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The Divine Shepherd
This chapter is based on John 10:1-30.
“I am the good shepherd. ... And I lay down My life for the
sheep.”
John 10:14, 15
.
Jesus found access to His hearers by the pathway of their fa-
miliar associations. In a beautiful picture of sheep and shepherd,
He represents His relationship to those who believe on Him. No
picture was more familiar to His hearers than this. Remembering
the Savior’s lesson, the disciples would see Christ in each faithful
shepherd and themselves in each helpless, dependent flock.
The Pharisees had just driven one from the fold because he dared
to bear witness to the power of Christ. They had cut off someone
whom the True Shepherd was drawing to Himself. In doing this they
had shown themselves unworthy of their trust as shepherds of the
flock. Now Jesus pointed to Himself as the real Keeper of the Lord’s
flock.
“He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who
enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” When the Pharisees
reasoned silently about what He meant, Jesus told them plainly, “I
am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go
in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal,
and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and
that they may have it more abundantly.”
Christ is the door to the fold of God. From earliest times, all
His children have found entrance through this door. Whether in
shadowy symbols, or disclosed in the revelation of the prophets, or
unveiled in the lessons Jesus gave to His disciples and in miracles,
they have seen “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world.”
John 1:29
. People have devised ceremonies and systems by
which they hope to receive justification and peace with God. But
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