9. ONE FLOCK AND ONE SHEPHERD. (John 10)
LIGHT was the guiding thought connecting the previous two chapters; first in the Person of Christ (ch. 8), and then operating on the man born blind (ch. 9). In chapter 10, it is life. The allegory of the sheep-fold and the shepherd was possibly occasioned by the arbitrary use of religious authority in the case of the man whose eyes Jesus had opened; but an entirely fresh departure of thought appears.
Again, it is important to note that life and light are quite different subjects, and treated differently. The confounding of them has occasioned much error and a whole system of evil doctrine. As we have seen in chapter 9, light is given according to the measure of faithfulness to what is already possessed. God is its source, and the Son of God the object and divine vessel of it on earth. (The Father is not mentioned in chapter 9) But life, eternal life, is the sovereign gift of electing love, according to the grace and power of the Father and the Son (ch. 10).
The idea of sheep in Scripture, used figuratively, is that such are the property of the owner — that is, of God, but liable to stray and needing to be kept. Israel was this nationally as brought out of Egypt. Here, though the fold, no doubt, refers to the Sinaitic covenant, the sheep are not the national company at all, but those who according to the election of the Father are given to the Son. It is not the “Shepherd of Israel” (Psa. 80) and they “the sheep of His pasture” (Psa. 100), but One who enters to call His own sheep by name, forming an individual link through faith, for they hear, each one, His voice, and He leads them out of the Jewish fold. Moreover, there are others who never were in that fold whom equally He must call, establishing with each a personal relationship of faith — quite as really His sheep though found in the corruption of paganism. Together they form one flock.
Apart from the controversy with the Jews, the teaching of this chapter sets forth the new blessing into which Jesus brings His sheep, though still leaving them in a wilderness world.
He is the Shepherd of the sheep, and enters the Jewish fold in the appointed way. Access to souls is given Him, and the sheep hear His voice. He calls His own by name and leads them out. They are thus really detached from Jewish principles and privileges which separated them from others by ordinances in the flesh, and are apparently mingled with the world, but truly separated by faith and attraction of heart to a personal Object. He, when all His own are put forth, goes before them, still guiding them by His voice.
Not understanding this allegory, Jesus sets before them the truth in a more direct form. He is the door of the sheep. The fold is no longer in view; it is simply a question of the sheep and of Him who owns them. All assuming this claim before He came were thieves and robbers; but the sheep remained in the fold. Now they leave it to follow Him. He was the door of the sheep, as the divinely authorized way out of the fold; but He is also the door, or the sole way into the new blessing, where, as its present portion, the soul receives salvation, liberty, and spiritual food.
The fleshly religious guides sought only something for themselves. They were thieves, and were careless of the injury done to souls. Jesus had come to give spiritual life, and that abundantly; but it was necessary also that He should deliver them from the power of evil. This He does, though His life must be laid down for them.
Remark that here the sheep are supposed outside the fold, and amid the dangers of the wilderness. Consequently, the false religious guides are no longer considered as thieves and robbers — their Jewish character — but as serving for wages. To the hireling the sheep do not belong, and he will not adventure his life for wages. The wolf therefore seizes and scatters the sheep. But Jesus is the Good Shepherd; the sheep are His; and He is in the same mutual community of interest with them as there is between the Father and Himself. He loves them and gives His life for them.
Moreover, He had other sheep not of that Jewish fold; these must be brought also and hear His voice. So there should be one flock and one shepherd.
But the wilderness should not last forever. In laying down His life, He would take it again in a way which for Shepherd and sheep would banish evil forever. On this account the Father loves Him, for He laid down His life voluntarily. It was with authority also, and thus He took it again, doing all in perfect obedience to His Father.
As in former instances, the evident reference and obedience to the Father in all things deeply touched the conscience of His hearers (ch. 8:29). So much so, that the Jews challenge Him to say openly if He was the Christ. But the time was past for this. It was the Father’s name, the giving of eternal life, and His oneness with the Father, which were now presented.
His sheep, given Him by His Father, would receive these communications. He owns them, and they follow Him. He gives them eternal life, and they are secured against every evil power, He and the Father being one in their safe-keeping, as in everything.
This again arouses the murderous anger of the Jews. Jesus answers them, “Many good works have I shown you from My Father; for which of them do ye stone Me?” They would have stoned Him as a blasphemer, but even the Scriptures had declared those to be gods who stood for God, and acted on His behalf. How much more was He really entitled to be called the Son of God, seeing that the Father had sanctified and sent Him into the world. The works He did were plainly those of His Father — no mere legal or Jewish or even prophetic signs — and were the display for faith of the actual and divine oneness in nature and being of the Father and the Son, distinct indeed as they are in person.
Again their anger breaks forth against Him. The manifestation of the Father in the Son was intolerable to them. But He avoided them, and went away to the parts where the work of God by John began. In retirement, away from Jerusalem, many came to Him and believed.
The reader will plainly see that the great point of this chapter is to bring out the truth of Christ’s sheep in contrast with Israel as Jehovah’s flock. Instruction how important! for us now as well as for them. The Father gave them to Jesus. It was not ordinances nor natural birth, but the Father’s electing grace which constituted them His sheep. He would therefore call them, and they would come to Him, whether from the Jewish fold out of which He would lead them, or from the outside Gentiles. Coming to Him, the two should form but one company, not a national one, or distinguished by earthly privileges and promises, or relationship in the flesh with God, but one flock formed out of Jew and Gentile alike, by personal faith in the Shepherd and obedience to Him. This supposed the death of Jesus, without which the Gentile could not be called into the one flock.
How precious is this instruction! Supremely necessary for that day as for this, setting forth, as it does, the form on earth which the new Christian blessing would take.
Then Jesus reveals the motive which filled His heart on laying down His life, and its results for the sheep in taking it again. He gives them eternal life, they shall never perish, and none shall pluck them out of His and His Father’s hand.
It will be noticed that all this is of pure grace and electing love, giving life — not light and responsibility, but the one flock — eternal life, and security, and the Father revealed in the Son. It is true the wilderness and its dangers still exist, but, in contrast with the hopeless and lost state under law, the sheep are led, fed, and safeguarded by One who knows, and loves, and keeps them to the end. Christ is presented as the Good Shepherd, and the saints are those who follow Him, aroused in conscience and attracted in heart by the Word which thus reveals Him.