It is almost needless to remark that this description belongs to none but true Christians. It did not belong to the Pharisees to whom our Lord spoke. It does not belong to multitudes of baptized people in our own day.
Luther says : " The sheep, though the most simple creature, is superior to all animals in this, that he soon hears his shep- herd's voice, and will follow no other. Also he is clever enough to hang entirely on his shepherd, and to seek help from him alone. He cannot help himself, nor find pasture for himself, nor heal himself, nor guard against wolves, but depends wholly and solely on the help of another."
In the Greek of this verse, there is a nice distinction between the number of the verb "hear" and the verb "follow," which the English language caunot convey. It is as though our Lord had said, My sheep are a body, which " hears " my voice, in the singular; and of which the individual members "follow" Me, in the plural.
28.— [And I give, etc.'] From the character of Christ's sheep, the Good Shepherd goes on to describe their privileges. He gives to them eternal life, the precious gift of pardon and grace in this world, and a life of glory in the world to come. — He says, " I give," in the present tense. Eternal life is the present pos- session of every believer. He declares that they shall never perish or be lost, unto all eternity; and that no one shall ever pluck them out of His hand.
We have here the divinity and dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ. None but one who was very God could say, "I give eternal life." No Apostle ever said so.
We have here the perpetuity of grace in believers, and the certainty that they shall never be cast away. How any one can deny this doctrine, as the Arminians do, aud say that a true believer may fall away and be lost, in the face of this text, it is hard to understand. It is my own deliberate opinion that it would be almost impossible to imagiue words in which a saiut's " perseverance " could be more strongly asserted.
We have here a distinct promise, that "no one," man, angel, devil, or spirit, shall be able to tear from Christ His sheep. The Greek literally is not " any man," but " any person, or any one."
The doctrine plainly taught in this text may be called " Cal- vinism " by some, and of " dangerous tendency " by others. The only question we ought to ask is, whether it is scriptural. The simplest answer to that question is, that the words of the text, in their plain and obvious meaning, cannot be honestly inter- preted in aiy other way. To thrust in, as some enemies of perse- verance do, the qualifying clause, " they shall never perish so long as they continue my sheej)," is adding to Scripture, and taking un* warrantable liberties with Christ's words.