“He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Door there is God’s appointed way, through humiliation and death. He entered in by the door into the fold, that He might lead His own sheep out. Christ entered into the fold by God’s appointed way; then became the door Himself; was the appointed way for the sheep, to lead them out—lead them in, too; but out from the fold—Judaism. He goes before His sheep, not a sheep Himself, but treads the path first that they have to follow; He is the first to tread it, and the sheep know His voice and follow Him.
Who are the strangers? Those who rose up pretending to be beliverers like Theudas and Judas, that Gamaliel speaks of, but the sheep did not follow them. Some such pretended deliverers rose up continually, almost every year, and led away people to their destruction, working on their passions at being under a Gentile King. That is why they asked the Lord, seeking to tempt Him, if it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not. God had said they should not have a Gentile King to reign over them, they were under one now, for their sin, and such as Theudas and Judas rose up in rebellion.
Dependence and obedience marked the Lord’s path. Prayer and the Word are the expressions of these; prayer is the expression of dependence on God, and obedience to the Word is the expression of obedience to God. “By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer” (Psa. 17:44Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. (Psalm 17:4)).
What is the meaning of “By me if any man enter in.” Enter in where? Oh, wherever He takes us. We go in by Him wherever He leads the way.
What is it to go in and out and find pasture? That is liberty. A Jew could not go out of the fold, the fold was the place of safety. You cannot get pasture in a fold, properly speaking, you must go out to find it. A fold really was like a prison to save them from wild beasts, with walls high enough to prevent the wild beasts from jumping over. So this verse 9 is salvation, liberty, and pasture.
What is having life more abundantly? Why, there is a great difference, is there not, between being quickened merely, and knowing that we are united to Christ, quickened together with Him, raised and seated with Him?
Do you think the Old Testament saints knew they had eternal life? No; I think this verse 10 is actually fulfilled in the difference between the Old and New Testament saints. He comes that they might have life, and then He says it is this abundant life they get through Him. But what about David and his expressions in Psa. 16? I think many of them, David, Job, Abraham, &c., had God as an object—trust in God, desire after His favor, obedience to God—all the elements of divine life, but I do not think they knew they had eternal life. Eternal life is only mentioned twice in the Old Testament, and both times in connection with the Millennium (Dan. 12, and Psa. 133). Life and incorruptibility were brought to light by the gospel. God quickened souls from Adam on, but that is a different thing from saying eternal life was revealed. We have authority to say it was brought to light by the gospel—did not begin with the gospel, of course. It is a different thing Christ quickening me, and my being quickened together with Him, my being dead with Him, and raised with Him as a man, and then identified with Him as a man in heavenly glory. I see Christ as a dead man, and God taking us both up and quickening us together, that is very different from Christ as God quickening me. He bore my sins, was laid in the grave; God could not leave Him there, and He brought me up with Him, because my sins were gone, for He had borne them, and God puts us in glory together.
The Jew could not go into God’s presence at all, because the veil was there, hence the Son comes, then relationship comes in, then it is there we get the authority to become sons. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Duties flow from relationships, the salvation that has made you safe has put you into relationship with God, and you must behave yourself as becomes that relationship. The Jew had not got the relationship, not merely was not enjoying it; many a Christian now is not enjoying it, but every Christian has it; eternal life is to know the Father; to know Jehovah was not eternal life; to know the Almighty God was not eternal life, but to know the Father sending the Son was eternal life.
God was dealing with the Jew on the ground of his responsibility to Himself; the law was the measure of this. I doubt not, for an instant, their being quickened—they could not be in the kingdom without—but in the Old Testament you never get the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. No doubt there was lust in the heart, and yet desires after God, and obedience to Him. Where they had faith they got hold of this that, “not to themselves, but to us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost, sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:1212Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:12)).
Verses 14, 15. Our version has spoiled it here: the verses should read, “I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and as I know the Father.” It means, I know My sheep and My sheep know Me in the same way as My Father knows Me and I know Him. In John you get the divine side of Christ, no agony in Gethsemane, no crying out on the cross, He gives up His life for the sheep, no man takes it from Him, He gives it up.
It is one flock and one Shepherd, not one fold. Other sheep I have, not of this fold, i.e., Gentiles. You never get the Church in John; the Church, properly speaking, are those that are united to Christ in heaven. You get the individuals who form the Church, but you do not get the Church, you never get them un-individualized!
Now, there is a wonderful verse, I think there is nothing like it in Scripture. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again.” That is, in Christ’s laying down His life, and taking it again, there was such excellency that there was a motive for God’s loving Him; you get nothing like it in Scripture. No one could taste death to the extent that the Prince of Life could, and did. Here was One outside death, who goes into it for His Father’s glory, and gives a motive to God for loving Him—it is wonderful! In death, the very weakness of sin (death is absolute weakness—nothing else so powerless), in that there was such power, such excellency, that it gave God a new motive for loving Him. It is a wonderful thing when once we have got peace to see it as between God and Christ alone. The Lord had His own lot in it, as well as the people’s lot—our sins put away, too, blessed be God, that is one part, but it is the bringing out of all that God was in His perfect hatred against sin and perfect love to the sinner; that is only brought out on the Cross, and He gave Himself up to it; it was not insensibility—knowing it all, He gave Himself up. “This commandment have I received of my Father,” it was perfect obedience. You never get the Lord getting out of His perfect manhood in John; you see the divinity coming out of every sentence almost, but always in perfect obedience.
The only time that seems like going from it, is, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up,” but when He speaks of laying down His life and taking it again it is, “This commandment have I received of my Father” —you get the perfect obedience as well as the Divinity.