shepherd He not only knows all His sheep, but lays down His life for them. By using the present tense, He seems to say, " I am doing it. I am just about to do it. I came iuto the world to do it." This can only refer to His own atoning death on the cross : the great propitiation He was about to make by shedding His life-blood. It was the highest proof of love. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John xv. 13.)
Taken alone and by itself this sentence undoubtedly contains the doctrine of particular redemption. It declares that Christ "lays down His life for the sheep." That He does so in a special sense I think none can deny. The "sheep" alone, or true believers, obtain any saving benefit from His death. But to argue from this text, that in no sense and in no way did Christ die for any beside His " sheep," is to say what seems to me to contradict Scripture. The plain truth is that the ex- tent of redemption is not the leading subject of this verse. Our Lord is saying what He does for His sheep : He loves them so that He dies for them. But it does not follow that we are to conclude that His death was not meant to influence and effect the position of all mankind. I venture to refer the reader to my own notes, in this commentary, on John i. 28; iii. 16 and vi. 32, for a full discussion of the subject.
Both here and in the 11th verse, I do not think the Greek word translated " for " should be pressed too far, as if it neces- sarily implied the doctrine of substitution, or the vicariousness of Christ's death. That doctrine is a blessed and glorious truth, and is taught plainly and unmistakably elsewhere. Here, however, we are reading parabolic figurative language, and I doubt whether it is quite fair to explain it as meaning more than " on account of," or " in behalf of," the sheep. Of course it comes to the same thing at last : if the Shepherd did not die, the sheep would die. But I do not quite think " vicarious- ness," at any rate, is the primary idea of the sentence.
I fully agree with Parkhurst, at the same time, that the Greek expression for " dying for any one," in Rom. v. 6 — 8, never has any signification other than that of" rescuing the life of another at the expense of our own."
16.— [And other sheep I have... fold.'] In this sentence, our Lord declares plainly the approaching conversion of the Gentile*,. The sheep He specially died for were not merely the few believing Jews, but the elect Gentiles also. They are the "other sheep:" "this fold" means the Jewish Church. It reads as though He would show the real measure and size of His flock. It was one much larger than the Jewish nation, of which the Scribes and Pharisees were so proud.
Let it be noted here that our Lord uses the present tense. The heathen sheep were as yet heathen, and not brought in: yet He says, " I have them." They were already given to Him