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Examined Doctrine
PASSAGE · BSB

John 10

20 positions in the corpus lean on this chapter. Cited verses are marked.

1“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.

2But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”

6Jesus spoke to them using this illustration, but they did not understand what He was telling them.

7So He said to them again, “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

9I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He 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 in all its fullness.

11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

12The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock.

13The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep.

14I 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.

16I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.

17The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.

18No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”

19Again there was division among the Jews because of Jesus’ message.

20Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and insane. Why would you listen to Him?”

21But others replied, “These are not the words of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

22At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter,

23and Jesus was walking in the temple courts in Solomon’s Colonnade.

24So the Jews gathered around Him and demanded, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

25“I already told you,” Jesus replied, “but you did not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name testify on My behalf.

26But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe.

27My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

29My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

30I and the Father are one.”

31At this, the Jews again picked up stones to stone Him.

32But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”

33“We are not stoning You for any good work,” said the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because You, who are a man, declare Yourself to be God.”

34Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?

35If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—

36then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?

37If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me.

38But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”

39At this, they tried again to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp.

40Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and He stayed there.

41Many came to Him and said, “Although John never performed a sign, everything he said about this man was true.”

42And many in that place believed in Jesus.

Who leans on it

Jacobus Arminius on perseverance & eternal securityDISPUTED READINGNO FIT°He declined to settle it, and said so in his own public doctrinal statement. His positive claim is strong: believers grafted into Christ have sufficient power to win against sin and Satan by the Spirit's help, and cannot…Voddie Baucham on perseverance & eternal securitySTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Perseverance of the saints.Calvin on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The elect cannot finally fall, and the ground is Christ's intercession rather than the believer's constancy: Christ prays for all the elect what he prayed for Peter, that their faith fail not, and 'the Son of God, who as…Calvin on divine plurality & the unseen realmPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Calvin takes the elohim of Psalm 82 as magistrates, and he considers and rejects the alternative rather than never noticing it: applying the name to angels is 'a fancy too strained to admit of serious consideration.' The…M. Heiser on the person of christDISPUTED READINGNO FIT°Affirms the deity of Christ explicitly and repeatedly, and reads the Old Testament 'second Yahweh' — visible, often in human form — as the one who becomes incarnate. Argues that the human-judges reading of Psalm 82 destr…Josh Howerton on the nature of saving faithPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Saving faith requires notitia (knowledge), assensus (agreement), and fiducia (trust). Demons have the first two and lack the third. Once all three are present, what secures a person is the object of faith rather than its…Josh Howerton on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°A genuinely saved person cannot finally fall — 'the same grace that saves us also changes and sustains us.' The Hebrews warning passages and the parable of the sower are handled via the visible/invisible church distincti…Tim Keller on perseverance & eternal securitySTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Perseverance of the saints.Second London Baptist Confession on extent of the atonementPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Chapter 8.5 states the purchase as made for those the Father gave the Son, and 8.8 makes the application co-extensive with it: to all for whom Christ obtained redemption he certainly and effectually applies it. Chapter 3…Second London Baptist Confession on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Chapter 17.1 takes Westminster's sentence and expands it into a paragraph: those accepted in the Beloved can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace. Paragraph 17.2 grounds that not in the believer's fre…John MacArthur on extent of the atonementPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Definite atonement — Christ's death purchases and secures salvation specifically for those the Father gave him, not a provision made merely possible for all.John MacArthur on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Eternal security, joined directly to the lordship-salvation reading of apparent apostasy: someone who professes faith and later denies Christ demonstrates by that denial that they were never genuinely saved, rather than …Gavin Ortlund on perseverance & eternal securitySTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Perseverance of the saints.John Owen on the trinityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°One essence, three persons, co-equal and co-eternal, with person defined as a distinct manner of subsistence rather than a separate being. Owen assigns the personal properties in the classical way — the Father of himself…Justin Peters on the trinityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°One God in three co-eternal, co-equal Persons of one essence, with the Son consubstantial with the Father. The Spirit gets the longest of the section's four paragraphs, and an unusual share of it argues for His personhoo…Justin Peters on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Eternal security, positional and relational, resting on the giver rather than the believer: salvation is God's gift and will never be revoked. He meets the easy-believism objection head on — those who profess and later w…John Piper on extent of the atonementSTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Definite atonement.Charles Haddon Spurgeon on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The genuinely saved will certainly persevere, grounded in God's faithfulness rather than the believer's own strength or feelings of dedication. Apparent apostasy in a professing believer is read as evidence of a temporar…Westminster Confession on extent of the atonementPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The restriction is stated in chapter 3 rather than chapter 8, and it is stated as an exclusive: no one other than the elect is redeemed by Christ. Chapter 8 then makes purchase and application coextensive - 8.5 says Chri…Westminster Confession on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°WCF 17.1 rules out both partial and final apostasy for the same class of people - those accepted, effectually called and sanctified - so the doctrine is tied to a description of what God has done rather than to a descrip…