John 10:28-30 28And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all things, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.”
These verses continue the thought of how sheep know the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus. Jesus has distinguished two types of sheep: those who know his voice and those who do not. Each has a destiny. Sadly, the destiny for those who do not come to recognize and accept the shepherd is to face the danger of wolves and thieves. These verses show the outcome of the sheep who recognize the truth and believe the claims of the shepherd. The destiny for these sheep is safety, security, and eternal life. Jesus already described this life in verse 10 as abundant and full. It begins in this lifetime and lasts forever. In verse 28, John uses one of the strongest ways to express a negative in Greek to show that we will never perish. What this loss means is difficult to determine. Perish (apolōntai) has a wide range of meanings including loss, ruin, destruction, or destroy. In this context, it is clearly the opposite of eternal life.
The idea of this life never perishing expresses the hope of resurrection. Our physical lives will end one day since our bodies are part of the decaying creation. Our hope is that there is something beyond the grave. The powerful claim of Christianity is that there is an existence after death that will mirror Jesus’ own resurrection. Paul the Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 that it will be a bodily existence in a spiritual sense but not physical with flesh and blood, which decay quickly and return to the earth.
This hope is based on the person of the shepherd. When we abide in Jesus (see chapter 15), we are safe from danger, and no one can snatch us away. Verse 29 makes a further connection between Jesus and the Father. The security of Jesus’ hand is assured because of his relationship with the Father’s hand. The Father has given authority to the Son. Just as it is impossible for any person, entity, force, or situation that can snatch a person away from the Father, so it is with the Son. This verse adds to the doctrine of the assurance of faith. As long as the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd, they are safe. As long as Christians keep their faith in Jesus, they are safe. As other Bible verses indicate, turning away from the shepherd and refusing to heed his voice or giving in to the temptation of other voices that seek to deceive us is dangerous and takes us out of Jesus’ protection. The choice is always ours and is expressed with the word “faith.”
Those who belong to the Son are as safe with him as they are with the Father because the two are one (verse 30). The word for one (hen) is neuter, suggestion how the Father and Son share in the same essence, mission, and purpose but are not the same identical persons, which would require the masculine form of the word (heis) and would logically make it impossible for Jesus to pray to the Father. Jesus was bound to an earthly existence, though from God and representing God in all ways. This verse touches upon the depths of the doctrine of the Trinity but with the purpose of giving assurance that what Jesus spoke was the truth, and they would put their total trust in him. Once again, the crisis of faith moves the plot of John’s Gospel along and confronts the reader with the question of whether to believe in Jesus or not.
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