Jesus and the crowd: “‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones again to stone him” (John 10:27-31).
Earlier in John 10, Jesus gave another “I AM” claim, “I am the good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Here, Jesus claims to be both the God of Moses’ burning bush and David’s good, divine Shepherd of Psalm 23:1.
Jesus says that he would “lay down his life for the sheep.” Therefore, he was no victim in dying for people’s forgiveness. But even though he looked helpless hanging by nails driven through his hands and feet, he was really the divine-human Victor to pay the price that sets believers free from Satan’s control.