Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 10-11.

There are two things which Jesus says in today’s passage which I want to write about today.  First, He tells the Pharisees that His Father loves Him because He lays down His life, clearly stating that His crucifixion was not something forced upon Him, but something which He voluntarily experienced.  He goes on as part of that statement that God gave Him the authority to lay down His life, and to take it up again.  A little later when asked to state clearly whether or not He was the Messiah, Jesus says that the works He does in God’s name testify answer that question.  He then follows that up by saying that they do not believe because they are not His sheep, that His sheep listen to His voice and follow Him.  He gives those sheep eternal life and no one will take those sheep, those followers of His, from Him.  The Father has given those followers to Jesus and no one is able to take those followers from God.

All of this comes together to give us great hope and confidence.  Jesus did not die at the hand of the Romans, nor of the Jews: Jesus died because He laid down His life as a sacrifice for our sins. But He did not do so as a suicide, not even as a “suicide by cop” (or in this case by judicial execution).  No God, the Father, had given Him the authority to lay down His life, and to take it back up again.  The same God who has given us, if we are His followers, into His care.  Since no one and nothing is able to snatch us away from God the Father no one and nothing is able to take us away from being Jesus’ followers.  This gives us hope in the most desperate of situations, as well as confidence in those some situations.  Jesus had the authority to lay down His life, and to take it back up again.  Which allows us to know that if He asks us to lay down our lives in His service, He will also take our lives back up again to be with Him throughout eternity.  Today’s passage reminds us that suffering and death in Christ’s service is not forever.  It will be followed by an eternity of joy at His side.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.