“Let us never measure our religion by that of others, and think we are doing enough if we have gone beyond our neighbours.” Ryle, J. C. Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots. London: William Hunt and Company, 1889.
The Good Shepherd
John 10:11 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
“The words ‘for (hyper ὑπὲρ) the sheep’ suggest sacrifice. The preposition, itself ambiguous, in John always occurs in a sacrificial context, whether referring to the death of Jesus (6:51; 10:11, 15; 11:50ff.; 17:19; 18:14), of Peter (13:37–38), or of a man prepared to die for his friend (15:13). In no case does this suggest a death with merely exemplary significance; in each case the death envisaged is on behalf of someone else. The shepherd does not die for his sheep to serve as an example, throwing himself off a cliff in a grotesque and futile display while bellowing, ‘See how much I love you!’ No, the assumption is that the sheep are in mortal danger; that in their defence the shepherd loses his life; that by his death they are saved. That, and that alone, is what makes him the good shepherd. He carries a cross, not plastic explosives or an Uzi sub-machine-gun. Moreover, Jesus’ death is here presented as a sacrifice peculiarly directed to the redemption of his sheep, whether of this (Jewish) sheep pen or of others (v. 16). This emphasis on the intentionality of Jesus’ sacrifice is itself grounded on Jesus’ peculiar intimacy with his sheep, an intimacy whose proper analogy is the mutual knowledge of the Father and the Son (vv. 14–15 and notes there).“
D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991).
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For those who strongly dislike Calvin
People tend to either vilify Calvin or hold him up as the standard by which all of Christian thought must be measured. For either, I found this helpful. A Respost by Justin Taylor.
Calvin on the Good News in Christ
From John Calvin’s preface to Pierre-Robert Olivétan’s 1535 translation of the Bible.
“To all those who love Christ and his gospel,” Calvin writes:
Without the gospel
everything is useless and vain;
without the gospel
we are not Christians;
without the gospel
all riches is poverty,
all wisdom, folly before God;
strength is weakness, and
all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.
But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made
children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ,
by whom
the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinners justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure, and
slaves free.
The gospel is the Word of life.
In Institutes 2.16.19 he explains that “We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ [Acts 4:12]. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.”
If we seek salvation
we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him.”
If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit,
they will be found in his anointing.
If we seek strength,
it lies in his dominion;
if purity,
in his conception;
if gentleness,
it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.
If we seek redemption,
it lies in his passion;
if acquittal,
in his condemnation;
if remission of the curse,
in his cross;
if satisfaction,
in his sacrifice;
if purification,
in his blood;
if reconciliation,
in his descent into hell;
if mortification of the flesh,
in his tomb;
in newness of life,
in his resurrection;
if immortality,
in the same;
if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom,
in his entrance into heaven;
if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings,
in his Kingdom;
if untroubled expectation of judgment,
in the power given to him to judge.
In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other.