The Payment Required to Redeem Humanity

In our daily meditations, we continue to explore the theme of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the one who laid down his life for his sheep. Here's the passage:

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:7-15; emphasis added).

In the summer, the shepherds of Israel would take their sheep farther away from the town where the grass was more plentiful. It would be too far to go home for the night, so the shepherd would find a nearby cave or build a sheepfold out of the many stones and boulders on the Judean plateau. He would then lay brambles or thorn bushes on the walls to keep wolves from reaching the sheep at night.

The shepherd would allow only one opening for the sheep to enter or leave the sheepfold. Jesus said, "I am the gate for the sheep" (v. 7), or "I am the door," depending on the translation you use. That would be where the shepherd rested and slept for the night. He would serve as the door of the sheepfold. The sheep could come in and go out (v. 9) and rest peacefully and securely because they could see the Shepherd in the doorway, and the sheep knew He loved them and would protect them from wolves.

Satan appears as a wolf or a false shepherd to “fleece the sheep” or to kill and destroy us, but Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (v. 10). The Lord came to give life to all who respond to His call, which means that before we meet Him, we don’t have the life God intended. God laid upon Christ the iniquity (sin) of us all. Because Jesus is God in the flesh, only His life had the value needed to satisfy eternal justice and bring us “home.” Only God could pay the substitutionary price for all of us. It would be His life for our life—a unique exchange that benefits us far more than we can ever comprehend.

Let's think about the value of the substitute that needs to pay the price. If we considered the worth of ants, how many of these insects would amount to the same value as a sheep—a million, maybe ten million? What if we used all of Earth's population of ants as a bargaining chip? Would that equal one sheep? A sheep is a higher life form and of more value than all ants. Well, let's go further with that thought. How many sheep would be the equivalent value needed to buy back a single human being? In God's view, all sheep all over the world do not equal the life of one human made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Let's go one step further: what kind of price had to be paid to buy all human beings out of the slave market of Satan? Only the Sovereign Lord Himself could equal the value of all who would take Christ’s death as a substitute for theirs.

We are discussing the redemption payment made by the Son of God, who laid down His life in exchange for our mortal, imperfect lives. That is why Christ's death paid the price for all your sins. No man can erase sin, but the Lord of Glory can, and He did. The God of Heaven laid on His Son the sins of all humanity that had gone astray—his life for our lives. If we receive Christ by faith, we are regenerated or born again through the paying price of Christ's precious blood. We now belong to the Good Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep. Jesus said He came to lay down His life for His sheep (v. 15). Keith Thomas.

Shortened from the more extended study at the following link: Jesus, the Good Shepherd