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Observe what Christ says —

I. OF LAYING DOWN HIS LIFE.

1. No mere man could have said this. Power over life is God's prerogative. To none but the Son has He "given to have life in Himself"; and power "to take it again" is manifestly not ours. But we must not separate this claim from His obedience. Christ knows no power but to do the Father's will.

2. Much of our metaphysics is here silenced. Is obedience free if we are not also free to disobey? The truest liberty is voluntary restraint. The freedom of obedience is learned as we love to obey. The fullest consciousness of power is that of power to do God's will.

3. Christ's assertion of power is intended to illustrate His obedience. "I lay down My life of Myself." He could have withdrawn Himself from the people, or by yielding to their prejudices have won them. He could have awed them, as He did the soldiers, by His majestic presence. He had power over men's consciences, as was seen in the case of the Pharisees who brought the woman taken in adultery, and in the case of Pilate. The concealed aid of heaven was at His bidding. But more than all this was the strength of His submission. He speaks of His power to show how full was His obedience.

4. We have here an awful revelation of the powerlessness of sin. The Jews were simply tolerated, ignorant of the power that restrained itself. So with all sinners. But Christ was thus patient that when they had done their worst He might be their Saviour.

5. The chief truth here is the fulness of Christ's obedience. The consciousness that we might escape would be to us a motive for disobedience. We are kept submissive by weakness. He speaks not of power to avoid the sacrifice but to make it.

II. OF THY FATHER'S LOVE.

1. We see the reason of this partly in Christ's obedience. Here is the oneness of the Father and the Son; the Son rejoices to obey; the Father commits His whole counsel to the Son that He may accomplish it.

2. The commandment was that Christ should lay down His life for the sheep. The Father's love for the Son is not one in which all others are shut out. We read that God did not "rest" in Creation till He had made man in His own image. His love is so bountiful that it forms objects on which to lavish itself. Here we have something more surprising — the pity for lost man which is in the Father, and that pity finding response in the Son. Well was it said that "God is love."

3. Christ tells us why the Father loves Him.

(1) That we may know the men who are dearest to God — not as with us the learned, wealthy, powerful, but the obedient and loving.

(2) That we may understand Christ's life and death. Neither Jews nor disciples could understand the Man of Sorrows. Hence the double proclamation, "This is My beloved Son." How many a reason has been given why Christ must die! But how poor all reasons beside the simple one that He loved us.

(3) In order that we may know God. The object of our affection reveals our. selves. If the man of force be our hero, we show ourselves worshippers of power; if a good man, we prize goodness. Christ is dear to the Father because He loves us. What a witness to the love of God.

III. OF THE ISSUE OF LAYING DOWN HIS LIFE. Christ is to reap the reward of His sacrifice, and we of the travail of His soul.

1. This alone renders His sacrifice lawful or possible, and distinguishes between sublimity of sacrifice, and scornful waste of self. The Father's commandment is not that the Son should perish. The life which is yielded up for the ends of love is restored in the triumph of love.

2. This illustrates the true character of trust in God — the assurance that He is righteous to vindicate fidelity and loving to reward it.

3. It is not love for men which is indifferent about sharing with them the joy of their restoration — this makes any sacrifice an affront. Christ anticipates the joy of leading many sons to glory.

4. Heaven would lose its value if Christ perished to secure it for us. We should feel that our salvation had been too dearly purchased, and the bitter sorrow that He was absent whose joy it would have been to meet His redeemed.

5. To labour in hope of reward is not always selfish. We need the triumph to vindicate the suffering.

6. We learn how to sustain ourselves in Christian struggle and endurance. "If we suffer with Him," etc. The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ is a rebuke to all despondency.

(A. Mackennal, D. D.)

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KJV: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

WEB: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.