In the eternal councils, and foreknown from the beginning of the world. So it was with the Corinthians before their conver- sion : " I have much people in this city." (Acts xviii. 10.)
Augustine remarks: "They were yet without, among the Gentiles, predestinated, not yet gathered in. These He knew who had predestinated them : He knew who had come to re- deem them with the shedding of His own blood. He saw them who did not yet see Him : He knew them who yet believed not in Him."
[Them also... bring.'} Our Lord here declares that it is neces- sary for Him, in order to fulfil the prophecies of the Old Testa- ment, and to carry out the great purpose of His coming, to bring in and add to His flock other believers beside the Jewish sheep : " It is part of my work, office, and mission, to gather them out from the heathen by the preaching of my apostles."
The prediction here made was contrary to Jewish prejudices. The Jews thought they aloue were God's flock aud favoured people. Even the apostles afterwards were slow to remember these words.
Hutcheson observes : " Christ Himself is chief in bringing in His elect, whatever instruments He employs : and He is at pains to seek them, and gain their consent, as being bound in the covenant of redemption to present all that are given Him blameless before the Father." Saints are " the called of Jesus Christ." (Rom. i. 6.)
[They shall hear my voice.'} This is a prophecy and a promise combined. It was a prophecy that the elect among the heathen, however unlikely it might appear, would hear Christ's voice speaking to them in the Gospel preached; and, hearing, would believe and obey. — It was a promise that would encourage His Apostles to preach to the heathen: "They will listen, aud be converted, and follow Me." — It is a saying that was wonderfully forgotten by the Apostles afterwards. They were backward to bring in the other sheep, after their Master left the world.— It is a sentence that should nerve and cheer the missionary. Christ has said it: "The sheep who are scattered among the heathen will hear."
The text, "He that heareth you heareth Me," (Luke x. 1G,) is the Divine explanation of the expression, " hear my voice."
[And there shall be one fold... shepherd.] This sentence con- tains one word which ought to have been differently translated. It ought to be, as Tyndale renders it, " one flock and one shep- herd." There is an evident difference. Christ's universal Church is a mighty company of which the members may be found in many different visible Churches, or ecclesiastical "folds:" but it composes only one "flock." There is only " one Holy Catholic Church," which is the blessed company of all faithful people; but there are many various visible Churches.
john, chap. x. 199
The sentence is true of all believers now. Though differing in various points, such as government or ceremonies, true believers are all sheep of one flock, and all look up to one Sa- viour and Shepherd. It will be more completely fulfilled at Christ's second cominy: then shall be exhibited to the world one glorious Church under one glorious Head. In the view of this promise unity with all true Christians should be sought and striven for by every true sheep.
Gualter remarks that there never has been, or can be, more than one Holy Catholic Church, and unless we belong to it we cannot be saved, and he warns us against the pernicious error that all men shall get to heaven if sincere, whether they belong to the Holy Catholic Church or not.
Chemnitius observes that we must be careful not to make this one Church either too narrow or too broad. We make it too narrow when, like the Jews and the Papists, we exclude any believer who does not belong to our particular fold. We make it too broad when we include every professing Christian, whether he hears Christ's voice or not. It is a flock of " sheep."
In every other place in the New Testament the word here wrongly translated "fold," is rendered "flock." (Matt. xxvi. 81; Luke ii. 8 ; 1 Cor. ix 7.) The word "fold," before us, is evidently an oversight of our translators.
17. — [Therefore... my Father love me because, etc.] This is a deep and mysterious verse, like all verses which speak of the relation between the First and Second Persons of the Trinity. We must be content to admire and believe what we cannot fully under- stand. When, as in John v. 20, and here, our Lord speaks of " the Father loving the Sou," we must remember that He is using language borrowed from earthly affection to express the mind of one Person of the Trinity towards another, and accordingly we must interpret it reverently. — Yet we may surely gather from this verse that our Lord's coming into this world to lay down His life for the sheep, by dying on the cross, and to take it again for their justification, by rising again from the dead, was a transaction viewed with infinite complacency and approbation by God the Father. — " I am about to die, and after death to rise again. My so doing, however strange it may seem to you Pharisees, is the very thing which my Father in heaven approves, and for which He specially loves Me." — It is like the Father's words, " In whom I am well pleased ; " and St. Paul's, " Where- fore God hath highly exalted Him," (Matt. iii. 17; Phil. ii. 9;) and Isaiah's, "I will divide Him a portion with the great, because He hath poured out His soul unto death." (Isai. liii. 12.)
Our Lord, by mentioning His resurrection, seems to remind His hearers that in one respect He was different from the best of shepherds. They might lay down their lives ; but then there would be an end of them. He meant to lay down His life, but