Charles Ellicott Commentary John 10:17

"Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again." — John 10:17 (ASV)

Therefore doth my Father love me . . . For the meaning of this difficult verse, compare Notes on John 5:17 and following, and on Philippians 2:8-9. The thought is that in the relation between the Father and the human nature of Christ, the reason for the Father’s love is based upon the self-devotion of the Son. He who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for it, loves the Son who of His own will gives Himself to die. It is, if we might presume so to speak, as though the salvation of mankind had called forth a new relation of love between the Father and the Son.

That I might take it again.—This is given as part of the reason for the Father’s love; and the words admit of no other construction.

At first sight, these words seem paradoxical to us, beyond and against common feeling. In acts of sacrifice, the fact that what is lost will be certainly regained seems to us to take away all value from the act. But here, the fact that Christ will lay down His life is stated to be in order that He may take it again—and this is the foundation of the Father’s love!

The key to the meaning is in the truth that for Christ, taking human life again is itself a further sacrifice, and that this is necessary for the completion of the Great Shepherd’s work. The scattered sheep, throughout the world’s existence, are to be gathered in by Him whose continued union with human nature makes Him at once the Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep, and the Door by whom we ever have access to the Father.