"My sheep hear My voice; I know them, they follow Me, and I lay down My life for them." "And other sheep I have that are not of this [Israelite or Jewish] fold; them also I must bring; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd" (John x. 16).
The Jews who listened to those gracious words were much divided in their opinions about them, some declaring that Jesus was mad; others, appealing to the great miracle He had wrought in opening the eyes of the blind; and three months later, at another feast (see ver. 22), their controversy was renewed, and Jesus concluded His striking allegory by saying, "I and My Father are One, and no power shall ever be able to snatch My people from My hand or from His" (ver. 29, 30).
Returning to our text, we find Jesus declaring that all His people are His before they know or love Him.
Up to that time the Jewish Church had been the only earthly fold of believers in the living God, and all the Gentiles who were taught by the Holy Spirit were led to unite with the house of Israel or the people of Judah.
God was Israel's Shepherd (Psa. lxxx. 1). He led His people "like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Psa. lxxvii. 20). They were regarded as "the sheep of His pasture" (Psa. c.), and the world around them were strangers and foreigners, "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise."
But among these outcasts Jesus had many sheep. He gathered some in olden times. He came to lay down His life for a great multitude, to be drawn to Himself from every kindred, and tribe, and nation, and tongue. He spoke of them as being already His own—"Other sheep I have, and them also I must bring," or lead. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way"; and He who paid the ransom price of His wandering flock, goes after every one for whom He shed His blood.
"He finds them wandering far from God,
And brings them to His chosen fold."
"As many as are led by His Spirit"—the Spirit of God—"they are the children of God," the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He brings them to feel that they are lost—that they are far off by wicked works—that they are guilty, and weak, and helpless—and thus they are drawn to the Good Shepherd, who can and will deliver them from all evil, and fill them with all good.
And having brought near, He leads in green pastures, beside still waters; and even when the way is less pleasant, He always "leads in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment" (Prov. viii. 20).