February
11, 2003
THE
GOOD SHEPHERD
"I
am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for
the sheep" (John 10:11, NKJV).
Jesus
found access to the minds of His hearers through pathways
of familiar associations. "He had represented Himself
as the light, the source of life and gladness to nature and
to man. Now in a beautiful pastoral picture He represents
His relation to those that believe on Him. No picture was
more familiar to His hearers than this, and Christ's words
linked it forever with Himself. Never could the disciples
look on the shepherds tending their flocks without recalling
the Saviour's lesson. They would see Christ in each faithful
shepherd. They would see themselves in each helpless and dependent
flock.
"This
figure the prophet Isaiah had applied to the Messiah's mission,
in the comforting words, ".. He will feed His flock like
a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry
them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young"
(Isaiah 40:11). David had sung, "The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1)." (The Desire of
Ages, pp., 476, 477.
Jesus,
in His humanity, revealed a character the opposite of the
character of Satan. His life was spent in service to others.
"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself
and became obedient to the point of death, even the death
of the cross" (Philippians 2:8). He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement
for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed"
(Isaiah 53:5).
"Christ
was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He
deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no
share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in
which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours,
that we might receive the life which was His. 'With His stripes
we are healed.'
"It
was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between
God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to
God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the
Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never
to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us.
'God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son'
(John 3:16). He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to
die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race"
(The Desire of Ages, p. 25)
"All
we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one,
to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity
of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). Our Shepherd loves us and He
has given Himself for us. Only the most heartless could ever
ignore such great love and shepherding.
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