5. I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
(Continued from page 274.)
Christ as the Good Shepherd is introduced to us in connection with one distinctive and all important act, that of laying down His life for the sheep. This places Him in strong contrast with the hireling who is not concerned about their welfare, and flees when the wolf comes.
We have seen Christ as the True Shepherd enter by the door, and thus become "the Door" to liberty and blessing for His sheep whether it be those who were taken from the fold, or the others who must be brought and added to their number. But if, as the Shepherd, He leads them from all that in which they are held, whether that be the Jewish fold, or the place of alienation and condemnation of the Gentile, it devolves upon Him to meet the conditions connected with that out of which He delivers them. Both Jew and Gentile came under the ban of the broken law. The Jew had been put under it and failed; thus its curse of death rested upon him. The Gentile had not been put under it, but the same sentence of death fell upon him as the wages of sin. " So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned:" and this according to God's righteousness. Such was the position occupied by the sheep. That they may have life "the Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep." Thus He met and fully answered the conditions under which they were in utter helplessness. It is this supreme act of devotion that calls out the Father's love. But not simply because He laid down His life, but because He did this that He might take it again. He has become the representative of the sheep in death, but this He does that He may take up His life again and thus by reason of the death endured, acquire the right to communicate His life,-the eternal-to His sheep who were under death. They who had no title to life are given it by the Good Shepherd. In this way God was fully glorified, and a righteous way found for the full expression of His grace and love. The Father's love was called out to Him who in blessed obedience to His will carried out to perfection His purposes and counsels.
This involves community of life and nature for those to whom life has thus been given. It is this which finds expression in the Lord's words, " I am the Good Shepherd, and know those that are mine, and those that are mine know Me." None know Him except the sheep, as He tells the Jews a little later. There is the blessed bond of a common life uniting them in the blessed intimacy of mutual knowledge. The divine illustration of it which He gives is His own relation with the Father:" Even as the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father." This naturally evolves from the fact that He and the Father are one. And likewise with the sheep, the mutual knowledge which exists between them and Himself results from the glorious truth that the Good Shepherd and the sheep are one, linked eternally together by the possession of one life. But let us follow the parallelism. "I . . . know those that are Mine . . . even as the Father knoweth Me." The Father's knowledge is infinite, divine. How blessed to know that our Good Shepherd knows us with like knowledge. Nothing, therefore, hid from Him. Nothing can escape His loving, tender eye. We cannot fail to be the objects of His watchful solicitude and care. He is the Word of God, quick and powerful, in whose sight every creature is manifest, all things being naked and open unto Him. But He is also our Great High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been tempted in all things in like manner to us, sin apart (Heb. 4:, 12, 15).
" And those that are Mine know Me; even as … I know the Father." Not in degree, of course, but in character. He dwelt in His Father's bosom and knew His heart well. So do we know the heart of our Shepherd. The life He has communicated possesses that knowledge of Him, and the indwelling Spirit develops it and gives it power to increase. He shall guide into all truth:He shall not speak from Himself:He will announce what is coming:He shall glorify Christ, for He receives of His and announces it to us (John 16:14, 15). Thus we have been given a Divine Communicant of this wondrous knowledge. And unless we have Him, the Spirit of Christ, we are none of His. It is divine life, with its divine knowledge that has been given to the sheep by the Good Shepherd. How great is our present deficiency in our measure of knowing Christ! How much there is which comes in to hinder and mar. In connection with this we have His "rod and staff." Failure becomes the opportunity for His loving ministry, as our sorrow and pain for His care and merciful provision for our need. But it is blessed to be able in faith to look forward to that time when we shall no more see through a glass, darkly, but face to face; not more as now know in part only, but know even as we are known. Underlying all this, and as the assurance of its fulfilment, is the faithfulness and devotion of the Good Shepherd." And I lay down My life for the sheep."The blessed knowledge He has been speaking of is really the full and glorious end to which we are being led,-the pasture-land of eternity. But on the path that leads thither the wolf will seek to seize and scatter the sheep. Thus often we find and experience the assault of the great enemy of our souls, and often he scatters the sheep of Christ. He may scatter, but he can never seize and hold them in his grasp to drag them down to condemnation. He may accuse the brethren before heaven's Throne, but his charges cannot avail against-what? the life laid down for the poor foolish wandering sheep by which they are free forever from condemnation and judgment. In that life sacrificed is the security of God's throne from any charge of unrighteousness or unholiness in saving such poor sheep. And therein lies their security also. The power of the enemy cannot prevail." I give unto them eternal life; and they shall in no wise perish; and no one shall seize them out of My hand."The enemy may for a season have the privilege to sift the sheep, and even succeed in scattering them, but never seize them out of the hand of the Good Shepherd. The Father gave them to Him, and to secure this gift beyond all possible loss He laid down His life that He might take it again. Thus He fathomed the awful, lost condition of the sheep in death that He might raise them up with Himself in the life which He had power to take up again.
Still further assurance is given:"And no one is able to seize them out of the Father's hand." Truly,
we are kept by the power of God (i Peter 1.5). The added fact that He and the Father are one seals the truth that "He is able to save completely those who approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them" (Heb. 7:25).
In view of this blessed security in which we stand what need to fear ? God is for us, who can be against us ? We are to enter into the joy and triumph of victors through the Lord Jesus Christ. The path faith is called to tread is not an easy one; but who shall measure the love, the sympathy, the care of our Good Shepherd ? His rod and staff comfort. Shall we dare to doubt His every act to be one of love and grace when His devotion has been proved in death ? May God in His grace grant us more simplicity in such things. Here under this fourth title naturally comes our wilderness walk and what its character should be as bearing relation to Him who is the Good Shepherd of the sheep. It is in the wilderness and in creature weakness we learn to know Christ in this, His essential character in relation to the path of faith down here. In it is involved not only His work as the Saviour, but also that of Advocate and High Priest.
Let us put this inquiry to our hearts:In what measure do we answer to the devotion and love of our Good Shepherd ? Surely in all things we ought to be consecrated to Him – separated from all that which is not under His leading; our communion and joy only with Himself and His interests. May the experience and blessing of this be ours in the simplicity of faith to His praise and glory. J. B. Jr.