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.
I and the Father are one.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.