The teacher that teaches Christ did not want to die has some things he must not be too sure about. One, he must not be too sure that Jesus was God. Two, that Christ did not share our nature for thrity three years and allow the human nature that He shared in a human body to supersede the God nature. Three, That what glorifies the nature called God is not the same thing that glorifies the nature called human. Four, that the God who died on Calvary’s tree MADE the planet on which we live and owned the WHOLE creation before He came here in the flesh and would NEVER have been satisfied with some little hole in the road place called Jerusalem, nor the throne that could have been established there!! Fifth, that if He were God, there is not too much to fear, if man could kill Him once, it can be done the second time He comes. Sixth, with all the prophets and holy men having spoken of His dying when they wrote, they must have been describing someone else!! Seventh, and we could just keep going; pleasing God, the Father was not high on Christ agenda!!
What was Christ own definition of a hireling? In John 10 Jesus was teaching the blind man whom He had healed that had been blind since birth who, they who were truly blind were going to cast out of the synagogue for believing (or so they thought) in Christ. The blind man had not been healed because of faith, for he had never heard nor met Christ. Since Christ had healed him, Christ went to introduce Himself to the blind man On this occasion, Jesus said I will prove to you I am both God, God the Good Shepherd, and God the Good Shepherd that cares. “I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not the Shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine as the Father knows Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.” John 10:11-15 Maybe we had better go back and read that again!! What was the SIGN whereby we would know THE GOOD SHEPHERD?? “I give My life for the sheep.” IT GETS WORSE, “Therefore does My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again.”
IT GETS EVEN WORSE, “No man takes it (My life) from Me, but I lay it down (no one is making Me), and I have power (not been given this power, Christ had this power) to take it (My life) again. This commandment have I received of My Father (God, the Father had commanded, demanded, Christ to use His power, innate within Himself for He was God and resurrect Himself from the dead, this injunction was an order from the Father).” John 10:18 Question: if Christ HAD the power, DIED because He would use this as a signal to all who believed not in Him that He was God, and then did not die?? What a mess the devil has these purveyors of false doctrine getting in!! You see the question was not IF this could be done, the question was PROOF that Christ was the Good Shepherd. The world would not believe Christ was God. Christ offered them a sign, proof, a fact they even could not deny!! This death and resurrection was BECAUSE, FOR THE PURPOSE OF. PROOF WAS A NEEDED. ALSO, Christ said, THIS WAS COMMANDED of the Father. God, the Father commanded Christ to prove Himself the Good Shepherd, to prove Himself that He was of the nature, kind, genre of God before mankind by dying on Calvary and resurrecting the third day. THIS IS PROOF He was the Good Shepherd!! Christ had the power to do this, it would not be bragging on His part, it would be PROOF. NOT PROOF TO HIMSELF, PROOF TO THE WORLD. Miracles were a proof He was God but dying and resurrecting, that would be the ultimate convincing proof. SAID WHO? God, the Father. Conclusion: had Christ not died, He would have disobeyed a command, directive of the Father and the Father “would not love Me.” John 10:17 WHAT WAS THE PLAN IF HE HAD DECIDED NOT TO PROVE HIS DEITY? WHAT HE PROVE BY LIVING? He could have lived!! That too, was in His power!! Who, then would have loved Him?? HIMSELF??, how could He prove He loved the Father, that the Father knew the BEST way TO PROVE CHRIST TO BE GOD? If, then He did not die, what would He have proven?? THAT HE WAS THE HIRELING THAT FLED, DESERTED, DISHONORED of THE FATHER. Now, understand the plea of Christ: “Father, glorify Thou Me.”
