Scripture Reading: John 10:1-39
In the foregoing chapter we saw from John 10 the significance of the sheep (vv. 3-5, 27), the sheepfold (vv. 1, 16), the thieves and robbers (vv. 1, 8), and the door of the sheep (vv. 2, 7, 9). Let us now go on to consider other signs in this chapter of the Gospel of John.
The good Shepherd is Christ, who laid down His psuche life for His sheep so that they may have the zoe life and may have it abundantly (vv. 2, 10-11, 14-15, 17-18). In 10:11 the Lord Jesus said concerning Himself, “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” In verse 14 the Lord went on to say, “I am the good Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me.” As the good Shepherd, the Lord laid down His life on behalf of the sheep. Today the Lord is still our Shepherd.
It is important for us to realize that the Lord shepherds us not in the way of outward activity but that He shepherds us inwardly in the way of life. This means that the Lord shepherds us from within. Inwardly, we have Him as our Shepherd, as a Shepherd of life and in life. How does the Lord Jesus shepherd us? He shepherds us in life.
Verse 10 proves that the Lord Jesus shepherds us in the way of life: “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” The Lord Jesus is the good Shepherd to impart Himself as life to us. He laid down His psuche life so that the sheep may have His zoe life, and now He is shepherding us in the way of life.
We thank the Lord that Christ is our Shepherd and that we all are His sheep. Now we need to see that the Lord shepherds us by being life to us from within. We enjoy His shepherding when we live by Him as our life. On the one hand, the Lord lives in us. On the other hand, we live in Him, by Him, with Him, and through Him. When we live in the Lord in this way, we are under His shepherding. As we are under the Lord’s shepherding, there will be a life consciousness within us and also an instruction, a guidance, in life. The life within us, which is actually Christ Himself, will indicate that the Lord intends to lead us in a certain way. For example, a young brother may want to participate in a certain form of worldly entertainment. However, through the life consciousness within him he may realize that the Lord is not leading him to do that. This life consciousness with its leading and instruction is an indication that this brother is under the Lord’s shepherding.
The sisters need to experience Christ’s shepherding in their shopping. Shopping can be perilous. Suppose a sister is eager for the opportunity to go shopping on a coming Saturday. The peril is that in her shopping she may fail to be in Christ and fail to be under His shepherding. Throughout the week this sister may remain under the Lord’s shepherding. But while she is shopping on Saturday, she may come out from under this shepherding. Then on the Lord’s Day morning she may struggle to come back to the Lord, seeking mercy and grace from Him. In her shopping she lived in herself and by herself; she did not live in, with, by, and through the Lord. In a very real sense, she was her own shepherd, and she shepherded herself in an unruly way.
The real Shepherd is the living Christ. As our Shepherd, the Lord not only gives us life — He also is life to us. The living of the Lord within us is actually His living shepherding. Hence, the Lord Jesus shepherds us by being life to us and by living in us.
We need to use verse 10 as the key to interpreting every matter in chapter 10. In this verse the Lord said that He came that we may have life, the divine life, and that we may have it abundantly. This life is related to the door, the Shepherd, and the pasture. As long as we have Christ as life within us and we enjoy and experience Him as life, we will have Him as the door, the Shepherd, and the pasture. The door will be our freedom, and the pasture will be our life supply.
The Shepherd, who is life to us, leads us, guides us, and directs us in everything. Therefore, we should not be directed by anything outward but instead should be directed inwardly by Christ who is life to us. This Christ is our Shepherd, our Guide.
In 10:9 the Lord said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved and shall go in and go out and shall find pasture.” The pasture here signifies Christ as the feeding place for the sheep. When the pasture is not available in the wintertime or in the night, the sheep must be kept in the fold. When the pasture is ready, there is no further need for the sheep to remain in the fold. To be kept in the fold is transitory and temporary. To be in the pasture to enjoy its riches is final and permanent. Before Christ came, the law was a ward, and to be under the law was transitory. Now, since Christ has come, all God’s chosen people must come out of the law and come into Him to enjoy Him as their pasture (Gal. 3:23-25; 4:3-5). This should be final and permanent.
The pasture is a place full of tender grass; that is, a pasture is a place full of the supply of life. When the sheep are in the pasture, they do not lack food. Today our pasture is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit. In our daily Christian life we need to have the definite realization that we are in the pasture enjoying Christ as the rich supply of life.
Christ is our door, our Shepherd, and our pasture. As the door, He is our freedom, and as the Shepherd, He is leading, guiding, and directing us in life. Now we see that as the pasture Christ is our life supply. Day by day we need to enjoy Christ as our pasture.
The Lord in this chapter also unveiled to us that besides the Jewish believers as His sheep kept under the ward of law He has other sheep, which are not of the Jewish fold, which are God’s chosen people among the Gentiles and which He must bring in (v. 16a). At that time this word was a prophecy that was fulfilled in Acts when Peter went to preach the gospel to the household of Cornelius, who were Romans (Acts 10), and when Paul went to preach the gospel to the Gentile world (Acts 13). Through the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, many were saved unto the Lord out of different tongues, and they all became the Lord’s sheep.
The Lord first called and brought His Jewish believers out of the fold of the Jewish religion, and after Pentecost He saved and brought many Gentile believers out of the Gentile world to make them all, both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers, one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd (John 10:16b). This one flock is the one, universal church, the one Body of Christ (Eph. 2:14-16; 3:6). It no longer belongs to the Jewish fold or to the Gentile world but stands by itself as the church of Christ set apart from the Jews and the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32).
The Lord went on to say that His sheep hear His voice, and He knows them, and they follow Him; and He gives to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever (John 10:27-28). Eternal life is the uncreated life of God, which the Lord released through His death (12:24) and imparted into every one of His believers through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). As this is the eternal life that lasts forever, so whoever possesses it shall by no means perish forever, that is, for eternity.
In John 10:28 the Lord continued, “No one shall snatch them out of My hand.” This speaks of the Lord’s hand. His hand indicates the keeping power of the divine life.
In the New Testament the divine power, the divine strength, is related to grace. When Paul prayed for the removal of the thorn, the Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). This indicates clearly that, according to the New Testament, strength is equal to grace. As we have mentioned a number of times, grace is God in Christ as our enjoyment. This powerful grace is the hand that holds us and preserves us. Therefore, the hand of Christ is actually the grace of Christ. We are upheld by Christ’s grace.
Many Christians know from reading John 10:28 that they are held by Christ’s hand, but they may not realize what this hand is. Some may say, “The Lord is almighty, and He is able to preserve us in all circumstances.” Yes, the Lord is almighty, but sometimes it seems that His hand does not keep us from certain things. For example, the Lord’s hand may not keep a sister from spending too much time in shopping, or keep a brother from participating in a certain form of worldly entertainment. How can we be preserved from such things? Actually, we are preserved not by the mighty Christ but by the Christ of grace. This grace is the Christ who is the life we enjoy. This means that if we enjoy the Lord’s shepherding in life, in this life there will be a power to keep us from being snatched away by Satan.
Many of us would admit that in the past it seemed that we were kept away from the Lord by certain things. When we examine our experience, we will realize that we were kept away from the Lord whenever we were not enjoying Christ as our life supply. Whenever we fail to enjoy Christ inwardly as our life supply, in a practical way we are not in the Lord’s keeping hand. Then the subtle one comes in and keeps us away. But when we enjoy Christ as life and are under His shepherding in life as we lie in the pasture and feed on the rich Christ, we are protected in the Lord’s hand of grace. Then nothing can snatch us away. We are preserved not by the almighty God; we are preserved by Christ, the life-giving Spirit, who is our life. As we enjoy Him and remain under His shepherding, we are kept in His hand.
In verse 29 the Lord spoke concerning the Father’s hand: “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” The hand of the Father, who is greater than all, signifies the keeping power of the divine love.
Elsewhere we have pointed out that grace and love are not two separate matters but are two aspects of one thing. Love is in the Father. When this love reaches us in the Son, it becomes grace. When through grace we return to the Father, we enjoy His love.
Both grace and love are a matter of the Triune God being our life and enjoyment. As we enjoy Christ as our grace, we need to come to the Father, whose love is the source of grace. When we enjoy Christ as our grace, and then through this grace we contact God the Father as the source of grace, we experience love. The Father with His love is also the source of life, and the Son is the course of life. We may enjoy both the source and the course, for we may enjoy both the love of the Father and the grace of Christ.
Both the Son’s hand of grace and the Father’s hand of love are of the divine life. In the Father the divine life is the source, and in the Son this life is the course. In the Father the divine life is love, and in the Son the divine life is grace. Because we enjoy both the Son and the Father, we enjoy both grace and love. Therefore, we are in the course, and we are also touching the source. The result is that we are preserved, and nothing can snatch us out of these two hands, out of the Son’s hand of grace and the Father’s hand of love.
We sometimes sing of the glorious church life. However, for some of the saints the church life may be glorious at certain times, and at other times their church life may be gloomy. The reason is that these saints do not adequately enjoy Christ as life to be their door, their Shepherd, and their life supply. Because they do not have sufficient enjoyment of Christ in the way of life, they do not always have the Lord’s hand of grace and the Father’s hand of love upholding them in a practical way. If we do not enjoy Christ as grace, we will not be able to go to the Father and touch Him as love. Then in our experience we will be deprived of both the Son’s hand and the Father’s hand. As a result, it will be easy for us to be kept away by the enemy.
We all need to be protected in the hand of Christ’s grace and the hand of the Father’s love. When we are kept in grace and in love, nothing can snatch us away.
Chapter 10 of the Gospel of John reveals that Christ must be everything to us. We should not have anything religious in our daily walk. On the contrary, we need to be wholly out of religion. As the blind man was cast out of Judaism, we need to be completely away from the elements of religion. To the blind man Christ became everything. Christ was his door, his Shepherd, his pasture, and the hand that preserved him.
John 10:22 says, “At that time the Feast of the Dedication occurred in Jerusalem, and it was winter.” In the foregoing chapter we pointed out that the Feast of the Dedication, also known as the Feast of Lights, commemorated the restoration and purification of the temple. During this feast, lamps were lighted in the temple and in the homes of the Jewish people. The Feast of the Dedication signifies Christ as the cleanser of God’s temple (see 2:14-16; Matt. 21:12-13) and the light (John 9:5) of God’s people. If we would have Christ as the One who cleanses the temple and as the light of God’s people, we need to have Him as our life.
We all are temples of God (1 Cor. 6:19). However, because there is still some defilement in us, we need to be purified. The One who cleanses God’s people is the Christ who is life to us. If we experience Christ as life, we will have Him as light and also as the purifier of God’s temple. Then in our experience He will purify us from all pollution and defilement, and we will become a purified temple for God’s expression.
If we are enlightened as we read and pray-read John 10, we will see that nothing religious is useful in serving a spiritual purpose. We need the living One, Jesus Christ, to be our life in every way. If we have Him as life, He will be our door, our Shepherd, and our pasture. If we have Him as life, we will also have the keeping hands of the Son and the Father. Then we will remain in Him and enjoy Him as everything. We will have light, and we will be purified to be God’s temple for His expression in His light. This is the revelation in chapter 10. We need to enjoy all these matters through pray-reading the Word with our spirit so that we may be fully released from the fold and from every element of religion and enjoy Christ as life in every way. Then we will be full of light, and we will be cleansed to be a temple for God’s expression.
