Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

 ¹³  “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.

 ¹⁴  “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,

 ¹⁵  even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father;  and I lay down My life for the sheep.

 ¹⁶  “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold;  I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice;  and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

 ¹⁷  “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.

 ¹⁸  “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I received from My Father.”  John 10:11-18.

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This is the central message of this text.  “I lay down My life for the sheep.”

So, what does Jesus state about this central message?

First, Jesus states:  “I am the good shepherd;  the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”  Jesus defines a good shepherd as One who lays down His life for the sheep.  In other words, the most important thing that Jesus does for us is not guide us nor provide for us nor even protect us.  The most important thing that Jesus does for us is lay down His life for us, that is, atone for our sins by His perfect sacrifice performed by His shedding of His blood and death on the cross.

Second, Jesus informs us that this is a limited or particular atonement by His words:  “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold;  I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice;  and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”  These are Jesus’ sheep.  Jesus laid down his life for His sheep, not all the sheep.

Third, Jesus reveals that He voluntarily lays down His life for the sheep on His own initiative.  “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.  He also states:  “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  Matthew 26:53.  This statement assures us of Jesus’ love for us, His sheep.  Jesus did not lay down His life for us only out of a sense of compulsion or obligation or duty.

In conclusion, these three points combine to reveal the depth of Jesus’ love for us.  Jesus does what is most important for us.  Jesus loves us with a special and particular love like the love a husband has for His wife.  Jesus, Himself, loves us;  He voluntarily laid down His life for us on His own initiative.  

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;  and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:14-19.