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How are we to understand the use of the figure of the `voice' of the Good Shepherd?
We cannot audibly hear the voice of the Lord Jesus but the Holy Spirit will glorify the
Son of God (see John 16: 13, 14) by guiding our spirit into understanding the Word of
God and guiding us in our service for the Father too:
"And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep
follow Him: for they know His voice" (10: 4).
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit--the voice of the Good Shepherd--the believer
will not be enticed by the voice of `the stranger'. Nor will the faithful believer be shaken
or deterred by the voice of some of the `higher critics', or the flood of educational
statements on evolutionary theories that conflict with Scripture:
"And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him" (10: 5).
"Stranger" is allotrios--belonging to another, that is other than the Holy Spirit.
Even as the Lord commissioned Peter to `feed the lambs and the sheep', so as we
grow in the service of the Lord we are expected to serve the flock, leading the young in
faith to the riches of the Word of God and by example exhibit the fruit of the Spirit for
their emulation. We should be experienced in the words of comfort and guidance with
which the Scriptures abound.
"I am the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (10: 11).
In the near context of John fills out this figurative picture by our Lord's words:
"Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My
Father" (10: 17, 18).
This statement of the Lord Jesus Christ leaves no room for His enemies to say His life
ended in failure. Here is a categorical link--Christ is laying down His life for the
believer--He has power to do this and He has power to take it again so that His
resurrection is the blessed assurance of eternal life for every believer. Moreover and this
is vitally important, "This commandment have I received of My Father".
The authority, approval and participation of God the Father is claimed by the Son, the
witnesses of His resurrection prove the truth of His claims.
When you consider the crass disobedience of Israel throughout their historical record
in the Bible and this in the face of a patient and long suffering and merciful Jehovah it is
utterly amazing that John could write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3: 16).
Then again on the Son's part: