"11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”"
John 10:11-18
One or two further comments on these verses will be necessary before leaving them. There is great mystery in 15a. What a claim to equality with God is implicit here! Who could know the Father immortal, invisible, only-wise as He is, as the Father knows Him, save only the eternal Son? 'Fold' in 16 should read 'flock'. The reference is to the sheep, not the place they dwell in. It is certain that our Lord was not thinking of denominations here whether Presbyterian, Episcopalian or Roman Catholic, but of the fact that what He was to do on the cross was not only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but for the whole world. The Gentiles are the 'other sheep' (cf Ephesians 2:14ff). We should not miss the significance of the emphasis in 18 on the entirely voluntary nature of our Lord's dying. We have seen how John has repeatedly underlined the thought that His hour was not yet come, and how, because of this, no man could lay hands on Him. In the most impossible situations, humanly speaking, in which it seemed certain that He should be killed, He escaped from His enemies, because His hour had not yet come. This bears witness to the fact that in the gospel it is Christ who takes the initiative. He does not lose His life but voluntarily lays it down. He is the one and only Man in all creation who did not have to die. He chose to die, and laid down His life Himself. It is this that puts Him, and particularly His death, in a unique position, and gives it its incalculable value as an act of atonement for the sins of the world.