We now come to the beautiful doctrine of the Shepherd and the sheep. The grace and blessedness of the truth before us, cause the anger and opposition of the Pharisees to be all forgotten; the voice of the Shepherd alone is heard, even the sheep are silent here.
We shall hear for the first time of the flock which was to be gathered out from the Jewish fold, of the other sheep from the Gentiles to be added to them, so that in result there should be one flock (not fold), one Shepherd.
In the first chapter, He is presented in the fullness and glory of His divine Person.” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There also we read of His visiting the fold, the Jewish people, who, though called His own, yet knew Him not.
But these relations with a people in the flesh were outward, those only amongst them whom He calls His sheep are “His own,” by spiritual links which cannot be broken.
In John 15, He is the true Vine, in place of Israel, now only a degenerate plant of a strange vine. But vine is an earthly designation; even the true Vine is only viewed in His life down here. Branches in this Vine (in Me ) might be found, who had never partaken of the vital sap — mere professors.
In John 20, the relationship is vital, and for eternity, the corn of wheat is no longer alone, it had died (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)), and here, already, was some of the “much fruit.” He does not say there, “My sheep,” but “My brethren,” which He calls them for the first time, and gives them His own position before His God and Father – “My God and your God, My Father and your Father” and breathes into them a breath of that life in which He was risen (sin, Satan, and death being overcome); saying at the same time, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Blessed brethren! blessed sheep! He calls you His own! The sheep know Him, and hear His voice, the brethren call His Father their Father, His God their God. Their everlasting blessing and security is founded on His atoning death. The Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, then comes the risen life, with God for its object; our state now (Rom. 6:10, 1110For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:10‑11)). See the converse in Revelation 21:33And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3), “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God.” Thus, the day of eternity come, man will be God’s object, His “delights with the children of men” will be unhindered, and forever. How long He has waited for it!
He does not call Himself either the “chief”, or the “great,” but the good “Shepherd, as laying down His life for the sheep” (1 Pet. 5; Heb. 13). The time was not yet come for the application of titles like these, nor is He thinking of the glories that pertain to the “Shepherd of Israel,” when He will stand and shepherd them in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. The sheep will then wander no more, “they shall abide,” for at that time shall He be great unto the ends of the earth, and be the peace when the Assyrian comes into their land (Mic. 5).
Yet this was He whom they had once smitten with a rod upon the cheek — the glorious Judge of Israel! The place from whence He was to -come forth to be ruler in Israel was little among the thousands of Judah, and of all those thousands, there was none so lowly as He, whose goings forth had been from everlasting.
But there are scenes where littleness and greatness exchange their signification. There was once in this world a Man, self-emptied, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; but the world knew Him not.
It was not, however, to Him as the Great One feeding or shepherding with the majesty of the lord His God, that the porter opened, not to Him in that character. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” characterized His service now. “I am no prophet, man possessed Me as a servant from My youth.” This passage from Zechariah is more in harmony with the scriptures . . . that speak of His lowly position amongst men. How well it became Him, blessed Son of the Highest! None but Himself could have taken it (I am in the midst of you as the one that serves). And, how the Lord of Hosts hastened to interpret, as none but God could, the divine secret of those wounds. “Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” The kings and judges of the earth were confederate against Him: the spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies, the “lords of this darkness,” were against Him; but the secret of the Lord is ever with those that fear Him; He takes the saints behind all the scenes of human and Satanic wickedness, for Satan originates nothing, and man is only his slave.
It was Jehovah who had first counseled the uniting of the Man who was His fellow. (See also Job 1). God, not Satan, ordering all. This is all-important for His people, they have nothing to do with second causes, the world refuses to own the First. In due time the hosts of the high ones would be punished on high, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
It is to the Shepherd of the Lord of hosts that the Porter opens. What and where is man, when the Spirit of the Lord opens to His Shepherd? When He arises, prison walls confine their captives no more, for the legal system of carnal ordinances was virtually ended when the sheep were withdrawn from the fold, it was with them that the mind and spirit of Christ were occupied. These were the “excellent of the earth,” in whom was all His delight.
It will be clearly seen that the subject here is not the responsibility of man, as such; nor that of the lost ones of the fold; but first His title to the name and place of Shepherd, and then His visit to the fold for the purpose of leading the sheep out of the ancient enclosure, the fallen Jewish system, already set aside in the mind of God. “He that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” The door was the way appointed of God, all the predicted circumstances relative to His first advent up to that moment were accomplished, the rest were about to be fulfilled.
The “Door” included the doctrine of His Person and character; see for example Isaiah 11:2, where His character is described in connection with the Spirit which rested upon Him in seven-fold perfection. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord”; and this is given in connection with His government: “with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth” (vs. 4). See also, Isaiah 61, which He read in the synagogue of Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach glad tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to preach to captives deliverance, to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” The Lord declares, “Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” He does not go beyond “the acceptable year of the Lord,” in quoting from Isaiah; for the day of vengeance belongs to the second advent. See further, Isaiah 1, where He says, “The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I might know how to speak . . . to him that is weary.”
All has been foretold — His incarnation, His descent from David according to the flesh; root and rod of Jesse; the place of His birth; His sorrows and rejection; “face more marred than any man”; in a word, the sufferings of Jesus, and the glories that should follow. There could be no mistake that was not willful as to the door (the meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way ), and Jesus entered by that door, and then approved Himself to be the Shepherd of the sheep. All others were but thieves and robbers and hirelings; by their ways they are known.
Then He became the Door Himself. We have seen that the Porter and the sheep are in relationship with the Shepherd; the Porter opens to Him, the sheep hear His voice; now, He who came in by the door becomes the Door Himself. The sheep are to be led out of that which is already ripe for judgment. But what of the powers already established? What of the Herods and their men of war, the Roman governors and their legionaries? Will He stand up against them? It is written, “He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets.” “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” In the sphere itself of their rule, they are as though they were not. As was said of old, “Speak the word, and it shall not stand, for Emmanuel.” So here, it would be a sufficient answer, “To him the porter openeth.” For the chief priests, Pharisees, and doctors, this movement was connected with questions which they would consider of the last moment to themselves. However, the Lord does not even allude to them here, for Him they are as though they were not.
A scene of power and of blessedness, but of a new order, opens before us, the Shepherd of Israel leading out of the fold of Judaism. “When He has put forth all His own, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know His voice” (New Trans.). “To Him the porter openeth.” The power of the Spirit of God was ever present, waiting, so to speak, on, each movement of the heart and mind of Jesus. “Justified in the Spirit,” was ever true of Him. The seal of the Spirit’s presence was stamped on all that Jesus did. Elsewhere, in another character, “holy and true,” and addressing another remnant, He Himself opens the door for those who had kept His word, and not denied His name.
While He puts forth all , He calls each sheep by name — to each distinctly revealing His own name — as He said to the man who had been blind, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.”
Yet, with regard to the sheep themselves, weakness characterized them; where were they to find strength to break with all that religious man held to be venerable and sacred? The religion of their fathers, their holy and beautiful house where “our fathers praised Thee”; the great names of Moses, and of David, of Samuel, and the prophets; the devout warriors who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and obtained promises; the noble army of martyrs, of whom the world was not worthy; the beautiful ritual; the ordinances established by Jehovah Himself; the holy places, Jerusalem and the temple; these thoughts, inseparably united in the mind of every earnest Jew, seemed to sanction the system here called the fold: they constituted his religion, and were the foundation of his patriotism. For this feeling also was divinely sanctioned, and indeed formed part of his religion.
The term “fold” is merely another name for the earthly Jewish system, in and by which the Jews were separated from the nations.
Now the most powerful motives that can influence the heart of the “first man,” are connected with his love of his religion, “his country,” “his righteousness,” simply because he counts them his own; for the truth of this remark, especially with regard to righteousness, see the Book of Job. The righteousness of God is a truth not yet possessed by many truly Christian people, and how many ungodly men, blasphemers of that holy name, have exposed themselves to danger, and even to death, for what they called their holy religion or their church; so that it is really an interesting and important consideration, by what power, or process of reasoning, these sheep were delivered from the fold.
One would have thought, that every motive suggested by outward circumstances, would have combined with those drawn from the inward feelings of religious nature, the authority of the priests, besides the working of the power of darkness, to keep them still within the fold. But, in the first place, they were not on the ground of men in nature before God; though, as yet, neither delivered in conscience, nor having the Holy Spirit, knowing little or nothing of the cross. They were simply born of water and of the Spirit, the application of the word by the Spirit; but knew the Shepherd, knew Him personally, livingly. The mutual knowledge of the Shepherd and of the sheep was of the most intimate character, founded in the new nature, “Even as I know the Father and the Father knows Me,” says the Lord.
What, then, were the means and way of their deliverance from the darkness and bondage of the carnal system? I use the language of the Spirit of God, who speaks of carnal ordinances, and a worldly sanctuary, rejecting both.
We have seen what the hindrances must have been from a mere human point of view, call it religious, if you please; with what eloquence the example of famous and devoted men of former generations might be pleaded for remaining where they were; but all this would be wholly irrelevant, for it was not a question of prophets and martyrs, but the intervention of God in the Person of Him who calls Himself the Shepherd of the sheep, who was in their midst, with a revelation as new and wondrous as the grace in which it was given; establishing thus, in a Christian way, His authority in the hearts and consciences of His own. This authority rested on a basis hitherto unknown, at least in its fullness, and as characterizing His dealings with men. It was the grace of God bringing salvation where law wrought condemnation and death, the salvation-bringing grace of God: glorious words, precious thoughts!
It is a teacher, also, instructing, as in itself a sweet and holy and efficacious principle from God, to deny the lusts which the law provokes: “For I had not had conscience also of lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust; but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin was dead . . . but the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died” (Rom. 8:7-107Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:7‑10), JND.).
Verses 3-5. He knows every individual sheep by name, as the names of the children of Israel were engraved on the two stones put upon the shoulders of the ephod. When He had put forth all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, because they know His voice. Thus, when they were leaving Egypt, none could be left behind. “It came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12). “Of their cattle, even, there shall not an hoof be left behind.” They knew the voice of the Shepherd, this is what characterizes the sheep. In this the true servants of the Lord are always to be distinguished from mere professors; from deceivers and their ways, they are preserved by the instincts, one might say, of a new nature, they knew not the voice of strangers. This is preservative, simple indeed, but divinely simple! A beautiful characteristic of the “poor of the flock.” Like Abraham, who, when he was called, obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went, so the sheep, little knowing the purpose of the Shepherd’s heart concerning them, nor of the large and wealthy place into which He was guiding them, knowing only His voice, followed Him.
It is remarkable, that of all that surrounded them in the present and in the past, no principle or authority, no institution, no command or name, is referred to; the Shepherd’s voice is all. The voice of antiquity could hardly be appealed to by Him who is the Ancient of days, as Revelation 1 proves. Christian writers seem sometimes to forget, in appealing to antiquity, that the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, whose voice the sheep hear, is the Eternal Himself. Abraham obeyed the call and went out, not knowing whither he went. The sheep follow the Shepherd, because they know His voice, but He who called Abraham was the Lord of glory, and the Shepherd was Jehovah’s fellow. The scoffer knows Him in neither character.
In verse 9, He describes the place to which He alone was the Door of entrance; one sees that it was entirely spiritual. The first thought is salvation. The Savior announces it without qualification of any kind, of all who enter by Him. The law addressed itself to responsible man thus: “Do and live.” “The commandment, which was for life, was found, as to me, itself to be unto death,” is the Spirit’s commentary by the apostle (Rom. 7:1010And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. (Romans 7:10), JND.)
Verse 9. “And shall go in and shall go out.” Christianity would be the sphere of liberty in holiness. Blessed thought! Free to love with all the heart, free to obey and follow Him whose voice we know — life also, and, when fully known as in the Son, life eternal. Life more abundant, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit would be the power of it. Such was the wondrous place to which the Door opens, what had it in common with Judaism?
“Find pasture” nothing characterizes the new place more than this. The Father was to be made known. “Shew us the Father,” said Philip, “and, speaking on behalf of all, “it sufficeth us.” From Him alone they heard the blessed doctrine of the Father, of the Father’s house, of the Father’s kingdom, of the Father’s glory, and of the Father’s bosom — the Son’s blest dwelling-place; of the connection of life eternal with the knowledge of the Father (and of the Son), this carried, as one has remarked, eternal life with it. It was not thus with the names of Almighty and Jehovah; by the first of these names, He was in relationship with the patriarchs; by the second, with the children of Israel; by the name of Father, with us. The revelation of the Father waited for the advent of the Son, and was unknown to the Jews, save as a general expression (Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us.) It is not once found in the Book of Psalms. Man had never fed on this pasture before. This revelation of the Father is also found in the roll of the sheep’s blessing. Life eternal, redemption being accomplished, inseparably connected with the knowledge of the Father and the Son (John 17), would be theirs, their place as a Jewish remnant merged in that of the assembly for heaven — the church — but that is going beyond our chapter.
It is remarkable, that in this passage the Lord never once hints at difficulties turning any back, or at slowness of heart when the voice reached them. The secret of power on their part would be found in the single eye, and Christ alone before it: it is then that the heart fills; then, outside Himself, nothing is sought or desired.
In verses 14-15, He again declares He is the good Shepherd, laying down His life for the sheep, with the additional truth that He knew them individually, and they individually knew Him. “I am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep and am known of Mine, as the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Even as the Father and the Son knew each other, the highest form of communion. And mark the testimony and character of this mutual knowledge, even “as the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father.” I will refer to one or two examples of this personal knowledge of Him, given in the Scriptures. There is but little of this in our day. The grace of God is greater than the attractions of nature a thousand, thousandfold; but one is born blind, and must wash in the pool of Siloam, before one can see.
Look at the scene in Simon’s house (Luke 7). Was not Simon the Pharisee a respectable man, and a good judge of morality? But to recognize the Holy One, or that which is of Him, he needed the eye salve which the Lord alone can provide. Well, we know what he thought within himself; but look at the woman, as the Spirit of God describes her. We see what her sin’s had made her, even before the world — a woman of the city. But would “This do and live,” an answer to the requirement of the law, have brought her nearer to Jesus? Alas, for any who think so! They have not, as yet, learned what sin in the flesh means; to such, the grace of God that brings salvation is necessarily a strange and incomprehensible thought. If they will only ponder her history, the truth may more than dawn upon their souls. Her sins had not deprived her of salvation, and faith, not love, had saved her. She was now a sheep, whatever Simon might speak with himself.
Is it conceivable that the things which influence the world, its pleasures, riches, honors, the favor of its great ones, pouring in upon her from every quarter, were He the source and Giver of them all, could have effected the state described? They would have shut out God from her soul more than all her sins. It was simply the grace of God, which it had been given her to discern in Jesus, that had made her conscious of her state by a path unknown to law, and at the same time had given her, in her inmost soul, the conviction that she should not be condemned, because it was the grace of God in truth, which she had found in Jesus. It was the grace and truth which, inseparably united, subsist by Him, were not in the world until He was there, which turned her from darkness to light.
And see where it led her: standing at His feet behind Him weeping, she began to wash His feet with tears. A Pharisee’s house, too, the scene of all this self-abasement! Such an one is not more than the least of God’s creatures, for one to whom those blessed feet were more precious than all the world beside. She had already heard His voice, and, conquering nature — an easy task now because of the grace transcending — not waiting for an outward call (He was known by His sheep, and by whom more than this one?) — had followed Him, even to the last place on earth at which one, who had been a sinner of the city, would like to be present.
And what the gentle dews from heaven are to the parched places of the wilderness, were the words of that voice which she heard in the house of the Pharisee. Yet it was not praise, but what was deeper and sweeter far than any praise; for in those words, not addressed to her but to her condemner, she found that not an expression of her soul’s deep devotion to Himself, and conscious lowliness, had failed of the fullest appreciation on His part. – “Seest thou this woman?” (See Luke 7:44-5044And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 45Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. 47Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 48And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:44‑50).)
I have thus far referred to this woman’s history, because it teaches with matchless simplicity and beauty what knowing Jesus is. To her inmost soul she is penetrated by the grace that, by some as yet undiscovered path, would bring salvation; taking sides with the holiness which could not but condemn the principles and manner of her life.
“Am known of Mine,” He said. Of no class of saints were such words ever used before; nor was it possible before His manifestation. The sweet and precious fruits of knowledge like this make us feel how great a thing it is. How profound was the knowledge in some, of the depths of the divine nature! The love, deep grace, and holiness of His nature, her whole attitude in His presence declares. “That I may know him,” was the highest aspiration of the blessed apostle. “We beheld His glory,” said another, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a Father.” What knowledge was that? Never was glory associated in the mind with a sweeter thought than that of an only-begotten with a father!
It is not difficult to discover the connection between, “I know My sheep and am known of Mine,” and, “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” One could hardly say that the sheep are thus characterized in this our day. The Bridegroom tarrying, all grew heavy and slept; but in the middle of the night there was a cry, “Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet Him.”
Verse 16. “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.” The other sheep were from the Gentiles, and there would be one flock, not fold, which last term is appropriate to a system defined by ordinances. “These also I must bring,” blessed must for us! The name “flock” would be merged in that of “assembly” or “church,” spoken of for the first time in Matthew 16. Hades gates should not prevail against it. Never was building like this, which had one and the same Person for its Foundation and Builder. But the church here is regarded as exclusively the work of the divine Builder, not as in 1 Cor. 3:9, 119For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)
11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11). “Upon this rock I will build My church” — Himself the Son of the “living God. How could Hades gates prevail against that? Neither, if regarded as a flock, could one sheep perish. For (ver. 28) “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” There is another figure employed to set forth the security of His own: membership of a body. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Eph. 5). “No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” These three passages give distinct grounds for the eternal security of His own. The great leading characteristic of the sheep is found here again: “They shall hear My voice.”
Verses 17-18. “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.” Here the figures of shepherd and door are dropped, and, standing, as it were, upon holy ground, we are permitted to learn, in the mutual relations of the divine Persons, even the manner of the love in which they eternally subsist. That beautiful word in chapter 1: might well prepare us for it, “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” “Therefore doth My Father love me, because I lay down My life.” And yet He was the object of the Father’s love before the foundation of the world. Like the glory He had with Him before the world was, the love also, it was eternal.
But to afford new motives for that love in His lowly position in humanity, He, the Sanctified and Sent One of the Father, rejected as such, His witness despised and His person hated, perfected His testimony in love, in the midst of all opposition, by laying down His life.
The Originator of life, He gave up life! Could heaven, with all its glories, present an occasion for anything like this? He that contemplated it all from His heavenly place is true, saying to Him who dwells in unapproachable light, “I delight to do Thy will, O God.” For what in spirit He purposed, in the brightness of that light, He accomplished, in the body prepared for Him, amid the agonies and darkness of the cross, when the cry of anguish arose, which none but Himself could utter. For who had been forsaken of Him of whom He could truly say, “He is My God”? Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. But I am a worm and no man.” Or what creature could say, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death,” as He was brought, and live again?
But love was love still, though the billows touched the skies. The Son loves the Father, and Jesus is the Son. The ruler of the world came and had nothing in Him; the world was there, and might learn that He loved the Father; for as the Father had given Him commandment, so He did.
In Him obedience was perfect liberty, for it was the obedience of love itself. It is remarkable that with laying down His life ever before Him, for it bounded for Him the horizon of every view in this world, He still proceeds in the path of service marked out for Him. He saw the gathering clouds, and knew that it was around His own devoted head they were collecting; that all His path of testimony and of sorrow led to the place and hour where He should stand a one — the Man of sorrows, in all the infinite meaning of that designation as applied to Him.
How should we proceed in the path of service marked out for us, if we knew that all must terminate, here, in a death of utter shame, the culminating point in which should be the apparent disowning of our names, by Him whose favor and whose glory had been our being’s end and aim? We are thinking now only of the human side of the sufferings — what came from the hand of man. Reproaches and insults multiplied at what they deemed the unheeded cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” God apparently siding with His adversaries. Think of what that means if you can, and from the lips of Jesus. “one!” Alone in the world His own hands had made — alone amongst the people He had formed for Himself. No service of angels, whose highest privilege and glory it had been to minister to Him; nor voice as from them, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb!” And above all and before all, alone in reference to God, and though it was, comparatively, but for a moment, all its bitterness must be tasted. He must change His own voice, and the sweet words, “My Father hath not left Me alone,” give place to the most sorrowful cry ever uttered, in this or any world, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
In verse 11, I think, the Lord is speaking of His death, not exactly in the view of its atoning value, but as the measure and proof of His love to the sheep — no love like that! His loving care would indeed be tried to the utmost, “If ye seek Me, let these go away,” but in that death was atonement also,
But here, vss. 17, 18, His laying down His life is not contemplated in its effects for the sheep, but as a matter affecting only His Father and Himself — it was the last expression of devotedness to His Father, when found on earth “in fashion as a man,” in its own nature attracting His Father’s love. Already we have heard Him saying He did always the things that pleased the Father, so that He was never without that Father’s companionship, but this last great act of His life, this laying it down that He might take it again, had its own special, infinite attractiveness for His Father’s heart. See the manner of it, what a blending of perfections in the accomplishment of it! Divine liberty, love, obedience, power; was there ever offering like that!
Verse 19. “There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.” Here the controversy is renewed on the part of the Jews, the words of Jesus produce division. “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” Yet it is written of Him, “He hath made peace,” and, “He is our peace.” All the taught of God know well that there is no inconsistency in these statements.
In verse 27, we hear of the voice of the Shepherd again. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” If the people did not believe the testimony of His works, it was because they were not of His sheep; that was the true reason, and put an end to all controversy on such a subject. Similarly the apostle decides the question at once, they were blinded — “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” In John 8, He had revealed the real cause of their unbelief in God’s words (His own testimonies), “they were not of God,” here He declares they were not His sheep, because they believed not His words.
Verses 28-30. “And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck, them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” These verses give us, not merely the salvation and life more abundant of the sheep, but eternal life their portion, their security the hand of the Son, and then the Father’s hand. Who is able to pluck His people thence? And then, “I and My Father are one.” “Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.” Mark the cause of this enmity even unto death, because, as they said, “He made Himself Son of God.” See also chapter 8, where He says, “Before Abraham was, I am” — the Eternal. “Then took they up stones to cast at Him.” And also John 5, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” This was the rejection of God manifest in the flesh — His word and works already rejected and despised. “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me . . . according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day,” was the word of the Lord to Samuel in ancient days. It was morally the same generation, the heart unchanged. The foremost, in this unconcealed enmity to Jesus, were those outwardly nearest to God, the priests and Pharisees. We have the latter from the beginning (John 4) to the end, one may say, of His public ministry, in the place of adversaries.
Verses 32-36. “Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from My Father, for which of those works do ye stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are 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?” Here He appeals once more, as in John 5, to the scriptures, and to His works. In their law, they to whom the word of God came, were called gods, as representing God in the place of authority and government; but here was One sanctified and sent by the Father Himself — was it blasphemy in such an one to say, “I am the Son of God”? Then as to His works, even in what they would deem their highest character, they were acknowledged — “For this man doeth many miracles.” But of what avail for the heart of a Pharisee these miracles of Jesus? For him the precious doctrine of the relation of the Father and the Son could possess no interest. For them those wondrous works were wrought by the power of the prince of devils. Their foolish heart was darkened. They were the adversaries of Jesus. “Therefore they sought again to take Him, but He escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized, and there He abode.”
All was really over now, the mighty controversy ended in His rejection. He departs to the other side of Jordan, the type of death, to the place for Him of blissful and glorious reminiscences. There had sounded out the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” There He had recognized the Spirit’s work in the hearts of the poor of the flock, when He was baptized with them in Jordan; and there the heavens had opened unto Him, as He went up straightway out of the water, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon Him. “And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This had been the starting-place of His ministry; how well it was accomplished eternity will reveal! “And there He abode.” Sweet tarrying-place it must have been for Jesus! Escaped for the moment from the murderous hands of man — His life of public service ended — He had reached the place of sealing, and of the Father’s voice: “My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight.” No place on earth like this for the spirit of Jesus.
And many resorted unto Him, and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man were true. “And many believed on Him there.” John, though dead, yet spake unto them, and the words of Jesus, still with them, were heard and believed.
Mark these tarrying-places of Jesus, before the final hour was come; beyond Jordan; Bethany; and the city called Ephraim, near the desert. In each, He was surrounded by His own — “He sojourned with his disciples.”