v. 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
v. 28 “And I give them eternal life, and never shall they perish to the age, and never will anyone seize them out of My hand.v. 29 “My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to seize them out of the Father’s hand.v. 30 “I and the Father are one.”
(John 10.27–30, Berean Literal Bible[1])
Believers, here identified in John’s Gospel as Christ’s sheep, are those persons hearing and following the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son. The sheep of Christ are promised eschatological salvation and spiritual pasture (vv. 9, 10b). He is the virtuous shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (vv. 11, 15, 17–18).
Conversely, the spiritually blind leaders of the day, namely the Pharisees,[2] are likened by Jesus to thieves and robbers who kill and destroy (vv. 1, 8, 10a); strangers whom the sheep will not listen to or follow (vv. 5, 8b); and cowardly hirelings who flee at the sight of a wolf, leaving the sheep entrusted to their care to fend for themselves (vv. 12–13).The Father and the Son, unified in the divine essence, are unified also in their purpose to guard believers. Those who are hearing and following Jesus Christ are safe in their hands. They cannot and will not be captured or stolen away by any external person or force: human or angelic, visible or invisible, natural or supernatural.
But seeing, however, as spiritual safety is only to be found under the watchful care of the Good Shepherd, if one were to cease hearing and following Christ, s/he would no longer be a sheep belonging to him, and thus forfeit all of the benefits associated with being in a positive relationship with him.
The possibility of an individual who had once been united to Christ subsequently breaching that union is not left unconsidered in the Gospel of John. Employing horticultural imagery, the Lord himself explicitly states, ‘“If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned”’ (15.6, CSB[3]).
Conclusion
The good news is that the hearers and followers of Jesus are his sheep, and they will assuredly never perish whilst in his hand. The danger is that we lose Christ, not Christ lose us. We need not distrust God, but ourselves. Salvational security is not to be discovered in an unknowable, hidden divine decree of unconditional election or the incapacitation of believers’ wills to forsake Christ and reclaim the world.[4] Rather, security of salvation rests ultimately upon God’s promise of redemption in Christ Jesus: ‘“Everyone believing on Him will not be put to shame”’ (Rom. 10.11).
Notes
1. Unless otherwise noted, all scriptural references in this article are taken from the Berean Literal Bible (2016). (This translation may be accessed by utilising the following link: <https://literalbible.com>.)2. See John 9, especially verse 40. John 10 contains a discourse following the religious leaders’ denunciation and casting out of the synagogue a man who had been born visually impaired but miraculously granted sight by the Lord Jesus. This unjust repudiation of the (formerly) blind man from fellowship in the synagogue was a result of the religious leaders’ rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth (see Jn 9.22).
3. Christian Standard Bible (2017).
4. Contra Calvinistic theology, which denies the resistibility of divine grace in the conversion of the elect from conception (initial salvation) to completion (final salvation).
Copyright © J. D. Gallรฉ, 2019, 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.
Copyright © J. D. Gallรฉ, 2019, 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.
Latest revisions: minor grammatical correction made in par. 3 (8 May 2021); altered conjunction in n. 2 (19 Oct. 2021); slightly emended n. 2 (26 Dec. 2021); added one comma in par. 1; slightly modified par. 2 and n. 2; added n. 4; altered punctuation in one place in par. 6; modified one phrase in par. 6 (12 Feb. 2022); modified the formatting for opening scriputral citation (18 Sept. 2022).
