Notes. John X. 10—18.
10.— [The thief... destroy.'] In this passage our Lord entirely drops the figure of " the door," and presents Himself under a new as- pect, as " the Shepherd." And the first thing He does is to show the amazing difference between Himself and the false teachers who bore rule among the Jews. He had already told the Pharisees that they were no better than " thieves and rob- bers." He now contrasts their objects with His own. A thief does not come to the fold to do good to the flock, but harm ; for his own selfish advantage, and for the injury of the sheep. Just so the Pharisees only became teachers of the Jewish Church for their own advantage and interest, and taught doctrine which was only calculated to ruin and destroy souls.
A. Clarke observes : " How can worldly minded hirelings, fox-hunting, card-playing priests, read these words without trembling to the centre of their souls ?"
Bickersteth suggests that " the thief in the singular number may remind us of the prince of darkness, the great chief robber and thief of souls."
[I am come. ..life.. .abundantly.] Our Lord here puts in strong contrast with the false teachers of the Jews, His own purpose and object in coming into the world. He drops the figure of " the door," and says plainly and distinctly, stating it in the widest, broadest way, that, as a personal Saviour, He came that men might have life. The thief came to take life : He came to give it. He came that the way to eternal life might be laid open, the life of justification purchased by His blood, the life of sanctification provided by the grace of His Spirit. He came to buy this life by His sacrifice on the cross. He came to proclaim this life and offer it to a lost world. To bring life and hope to a lost, dead, perishing world was the grand object of his incar- nation. The ministry of the Pharisees was death, but that of Christ was life. The word " they " before " might have," must be taken generally here for " men." There is nothing else to which it can apply.
But this was not all. Our Lord came that men who had life already " might have it more abundantly : " that is, that they might see the way of life more clearly, and have no uncertainty about the way of justification before God ; and that they might feel the possession of life more sensibly, and have more con- scious enjoyment of pardon, peace, and acceptance. This seems to me by far the simplest view of the text. Of course there were millions in the world who before Christ came knew noth- ing of life for their souls : to them Christ's coming brought " life." — But there were also many believing Jews who had life already when Christ came, and were walking in the steps of Abraham : to them Christ's coming brought " life more abun- dantly." It enlarged their vision and increased their comfort.