John x. 10. / am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
THE parables of our blessed Lord, though exceed- ingly clear and striking, lose much of their force by reason of the difference of our habits from those which obtained amongst the Jews. For instance, the office of a shepherd, though simple in itself, was widely different in Canaan from that which men are called to discharge in our land. In Canaan, where there were beasts of prey, it was attended with danger ; and a man was often called to expose his own life for the protection of his flock. Such was the office which Christ undertook for us : only, instead of endangering his own life for the preservation of ours, he actually laid down his life, in order that we might obtain life. He was " the Good Shepherd, who gave his own life for the sheep a;" and who " came, not only that we might have life, but that we might have it more abundantly."
To elucidate these words, I will shew, I. The gracious purpose of our Lord's advent —
" He came that we might have life."
We could not, by any means, obtain it for our- selves—
[We were in the state of the fallen angels, so far as respects both guilt and condemnation ; and were as incapable of removing these, and of restoring ourselves to the Divine favour, as they ]
But Christ came in order that we might be restored to the possession of it —
[He came in order to purchase life for us, and to impart
it to us ; to purchase it by his blood and to impart
it to us by his Spirit And this he has effected, so far,
that every one who believes in him has actually a title to life, and the very beginning of it in his soul ]
a ver. 11.