Christ is the pasture of the sheep for the Old Testament saints, who go out of the custody of the law, to feed on.
Christ is the pasture for the New Testament saints, who become one flock with the Old Testament saints under one Shepherd, to feed on. In John 10:16 the Lord Jesus said, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must lead them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.” The one flock signifies the one church, the one Body of Christ (Eph. 2:14-16; 3:6), brought forth by the Lord’s eternal, divine life, which He imparted into His members through His death and resurrection. The fold is Judaism, which is of letter and regulation, and the flock is the church, which is of life and spirit.
As the One who is the Shepherd, the door, and the pasture, the Lord Jesus forms His sheep into one flock, the one universal church, the one Body of Christ, consisting of all the believers in Christ. The Lord supplies the sheep with Himself as life so that there may be one flock and one Shepherd, one Body and one Head. This one flock is different in nature from a fold. A fold is a religious organization; the one flock is the church. Christ has brought us out of the fold into the flock, where we are in Him as the pasture experiencing and enjoying Him as our life and life supply.
For us to be fed with Christ as the rich pasture of life is for us to be flocked together with God’s other sheep to be His organic Body to arrive at the ultimate goal of God’s economy—the New Jerusalem. When we feast on Christ as the pasture, we like to be flocked together with others. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we like to fellowship with others. If we feed upon Christ as our pasture in the morning, enjoying Him as the feast, we will eagerly go to the meeting in the evening.
In John 10:30 the Lord Jesus declared, “I and the Father are one.” Here the Lord asserted His deity, that is, that He is God (v. 33; 5:18; 1:1; 20:28; 1 John 5:20; Phil. 2:6).
According to the context the Lord’s word in John 10:30 signifies that the Father and the Son are one in shepherding, freeing, and feeding God’s chosen people.
The believers, as God’s flock, enjoy the care of both the Son and the Father. In verses 28 and 29 the Lord Jesus said, “I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” These verses speak respectively of the Son’s hand and of the Father’s hand. The Father’s hand, by which He chooses in His love according to His purpose (17:23; 6:38-39), and the Son’s hand, by which He saves by His grace for the fulfillment of the Father’s purpose (1:14; 6:37), both of which have the keeping power, are for the believers’ protection. Eternal life, which is for the believers’ living, will never fail. Hence, the believers are eternally secure and will never perish.
Grace and love are not two separate matters but two aspects of one thing. Love is in the Father. When this love reaches us in the Son, it becomes grace. When through grace we return to the Father, we enjoy His love.
Both the Son’s hand of grace and the Father’s hand of love are of the divine life. In the Father the divine life is the source, and in the Son this life is the course. In the Father the divine life is love, and in the Son the divine life is grace. Because we enjoy both the Son and the Father, we enjoy both grace and love. The result is that we are preserved, and nothing can snatch us out of these two hands—the Son’s hand of grace and the Father’s hand of love.