but ye do not believe, for ye are not of my sheep, as I told you.
It is winter, and Jesus is in the temple, where a crowd demands a plain answer: is He the Christ? His reply does not blame a lack of evidence; it tells them who they are — so whose fault is their unbelief?
They asked for a plain answer. He pointed back to what He had already said and done in front of them.
In verse 24 they say to Him, "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." He replied, "I told you, and you do not believe." Then He appealed to His works, done in His Father's name. They were the clearest witness to His personal glory, and evidence enough. "But," He said, "you are not among my sheep." The fault was theirs. They had zeal. They made many loud claims to know God. But unbelief had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.
Their question, asked at that moment, told its own story.
He told them who He was, but they did not believe Him. His works bore witness to the same, but they did not believe them either, because they were not of His sheep. The very fact of asking such a question at such a moment was full proof of their spiritual condition.
The words do not read as an excuse handed to the unbeliever. Their refusal is what showed where they stood, and the marks of the real sheep follow immediately.
His answer is plain: He had told them and they disbelieved. Also His works, done in His Father's name, were an unquestionable witness. If there were any doubts, this was their fault, not His. But their unbelief was evidence that they were not of His sheep. For His sheep were subject to Him: they had ears for His voice: He knew them as vitally His own: they followed Him.
Jesus speaks of "My sheep." That group is not the same as the nation.
Jesus had already told them, and they did not believe. He appeals to His works, which bore witness of Him. But they did not believe, because they were not of His sheep. It is only a question of His sheep, of those who belonged to Him, outside the outward election of the people of Israel. Here the Lord takes the occasion to bring out the blessedness of His sheep.
Another writer sets this reason beside the one Jesus gave in John 8.
If the people did not believe the testimony of His works, it was because they were not of His sheep. That was the true reason, and it put an end to all argument on the subject… In chapter 8 He had revealed the real cause of their unbelief in God's words (His own testimonies): "they were not of God." Here He declares they were not His sheep, because they did not believe His words.
These words were not aimed at people far from religion.
Religion is no guarantee that we are His. Those to whom He said, "you are not among my sheep," were prejudiced religious people, connected too with the place of the Lord's name. Jesus said this in the temple, as He walked in Solomon's porch. "It was winter" in more senses than one. They were keeping a religious feast, and they surrounded Him with questions of unbelief…
after They were strangers to the faith that works by love. At heart they were unbelievers, whatever their reasoning may have been.
They looked for signs, and signs beyond counting stood in front of them.
There were works of the same character, and the Jews were in the habit of looking for a sign. If they had looked honestly, they might have seen signs beyond counting or measure. "The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me." What could account for such hardness in any heart? "But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep." A solemn answer to a difficulty, to resistance to truth, to a rejection of Christ — as true now as ever!
The earlier chapters show how the nation reached this point.
In chapter 7 we find their definite rejection of the Lord. In chapter 8 they discredit His words, and in chapter 9 they disallow His work. Then in chapter 10 their "winter" has set in. "You are not among my sheep" was the solemn and dreadful charge pronounced against them. It was all over with the nation. Grace dealt with people one by one, but the nation had set its seal on its own condition.
If they were not His sheep, what is true of those who are?
Here a security is assured that nothing can overturn. Neither inner failure nor outer force could endanger their life. The Father and the Son maintain it, and they were not more truly one in divine nature than in loving care for the sheep.
- Evidence given — Christ had already told them, and His works bore witness. The failure was on their side, not in the proof.
- Evidence refused — their unbelief did not create their condition. It exposed it. The question itself showed where they stood.
- Sheep, not nation — belonging to Christ is personal. It stands outside the outward election of Israel as a nation.
- Religion is no guarantee — those He spoke to were keeping a feast in the temple. They were still strangers to the faith that works by love.
- Winter, or security — the nation sealed its own condition, and winter set in. For His sheep, the Father and the Son together keep their life safe.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand.
Jesus is speaking about His own sheep, and His death is near. Can His sheep lose what He gives? Everything turns on who gives it and whose hand holds it.
The verse opens with a gift. One writer sets that word against what sin pays instead.
Now notice the security of Christ's sheep. First, they have everlasting life. "I give them eternal life." This is His gift. It is in no way earned or deserved. No. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eternal life, then, comes to us as a gift. Christ does not give less. It is not life for a day or a year, but for ever — eternal life.
The word "eternal" is not only about length. It names a particular life, one already seen in the Son on earth.
He gives them eternal life, eternal security, and assures them of divine care. Already the Lord has said that He came to give life to the sheep, and to give it abundantly. Now we learn that the life He gives is "eternal life" — the life that was with the Father and shown in the Person of the Son on earth. The sheep have this life in Christ. It is to be shown in them and enjoyed now, even if they only enter into its fulness when they are with Christ in life's eternal home.
The verse says two things, not one: the life lasts, and the sheep last. One writer explains why that is not mere repetition.
First of all, the life is everlasting. But then it is not merely that the thing itself is eternal — they shall never perish. For it might be claimed that although the life lasts for ever, this depends on something in those who receive it. No: "they will never perish" — the sheep themselves. So not only the life, but those who have it by grace in Christ, shall never perish. Last of all, and crowning everything, their security answers the question of any hostile power… There was no inward source of weakness that could endanger the life, and so there should be no outward power to cause anxiety.
Some agree that no enemy can take a believer away, but say the believer can ruin himself. One writer answers from the exact wording.
Some say that He said "no one can snatch them out of His hand", but we can do it ourselves by living in sin, and so on. The correct rendering of His words answers this fully: "they will never perish." It means literally, "they shall in no way ever perish." This is absolute; it covers everything.
Why can the life not fail? Because of whose life it is.
"I give them eternal life." It is a life that is eternal, not a life to be taken away again… Christ must give eternal life; for if one of His sheep could perish, Christ must perish. And it must be a holy life too that He gives, for the same reason. What Christ gives must be holy, for He is holy. "They will never perish." A sheep is a perishing thing; but His sheep do not perish. There are two points to this security. First, Christ is in them, as their life. Second, they are in His hand… You must find someone more powerful than God, if you can be snatched out of His hand.
The verse puts safety in a hand — His, not ours. One writer pictures the shepherd carrying the found sheep home.
As sheep, our security is the responsibility of our Shepherd. Of each saved sheep it is written, "And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing." The struggle of the sheep would not be to keep on, but to get off. We are not saved by our "holding on". Sheep have no hands to hold on by… So the eternal safety of every sheep is the blessed Lord's own personal responsibility and care.
The promise is huge, but it covers one group: the sheep. One writer warns readers not to claim that comfort too quickly.
These words of our Lord Jesus give us full assurance that His sheep cannot perish. But one must be a sheep — a true believer in Jesus Christ. Someone who claims to be a Christian but has little or no thought for God's claims on his life may not be a sheep at all… His sheep have eternal life.
- Given. The life is a gift, never earned — sin pays wages, Christ gives eternal life.
- Divine. What He gives is the life that was with the Father — ours now, and enjoyed in full at home with Christ.
- Unbreakable. The promise covers both the life and the sheep: no inward weakness ends it, no outward power seizes it.
- Absolute. "They will never perish" means they shall in no way ever perish. That answers every objection, even our own sinning.
- Carried. Sheep have no hands to hold on with. Their keeping is His own responsibility — and the promise belongs to real sheep, true believers in Jesus Christ.
My Father who has given [them] to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father.
In the temple at Solomon's porch, the Jews press Jesus to say whether He is the Christ. He answers by talking about His sheep, and this verse traces their safety past His own hand to the Father who gave them to Him.
The Jews were disputing whether this man had any right to a flock at all. His answer points away from Himself to His Father.
Nothing could answer the Jews' objection about Jesus' rights to the sheep more completely than this: the Father had given them to Him. It is this that makes us so precious to Him that He will never let us perish.
That same gift also says something about the Father's own attachment to them.
We have heard in the sixth chapter of the Father's gift to His Son. Reminded of that here, we learn how secure the sheep must be if His hand keeps them. It also shows how precious they must be to the Father. He will never drop them, or let anyone snatch even one of them out of His hand. And the Father and the Son can never differ in counsel or will about the security of the sheep, now or in the end, for He and the Father are one.
Westcott counts the things that make the sheep safe. The last one on his list is the Father Himself.
The remaining three things are these. (5) They have the assurance that they will never perish. (6) The Lord's own hand protects them. (7) Anyone trying to take them would have to reckon first with the Father, who "is greater than all," and whose hand covers them too.
The wording shifts between the two verses. In verse 28 the Lord states a fact about what will happen; in verse 29 He states something about power itself.
But there was indeed a great secret between Him and His Father, stated here. "My Father, who has given them to me" — and that means not the sheep alone, but the whole work, plan, counsel, and glory. He "is greater than all," yes, greater than all things. And "no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Before, the point He had stated was that no one will; here it is that no one is able.
Verse 28 puts the sheep in the Shepherd's hand; verse 29 puts them in the Father's. The keeping is doubled.
"No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." We are in the hand of the Son (v. 28), and in the hand of the Father (v. 29). "Kept by the power of God." 1 Peter 1:5. Our eternal security is in other and more powerful hands than our own.
The promise assumes the danger is real. It also names whose faithfulness the sheep depend on.
What is the good of saying, "no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28)? Because we are in danger of being snatched. "Snatches" is the same word: "the wolf snatches them and scatters them." I have perfect security in the Lord's faithfulness, not in my own, and from this I get dependence on Him.
The Father's hand and the Son's hand are not two separate securities. One care stands behind both.
Here is a security that cannot be overturned. No failure inside them and no force outside them could put their life at risk. The Father and the Son keep that life, and they were no more truly one in divine nature than they were one in loving care for the sheep.
- Given — The sheep are the Father's gift to the Son. That gift answers everyone who disputed His right to them, and it is why they are precious to Him.
- Greater — The Father who gave them is greater than all, so anyone who tries to take a sheep must deal with Him first.
- Held — Verse 28 places them in the Son's hand, verse 29 in the Father's; the keeping rests in hands stronger than our own.
- Unable — The wording moves from what will not happen to what cannot. No one has the power to take them out of the Father's hand. The danger is real; the outcome is not in doubt.
- One — The security rests where the passage ends: the Father and the Son are one. One in nature, and one in their care for the sheep.