John 10:18, commentary and pictures

No one takes Christ's life from Him against His will, but as the good Shepherd He lays it down for the sheep by His own free choice in obedience to the command He received from His Father. He has authority both to lay down His life and to take it up again, and He rose from the grave by the life in Himself. Only Deity could do this, for unlike all created beings who live by God as dependent recipients, Christ in His divinity has life in Himself, original, unborrowed, underived immortality. His humanity died while His divinity did not, making Him both the spotless sacrifice and the priest who offered it. He thus gave His life as humanity's divine-human Substitute and Surety, bearing sin and its curse and punishment to vindicate God's law and give eternal life to all who believe in Him.

Shepherd Setting and Context

John 10:18 is part of Christ's picture of Himself as the good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. That picture sets forth His relation to believers as one of mutual knowledge, in which He knows them and they know Him. They stand toward Him as helpless and dependent as a flock toward a faithful shepherd who cares for them.
The verse belongs to Jesus' presentation of Himself as the true Shepherd and keeper of the Lord's flock. In that presentation His role is identified with the Messiah's mission foretold by Isaiah and Ezekiel. It is set in contrast to Israel's unfaithful leaders, with the emphasis on who He is as the true Shepherd rather than on explaining His statement about laying down His life and taking it up again.

Death Freely Chosen

No one takes His life from Him against His will; He lays it down of Himself by His own choice, and His death was not imposed on Him by any human or angel, nor forced or compelled. Though condemned despite His innocence and suffering a cruel death, that death was an act of His own will, a free and willing surrender as humanity's substitute and surety. As a member of the human family He was mortal, but as God He was the fountain and source of life for the world and could have withstood the advances of death and refused to come under its dominion. Even in His human nature He could have withstood the inroads of disease, His divine nature imparting vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. He could have left the human race to the consequences of apostasy, could have delivered Himself from arrest and death so that betrayal could not change the outcome, and His enemies could bind and lead Him away only because He allowed it.

No obligation, requirement, or obligatory yoke was laid on Him to undertake the work of atonement, unlike angels and created beings who are amenable to law and obey under a yoke of dependence. He was free to undertake the redemption of sinners and could have remained in heavenly glory, yet chose human poverty, suffering, and death to purify and redeem the guilty. Before the world began He covenanted to undertake this work and in counsel with the Father pledged Himself to secure the salvation of every human being, so an irrevocable covenant bound Him to go forward and finish what He had undertaken or all the world would perish. His voluntary death by public crucifixion on the cross of Calvary was necessary for the remission of sin because forgiveness requires the shedding of blood, and was needed to establish unmistakable witness to His work. He voluntarily bared His soul to the sword of justice as the divine substitute so sinners would not perish but have everlasting life, and beholding Him as the royal Sufferer brings the conviction that death is the sure result of sin.

At Passover He publicly set Himself apart as the antitypical Lamb, directing attention to His coming sacrifice as the voluntary offering that crowned His mission to save those who come to Him.

Power to Rise Again

He has power and authority both to lay down His life and to take it again, and He exercised that authority in taking up His life again by His own power in obedience to the command received from the Father. His death was not imposed on Him by any human or angel, for no one took His life from Him against His will, but He laid it down willingly as humanity's divine-human Substitute and Surety to bear liabilities and transgressions, fulfill God's will, vindicate His law, and make it possible for God to be just and to justify believers, giving His life in exchange for the family enslaved to sin so they might have everlasting life. Unlike all created beings who depend on God for life, He as one with God possessed divine power within Himself to break the bonds of death and raise Himself.

At His resurrection He came forth from the grave by the life within Himself when the Father called Him. This came when the voice of the mighty angel at the tomb said, Thy Father calls Thee. An earthquake marked both the laying down of His life and His taking it up again. His rising in triumph fulfilled and proved the truth of His words, confirming that He had power over His own life. His declaration that He would rise again showed the crucifixion would not be the end and became evidence of His identity as the Son of God, a meaning concerning the temple of His body and the path He knowingly entered which the disciples understood after His resurrection.

In rising He broke the fetters of the tomb and came forth bringing with Him from their graves a multitude of captives, thereby proving His triumph over the prince of this world and over the powers of hell. The prince of this world had no power to take His life from Him, for He laid it down of Himself as a voluntary sacrifice without compulsion. When He lay in the grave Satan triumphed and dared to hope He would not take up His life again, claimed the Lord's body, set his guard about the tomb to hold Him prisoner, and was bitterly angry when his angels fled at the approach of the heavenly messenger. When Christ came forth in triumph Satan knew his kingdom would have an end and that he must finally die and be destroyed. As Lord of life, Roman guards and Roman arms were powerless to confine Him inside the sepulcher, and the Jewish seal and military watch with their weapons could not keep Him in the tomb, showing their measures weak and foolish with His victory near.

In death His life and intelligence remained with His body in the tomb, and He did not continue as a separate conscious spirit in heaven. He rose as a whole being without summoning His spirit from heaven. His resurrection was an act of His divine power that Satan could not prevent, paying humanity's full ransom in conquering death and making it possible for people to overcome Satan in His name. To the heavenly host His awakening from the sleep of the grave was no marvel, for He controlled the power of death and had life in Himself; the marvel was that their loved Commander should die for rebellious humanity. The morning He rose was the brightest morning that ever dawned upon a fallen world, yet it was of no greater importance to man than the day of His trial and crucifixion.

Father's Command Obeyed

Both the laying down of His life and the taking of it up again were done in obedience to the commandment He had received from His Father, in keeping with the Father's will, purposes, and authority. No one took His life from Him against His will, but He gave it by His own choice, freely surrendering it and exercising His authority both to lay it down and to take it again. In all His work on earth He sought God's will and fulfilled God's purpose, representing the Father's will toward humanity. As humanity's substitute and surety He bore people's liabilities and transgressions, fulfilled God's will, vindicated His law, and made it possible for God to be just and yet to justify those who believe, giving His life as a sacrifice in exchange for the human family enslaved to sin, and this reveals the Father's love for fallen humanity.

Everything He did on earth was done in obedience to His Father's commandment with an eye single to His Father's glory, working out His Father's will in all things. His life was thus a manifestation of divine perfection. In this He revealed God's purpose to bring humanity into the closest connection with Himself, giving reason to look constantly to Jesus as the Captain of salvation, without whom happiness is impossible.

In His human life He acted in perfect obedience to what He had received from His Father, knowing how the Father would act under every circumstance and doing exactly as the Father would do, thereby making manifest the ways of God. While employing His human, God-given powers for the benefit of men, in every act of mercy and healing He drew upon divine power.

That obedient human life leaves an example for believers to follow by learning in His school, becoming one with Him, and representing Christ moment by moment as Christ represented the Father. He did as the Father commanded, setting the pattern of perfect obedience for His followers to copy. In completing one task He moved on to another in keeping with the Father's will, carrying out God's purpose in His earthly life.

His words and deeds fulfilled God's will and purposes and revealed God's great love for human beings. Done by One who was one with the Father, His voluntary giving of His flesh for the life of the world revealed the perfection of God and worked out the principles of divine character in the likeness of sinful flesh by a life of perfect obedience to the law of God, condemning sin in the flesh.

Divine Life Revealed

The claim to lay down life and take it again could be made only by Deity, for Christ is one with God. All created beings, from the highest seraph to the humblest living thing, live by the will and power of God as dependent recipients continually replenished from the source of life, but Christ in His divinity had life in Himself. That divine life within Himself is what enabled Him at His resurrection to come forth from the grave and break the bonds of death when the Father called Him. By rising He proved that power and became the first-fruits and pledge of the resurrection of all the righteous dead.

His life is not physical life such as man receives, but immortality, original, unborrowed, underived life which belongs exclusively to God. Man has no control over his own physical life, for God as the life-giver gives it and takes it again, and no one can take the life of Christ from Him because He lays it down of Himself. This higher life is not inherent in man and cannot be earned, and man can possess it only through Christ as a free gift by believing in Him as personal Saviour. In His death His humanity died but His divinity did not, for as the divine Son He possessed life in Himself and power over death, while all created beings receive their life from Him as its source. The humanity He took was taken into union with Deity when He voluntarily clothed His divinity with humanity to make Himself a ransom for the sins of the world.

Thus He became both the sacrifice and the priest who offered it, Himself both Offerer and victim without sin and without spot, offering Himself without spot to God. Had He not been sinless, His life in human flesh and His death on the cross would have had no more value to procure grace for the sinner than the death of any other man. His life was His own as the eternal, self-existent Son, and the authority to lay it down and take it again came from His infinite nature and from His Father, which He exercised by choice and not under compulsion of any obligation or finite requirement. For this reason He alone could become humanity's surety, unlike angels whose lives belong to God and who obey under a yoke of dependence and could not surrender their lives as a substitute. Having covenanted before the world began to undertake this work, He fulfilled His prior commitment by a voluntary public death on the cross, because forgiveness of sin requires the shedding of blood and such a death established unmistakable witness to His work, offered to secure salvation for those fallen under Satan's deceptions.

His life alone had sufficient value to ransom fallen man, fully satisfy the claims of God's perfect law, rescue man from his fallen condition, atone for human sin, elevate fallen man and restore him to his first estate. No requirement or obligation was laid upon Him to undertake the work of atonement, unlike angels and created beings who are amenable to law, but He chose voluntarily to make the sacrifice with power to lay down His life and take it again. This sufficiency rested on His divine perfection of character, His noble spotless character, His exalted office as commander of the heavenly host, His equality with God, His standing next in authority to the Father, and His union with the Father in the creation of man.

Redemption Accomplished for Humanity

He laid down His life as humanity's divine-human Substitute and Surety, taking upon Himself their liabilities and transgressions, their sin and its punishment, the curse of the law, and separation from the Father. In doing so He fulfilled God's will, vindicated and magnified His law and testified that it is unchangeable, settled the controversy over its character, and made it possible for God to be just and yet to justify those who believe. His death was not imposed on Him by any human or angel, but was accepted voluntarily with power to take life up again, so that rebellious people might have everlasting life and not perish. Being innocent of all guilt, He gave Himself in exchange for the human family enslaved to sin and sold to Satan by transgression, giving His life for the life of the family. By that exchange they became His purchased possession, that by becoming partakers of the divine nature they might have eternal life.

He alone could offer a sacrifice effective to save rebellious people and pay sin's penalty, for no man on earth or angel in heaven could have paid it. Divinity joined to humanity gave efficiency to His offering on Calvary's cross, and that union made His death of sufficient worth to keep sinners from perishing. As mortal man as a member of the human family, yet God and the fountain and source of life for the world, He laid down His life of Himself to bear the world's sin and endure its curse as a sacrifice so men might not die eternally. In this He brought life and immortality to light, and set Himself apart to offer Himself as a complete sacrifice bearing sin's punishment. The whole treasure of heaven was poured out in one gift to save fallen men, and He brought into His human nature all the life-giving energies that human beings need and will receive in a wondrous union of man and God.

He left heaven to come to a world seared by the curse as a man tempted in all points as humans are yet without sin, because humans could not reach heaven by their own efforts. On earth the battle between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness was fought, and by laying down His life He conquered Satan in humanity's behalf. Having taken His life again, He now stands as a living Saviour in the heavenly courts as Intercessor, pleading through His merits so that tempted people can be succored, resist temptation, and be more than conquerors. The Father so loved people that He loves the Son more for giving His life to redeem them, and by becoming their substitute and surety and taking their liabilities the Son is endeared to the Father. God shared in the suffering of His Son in that sacrifice for the recovery of humanity.

Prophecy Fulfilled and Applied

Jesus openly declared His authority over His own death and return to life, and the Jewish rulers heard that declaration. They joined it with His saying about raising the destroyed temple in three days and with His detailed prediction of betrayal to the chief priests and scribes, condemnation to death, delivery to the Gentiles for mocking and scourging and crucifixion, and rising the third day, and after His death they recognized those words as plain prophecies of what had taken place. The memory left them afraid that His body in Joseph's tomb would come to life, so they feared He would rise from the dead as He had predicted and set the seal and the military watch. They believed the evidence yet trembled at His near victory, while Roman guards and Roman arms were powerless to confine the Lord of life inside the sepulcher and the Jewish seal and watch proved weak and foolish.

His words about raising the temple referred both to Jerusalem's temple and to His own body as the path He knowingly entered in giving up His life and taking it again. After His resurrection the disciples understood this meaning and saw that He had spoken of His authority over His death and resurrection, which confirmed His power over His own life. His death and resurrection fulfilled the temple's sacrificial symbols, so that when Christ their reality offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, the animal offerings and related ceremonies no longer had value before God.

The ancient sacrifices and priesthood represented His death and mediatorial work but had no power to save apart from Him. They pointed to Christ and taught that sin had separated humanity from God and that a mediator was needed. Through Christ the way of communication with God was reopened, and salvation came through His voluntary sacrifice in giving Himself for humanity.

He has life in Himself to make alive whom He will, and to the believer He is the resurrection and the life in whom the life lost through sin is restored. He is invested with the right to give immortality because the life He laid down in humanity He takes up again and gives to humanity. That gift is life more abundantly, water springing up into everlasting life, and eternal life with resurrection at the last day. Through Him the way of repentance and faith is made plain.

Done by One who was one with the Father in obedience to the commandment received from His Father, His laying down His life for the sheep and giving His flesh for the life of the world revealed the perfection of God and worked out the principles of divine character in the likeness of sinful flesh by a life of perfect obedience condemning sin in the flesh. Its wondrous condescension and great love give incontrovertible evidence that God is love, leaving every human intelligence without excuse in withholding allegiance from God. Through faith men may lay hold on moral power brought within reach, become partakers of the divine nature, and form characters after the divine similitude. Beholding Him as the royal Sufferer from Calvary to Joseph's tomb, in His voluntary self-sacrifice on the cross for the sin of the world and His rising from the dead, teaches self-sacrifice and brings conviction that death is the sure result of sin. His death is the evidence of His love and the sacrifice that saves, and He will not die a second time to persuade belief.