There is a page on this site where readers can submit questions or suggest topics. Recently I received the following question:
Please kindly explain John chapter 10 verses 17 and 18.
Here’s what those verses say:
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
John 10:17-18
Context: The Good Shepherd Discourse
In John 10:1-18, Jesus gives the Good Shepherd Discourse, which he spoke in response to the events that took place in John 9 and the actions of the “bad shepherds” of Israel: the religious leaders who had excommunicated a family because they refused to deny that Jesus had healed their son who had been blind from birth.
In response to the actions and attitudes of the “bad shepherds,” Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd.
Fulfillment of Messianic Prophecies
In Ezekiel 34:23 and 37:24, Ezekiel (writing hundreds of years after the death of King David), predicted a future day when “David” would rule over the people of Israel as their single shepherd.
Rather than having many shepherds (spiritual leaders), who were often bad, God was going to raise up a single shepherd, from the line of David. This was certainly a reference to the promise God made to David in 2 Samuel 8, called the Davidic Covenant, in which God promised that the Messiah would come from David’s family line.
Consider this passage from Jeremiah 23, which is clearly speaking of Jesus as the future, coming “Good Shepherd.”
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:1-6
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: The LORD is our righteousness.’
So, that’s the context for what Jesus says in John 10:17-18.
The Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life for the Sheep
In this section, in verses 11 and 15, Jesus says that, as the Good Shepherd, one of the things which differentiates him from the bad shepherds – or really from all other shepherds, is that he will lay down his life for the sheep, which he explains is motivated by his love for them.
But in verses 17-18, Jesus shows that another motivation for laying down his life, is that he is doing it in obedience to the Father.
The Connection Between Love and Keeping God’s Commands
Verse 17 should not be understood to mean that Jesus earns the Father’s love by laying down his life, rather that there is a relationship of mutual love between the Father and the Son. Jesus’s obedience to the Father’s authority and commands is a reflection of his love for the Father.
In John 14:15, Jesus told his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And in John 15:10, Jesus explains that “abiding” in his love looks like, in practice: keeping his commands, just as he keeps the Fathers commands and thereby abides in the Father’s love:
Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
John 15:9b-10
Clearly there is a connection between love and keeping God’s commands. Jesus expressed his love for the Father by doing what the Father had called him to do, and there was a relationship of mutual love between them, which manifested itself in Jesus being willing and glad to submit to the Father’s authority.
Laying Down His Life, Only to Take It Up Again
In verses 17 and 18, Jesus explains that the plan of the Father, by which he would save his people from their sins (cf. Matthew 1:21) was not only that he would lay down his life, but that he would take it up again, i.e. resurrect from the dead.
This is one of the few places in the New Testament where Jesus’ resurrection is attributed as an action of Jesus himself. In most other places, God the Father is described as raising Jesus from the dead. This is important because it is one more example of the fact that the Bible teaches that Jesus is God: because Jesus does the works that are attributed to God alone, e.g. the creation of the world.
On a human level, Jesus’ life was taken from him by the actions of evil men. And yet, as we see in verse 18, those events were not outside of Jesus’ control. Jesus was not as a victim of circumstance, but the one who was in control of his destiny. Later on, during his trial, before he was crucified, Pontius Pilate said to Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” (John 19:10). Jesus replied, “‘”You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11). These incidents show that Jesus was in control of his own destiny.
A good example of this two-fold understanding of why Jesus died is found in Acts 2:23, where Peter says to the crowd gathered on the day of Pentecost:
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Acts 2:23
In this verse we see both the human responsibility and the plan of God which were at work in the death of Jesus. Jesus laid down his life willingly; he certainly could have walked away from the Garden of Gethsemane on the night when he was arrested. He didn’t have to come to Jerusalem at all, actually – and many people urged him not to! But Jesus went, knowing what awaited him, intent on laying down his life BOTH as an act of loving obedience to the Father who sent him, and as an act of loving redemption for those whom he came to save.
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