John 10:10

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal." Here it is noted that Christ himself enters as the true shepherd, not as a thief; on account of which he says: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal," by extorting temporal goods; "and to kill," …

The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill. As if He said, And well may the sheep not hear the voice of the thief; for he cometh not but for to steal: he usurpeth another's office, forming his followers not on Christ's precepts, but on his own. And therefore it follows, and to kill, i. e. by drawing them from the faith; and to destroy, i. e. by their eternal damnation.

Now he considers the thief. First, he mentions the mark of the thief; secondly, he says that he himself has the opposite characteristic, I came that they may have life. He says that those who do not enter by the door, i.e., those who have …

He came to give life to particular believers. Life is inclusive of all good, and stands in opposition to the death threatened ( Gen. ii. 17 ); that we might have life, as a criminal has when he is pardoned, as a sick man when he is cured, a dead man when he is raised; that we might be justified, sanctified, and at last glorified.

The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy - That is, nothing else can be the consequence of a shepherd's coming, who does not enter in by me.

The thief cometh not but for to steal,.... That is his first and principal view; to steal, is to invade, seize, and carry away another's property.

I. The first Truth is that JESUS CHRIST HAS COME THAT MEN MAY HAVE LIFE. I will not dwell upon the thought that even the prolonged natural life of the sinner is due, in a large measure, to the coming of Christ. That barren tree would not stand so long in the garden of life if it were not that the dresser of the vineyard intercedes and cries, "Spare it yet another year, until I dig about it and fertilize it."

I am come that they might have life, and . . . more abundantly--not merely to preserve but impart LIFE, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. Yet it is only an echo of all His teaching; and He who uttered these and like words must be either a blasphemer, all worthy of the death He died, or "God with us"--there can be no middle course.

I. The first Truth is that JESUS CHRIST HAS COME THAT MEN MAY HAVE LIFE. I will not dwell upon the thought that even the prolonged natural life of the sinner is due, in a large measure, to the coming of Christ. That barren tree would not stand so long in the garden of life if it were not that the dresser of the vineyard intercedes and cries, "Spare it yet another year, until I dig about it and fertilize it." The interposition of the Mediator accounts for the lengthened lives of gross offenders whose crimes tax the long-suffering of Heaven. If the prayers of our great Intercessor should cease for a single hour, the ungodly among mankind would, perhaps, sink down quickly into Hell, as Korah, Dathan and Abiram did when the Lord's anger broke forth upon them. That, however, is not the drift of the text. Life, in the sense of pardon and deliverance from the death penalty, is a great result of Christ's coming. All men in their natural condition are under sentence of death, for they have sinned, and they must be shortly taken to the place of execution, there to suffer the full penalty of the second death. If any of us are delivered at this time from the sentence of death and have now the promise of the crown of life, we owe the change to the coming of the Redeemer to be a Sacrifice for our sins. Every man among us must go down to the endless death unless, through Him who came to earth and hung upon the tree as the sinner's Substitute, we obtain full remission for all offenses—and the verdict of life instead of death. There is life in a look at Jesus, but apart from Him, the sons of Adam are under sentence of death. Moreover, we are all, by nature, "dead in trespasses and sins." In the day when our first parents broke the Law, they died spiritually, and all of us died in them.

The thief cometh not ... - The thief has no other design in coming but to plunder. So false teachers have no other end in view but to enrich or aggrandize themselves. I am come that they might have life - See the notes at Joh 5:24. Might have it more abundantly - Literally, that they may have abundance, or that which abounds. The word denotes that which is not absolutely essential to life, but which is superadded to make life happy. They shall not merely have life - simple, bare existence - but they shall have all those superadded things which are needful to make that life eminently blessed and happy. It would be vast mercy to keep men merely from annihilation or hell; but Jesus will give them eternal joy, peace, the society of the blessed, and all those exalted means of felicity which are prepared for them in the world of glory.

Darkness is overcome by light. Death is overcome by resurrection life, and what is sickness or disease but an attempt to rob the body of life?

Jesus came so that we could have life. Whereas, Satan's agenda can be described in one word as well: death. Satan's goal is to kill, steal, and destroy anything that is positive, wholesome, and winsome.

My first religion was pure Paganism, which among sincere men is more shortly described as extreme fear. Then there succeeded a state of mind which is quite real, but for which no proper name has ever been found. The ancients called it Stoicism, and I …

In considering the war of the Albigensians, we come to the breach in the heart of Europe and the landslide of a new philosophy that nearly ended Christendom for ever. In that case the new philosophy was also a very new philosophy; it was pessimism. …