John Calvin Commentary John 10:26

"But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." — John 10:26 (ASV)

Because you are not of my sheep. He assigns a higher reason why they do not believe either in His miracles or in His doctrine. This is because they are reprobate. We must observe Christ’s design; for, since they boasted of being the Church of God, He affirms that the gift of believing is a special gift, so that their unbelief would not detract from the authority of the Gospel.

And indeed, before men know God, they must first be known by Him, as Paul says (Galatians 4:9). On the other hand, those to whom God does not look must always continue to look away from Him. If anyone murmurs at this, arguing that the cause of unbelief dwells in God because He alone has power to make sheep, I reply: He is free from all blame, for it is only by their voluntary malice that men reject His grace.

God does all that is necessary to induce them to believe, but who can tame wild beasts? This will never be done until the Spirit of God changes them into sheep. Those who are wild will in vain attempt to cast the blame for their wildness on God, for it belongs to their own nature.

In short, Christ means that it is not surprising if there are few who obey His Gospel, because all those whom the Spirit of God does not subdue to the obedience of faith are wild and fierce beasts.

It is therefore all the more unreasonable and absurd that the authority of the Gospel should depend on the belief of men; but believers should rather consider that they are all the more strongly bound to God because, while others remain in a state of blindness, they are drawn to Christ by the illumination of the Spirit. Here, too, ministers of the Gospel have ground of consolation if their labor is not profitable to all.