, the superiority of which over death was proved by His authority to take it again in resurrection. This was the life more abundantly which they derived from Him. Why should anyone wonder at its power? He was, for the sheep, against all adversaries; and so was the Father. Yea, “I and my Father are one” (vss. 29-30).
As there had been a division among the Jews for His sayings, and their appeal in doubt to Him had drawn out both His treatment of them as unbelievers, and the security of the sheep who heeded His voice and followed Him, as He knew them (vss. 19-30) so our Lord, in the presence of their hatred and still growing enmity (vs. 31), convicts them of the futility of their objection on their own ground. Did they find fault because He took the place of being the Son of God? Yet they must allow that kings, governors, judges, according to their law, were called gods. “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” A fortiori had He not a place which no king ever had? Did He, on their own principles, blaspheme then, because He said He was the Son of God? But He goes far beyond this. If they regarded not God’s word, nor His words, He appeals to His works. “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.” This connects, as I apprehend, the tenth chapter with the foregoing, and is in contrast with the eighth. They had thus repeatedly sought to kill Him, and He abandons them for the place in which John first baptized. In the face of total rejection, and in every point of view, both as the expression of God in the world, and of His working the works of grace in the world, the result was plain. Man, the Jew, especially, settles down in resolute unbelief and deadly hostility; but, on the other hand, the indefeasible security of the sheep, the objects of grace, only comes out with so much the greater clearness and decision.
Nevertheless, though all was really closed, God would manifest by a full and final testimony what was the glory of Christ, rejected as He was, and previous to His death. And accordingly, in chapters 11 and 12 is given a strikingly rich presentation of the Lord Jesus, in many respects entirely differing from all the others; for while it embraces what is found in the synoptists (that is the accomplishment of prophecy in His offer of Himself to Zion as the Son of David), John brings in a fullness of personal glory that is peculiar to his Gospel.