1/ "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
2/ But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
3/ The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4/ When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.
5/ But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."
6/ Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
7/ So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.
8/ All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9/ I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
10/ A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
11/ I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12/ A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.
13/ This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
14/ I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,
15/ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
16/ I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17/ This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
18/ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."
Christ is a good Shepherd; many who were not thieves, yet were careless in their duty, and by their neglect the flock was much hurt. Bad principles are the root of bad practices.
The Lord Jesus knows whom he has chosen, and is sure of them; they also know whom they have trusted, and are sure of Him. See here the grace of Christ; since none could demand his life of him, he laid it down of himself for our redemption. He offered himself to be the Saviour; Lo, I come. And the necessity of our case calling for it, he offered himself for the Sacrifice. He was both the offerer and the offering, so that his laying down his life was his offering up himself. From hence it is plain, that he died in the place and stead of men; to obtain their being set free from the punishment of sin, to obtain the pardon of their sin; and that his death should obtain that pardon. Our Lord laid not his life down for his doctrine, but for his sheep.
This is one of the grandest of our Lord's claims. He gives like God from overflowing stores (Titus 3:6). Those who receive life from him have within them perennial sources of life for others - fullness of being (see notes, John 7:38; John 4:14). One of the differentiae of "life" is "abundance" of supply beyond immediate possibility of use.
Life has the future in its arms. Life propagates new life. Life has untold capacities about it - beauty, fragrance, strength, growth, variety, reproduction, resistance to death, continuity, eternity. In the Logos is life - and Christ came to give it, to communicate "life to the non-living, to the dead in trespasses, and to those in their graves" (John 5:26).
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