Does the Great Sheep Keeper Own You?

© 2015 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

One day some folks, who didn’t believe Jesus was the Savior, challenged Him to prove Himself. Jesus told them they didn’t believe because they weren’t of His sheep.

“But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you” (John 10:26, see also Acts 13:48).

Notice the cause and effect here. Because they were not sheep, unbelief was the result; not vice versa. Then Jesus proceeded to describe His relationship with His sheep.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” (John 10:27-30).

If we’re really His sheep, we must realize we didn’t initiate, nor do we preserve, this relationship. God, alone, does. God the Father gave the sheep to Christ who shed His blood for them. The life He breathes into our dead hearts causes us to follow Him. The hand of God the Son, Christ Jesus, and of God His Father, preserves us, and no man can ever pluck us out of His hand.

The good news, for true Christians, is that when God initiates new life in a dead person , He will always complete that work. The apostle Paul said that he was,

“…confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: …” (Philippians 1:6).

In his letter to the Christians in Rome Paul wrote,

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

God has declared that Christ’s sheep are absolutely and eternally safe. But remember, Christ’s sheep are those into whom He breathes life that hears Him and follows Him.

Has Christ given you life that causes you to hear and follow Him, thereby proving that you belong to the great Sheep Keeper?

 

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