“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
This was at the annual feast of the dedication of the temple which took place in December. This feast celebrated the purging and renewing of the altar that was profaned by Antiochus. He was the Greek king who reigned over Syria. Antiochus conquered Egypt and persecuted the Jews. He wanted to eradicate every evidence of Jewish culture and ordered the Jews to worship Zeus instead of Yahweh. He erected an altar to Zeus in the temple and sacrificed pigs, desecrating the temple. When the Jews protested, he had many killed and placed others in slavery. He declared circumcision punishable by death and ordered the Jews to sacrifice to pagan gods and eat pork. The Jews took up arms and led by Judas Maccabeus were victorious over the Syrian-Greek forces. The dedication and purification of the temple took place in December and was declared an annual celebration. This is history recorded in the two books of Maccabeus in the Catholic Bible which were not accepted as canonical or divinely inspired and included in the Protestant Bibles. But they are historical.
It was at this celebration that Jesus stood on the porch of Solomon’s temple when the Jews pressured Him to tell them if He were the Christ. “Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.” (John 10:25) Jesus tells them that they don’t believe because they are not of His sheep. His sheep know His voice. He knows them and they follow Him. (John 10:26,27) At which time they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy. “The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (John 10:33)
In His discourse on Solomon’s porch Jesus said many things about His sheep. Our Scripture of study is one reason the Jews wanted to stone Him. He claimed to give eternal life. This was unheard of in the Old Testament. Everlasting life is only mentioned once in Daniel when he wrote about the end times. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2) The reason it was never mentioned in the Old Testament is because it was not freely given at that time. Jesus, the Redeemer hadn’t come yet. The Law determined who was righteous and who was not. But those who died at that time who kept the Law and believed in the coming Messiah, didn’t go into eternal death, but to a place they called Paradise. Jesus reveals that Paradise is heaven when He speaks to the thief on the cross. “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
Today, Jesus has come. He has taken our punishment and death so that we can live eternally. Those who believe in Jesus and make Him their Lord and Savior have eternal life and will never perish. The Greek word that was used and translated perish means to destroy fully, literally and figuratively and to die. We have the promise from Jesus that we will never die. Our bodies may die because everything on earth is temporal and dies. But we will be resurrected with new bodies. Paul urged the Philippians to follow him in the faith and in Jesus. He explains how those who refuse Jesus face destruction, but those who believe will receive a glorious body. “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” (Philippians 3:17-21)
Jesus promises that those that are His, no man will be able to seize us or force us from Him. This brings up the question about those in Christ who have left the faith. Jesus said it. There is no such person. If they left Christ, it’s because they never really knew Him. We may be shocked because to us they were leaders maybe of great example. They may have fooled us, but they didn’t fool Jesus. Those who are His will never leave Him. John explains this in his first epistle. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1John 2:19)
In our verse in John 10:28, we have Jesus’ own words telling the Jews of His promise to us. It’s part of a several things He told them that made them want to stone Him, but they couldn’t because it was not His time and because the Father had ordained the manner in which He would redeem us. And although we may say that He was crucified by the Jews or that our sin put Jesus on the cross this is not true. The Lord God could have left us in our sin to die eternally, but He loves us and is merciful to us. He wanted to reclaim us and have us in Him.
One Sabbath when Jesus was in the temple, He healed a blind man. In speaking to the people, He tells them a parable of the Good Shepherd and explains that He is that good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 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.” (John 10:14-18) It was the Father’s good will to redeem us because we were helpless and dying literally and figuratively without Him. Jesus gave up His own life on the cross for us so that we could live eternally. He took our place and suffered the death that was ours, so that we wouldn’t have to die, but live with Him.
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