So Paul tolls Titus that " Christ's appearing brought life and immortality to light." (2 Tim. i. 10.)
Most commentators do not admit the comparative idea in " more abundantly," but interpret it as simply meaning the abundance of grace aud mercy which Christ brings into the world : as Rom7 v. 20, 21. This is true, but I venture to think it is not all the truth.
Chemnitius, following Augustine, thinks that " more abun- dantly " may refer to the life of glory hereafter, which saints will have after the life of faith here. But I cannot see this.
11. — [lam the good shepherd.'] Here our Lord declares that He Himself is the great Head Shepherd of God's people, of whom all ministers, even the best, are only faint imitators. It is as if He said, " I am towards all who believe in Me, what a good shepherd is to his sheep, careful, watchful, and loving." The article in the Greek is twice used to increase the emphasis : "I am the Shepherd, the good or excellent One." In the second verse of the chapter, before the word " Shepherd," in the Greek, we may remember, there is no article at all.
It is probable that the name " shepherd," in Jewish ears, would convey, much more clearly than it does in ours, a claim to be regarded as the Messiah or Shepherd of souls. (See Gen. xlix. 24 ; Psalm xxiii. ; Ezek. xxxiv.)
[The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.] Our Lord here shows the distinguishing mark of a good shepherd. Such an one will lay down his life for his sheep, to save, protect, and defend them. He will die rather than lose one. He will peril his life, like David, attacking the lion and the bear, rather than let one be taken from him. " All this," our Lord implies, " I have come to do for my spiritual sheep. I have come to shed my life-blood to save their souls, to die that they may live." The word " giveth " here, should have been translated "layeth down." It is so rendered in the loth verse.
Flacius observes how our Lord here, as elsewhere, always brings round His discourse to His own atoning death.
Hengstenberg observes : " The expression, ' laying clown the soul or life ' for any one, does not occur anywhere else inde- pendently in the New Testament. It is never found in profane writers. It must be referred back to the Old Testament, and specially to Isai. liii. 10, where it is said of Messiah, ' He shall make, or place, His soul an offering for sin.'"
Tittman says : " Those who maintain that Christ died only to confirm the truth of His doctrine, or to confirm the certainty of the promises of pardon and acceptance with God, are under a mistake. The death of Christ was not necessary for either of those purposes. The truth of His doctrine and the certainty of His promises must be established by other evidence. Neither
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