CHRIST TELLS US, I AM THE GOOD SHEPERD Learn the Truth of These Words Spoken by Our Lord, Jesus Christ. And Write it On the Tablets of Your Heart, for Now and Evermore.......John Chapter 10: 1 - 18 , 2. He that entereth not by the door--the legitimate way (without saying what that was, as yet). into the sheepfold--the sacred enclosure of Gods true people. climbeth up some other way--not referring to the assumption of ecclesiastical office without an external call, for those Jewish rulers, specially aimed at, had this ( Matthew 23:2 ), but to the want of a true spiritual commission, the seal of heaven going along with the outward authority; it is the assumption of the spiritual guidance of the people without this that is meant. 2. he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep--a true, divinely recognized shepherd. 3. To him the porter openeth--that is, right of free access is given, by order of Him to whom the sheep belong, and the sheep, hear His voice..... This and all that follows, though it admits of important application to every faithful shepherd of Gods flock, is in its direct and highest sense true only of the great Shepherd of the sheep, who in the first five verses seems plainly, under the simple character of a true shepherd. 7-14. I am the door of the sheep--that is, the way in to the fold, with all blessed privileges, both for shepherds and sheep (compare John 14:6 , Ephesians 2:18 ). 8. All that ever came before me--the false prophets; not as claiming the prerogatives of Messiah, but as perverters of the people from the way of life. The sheep did not hear them--the instinct of their divinely taught hearts preserving them from seducers, and attaching them to the heaven-sent prophets, of whom it is said that the Spirit of Christ was in them ( 1 Peter 1:11 ). 9. By me if any man enter in--whether shepherd or sheep. shall be saved--the great object of the pastoral office, as of all the divine arrangements towards mankind. and shall go in and out and find pasture--in, as to a place of safety and repose; out, as to green pastures and still waters ( Psalms 23:2 ) for nourishment and refreshing, and all this only transferred to another clime, and enjoyed in another manner, at the close of this earthly scene ( Revelation 7:17 ). 10. I am come that they might have life, and . . . more abundantly--not merely to preserve but impart LIFE, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. What a claim! Yet it is only an echo of all His teaching; and He who uttered these and like words must be either a blasphemer, all worthy of the death He died, or God with us--there can be no middle course. 11. I am the good shepherd--emphatically, and, in the sense intended, exclusively so ( Isaiah 40:11 , Ezekiel 34:23 , 37:24 , Zechariah 13:7 ). the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep--Though this may be said of literal shepherds, who, even for their brute flock, have, like David, encountered the lion and the bear at the risk of their own lives, and still more of faithful pastors who, like the early bishops of Rome, have been the foremost to brave the fury of their enemies against the flock committed to their care; yet here, beyond doubt, it points to the struggle which was to issue in the willing surrender of the Redeemers own life, to save His sheep from destruction. 12. An hireling . . . whose own the sheep are not--who has no property, in them. By this He points to His own peculiar relation to the sheep, the same as His Fathers, the great Proprietor and Lord of the flock, who styles Him My Shepherd, the Man that is My Fellow ( Zechariah 13:7 ), and though faithful under-shepherds are so in their Masters interest, that they feel a measure of His own concern for their charge, the language is strictly applicable only to the Son over His own house ( Hebrews 3:6 ). seeth the wolf coming--not the devil distinctively, as some take it, but generally whoever comes upon the flock with hostile intent, in whatever form: though the wicked one, no doubt, is at the bottom of such movements.. 14. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep--in the peculiar sense of 2 Timothy 2:19 . am known of mine--the souls response to the voice that has inwardly and efficaciously called it; for of this mutual loving acquaintance ours is the effect of His. The Redeemers knowledge of us is the active element, penetrating us with His power and life; that of believers is the passive principle, the reception of His life and light. In this reception, however, an assimilation of the soul to the sublime object of its knowledge and love takes place; and thus an activity, though a derived one, is unfolded, which shows itself in obedience to His commands. From this mutual knowledge Jesus rises to another and loftier reciprocity of knowledge. 15-18. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father--What claim to absolute equality with the Father could exceed this? and I lay down my life for the sheep--How sublime this, immediately following the lofty claim of the preceding clause! It is the riches and the poverty of the Word made flesh--one glorious Person reaching at once up to the Throne and down even to the dust of death, that we might live through Him. A candid interpretation of the words, for the sheep, ought to go far to establish the special relation of the vicarious death of Christ to the Church. 16. Other sheep I have . . . not of this fold: them also I must bring--He means the perishing Gentiles, already His sheep in the love of His heart and the purpose of His grace to bring them in due time. they shall hear my voice--This is not the language of mere foresight that they would believe, but the expression of a purpose to draw them to Himself by an inward and efficacious call, which would infallibly issue in their spontaneous accession to Him. and there shall be one fold--rather one flock (for the word for fold, as in the foregoing verses, is quite different) (This is the Church)..... 17. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, &c.--As the highest act of the Sons love to the Father was the laying down of His life for the sheep at His commandment, so the Fathers love to Him as His incarnate Son reaches its consummation, and finds its highest justification, in that sublimest and most affecting of all acts. that I might take it again--His resurrection-life being indispensable to the accomplishment of the fruit of His death. 18. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again--It is impossible for language more plainly and emphatically to express the absolute voluntariness of Christs death, such a voluntariness as it would be manifest presumption in any mere creature to affirm of his own death. It is beyond all doubt the language of One who was conscious that His life was His own (which no creatures is), and therefore His to surrender or retain at will. Here lay the glory of His sacrifice, that it was purely voluntary. The claim of power to take it again is no less important, as showing that His resurrection, though ascribed to the Father, in the sense we shall presently see, was nevertheless His own assertion of His own right to life as soon as the purposes of His voluntary death were accomplished. This commandment--to lay down His--life, that He might take it again. have I received of my Father--So that Christ died at once by command of His Father, and by such a voluntary obedience to that command as has made Him (so to speak) infinitely dear to the Father. The necessity of Christs death, in the light of these profound sayings, must be manifest to all that claim to know, love and obey Christ, which is our reasonable service.....Sr. Pastor Eddie Green, Administrator of the group, New Testament Analysis. God bless you all, Now and Forevermore.......
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:25:34 +0000
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