The Lord Jesus is our Good Shepherd, Who promises to His sheep everlasting life by dying to save us. He promised to find His other sheep, outside of Israel, and bring poor Gentiles into His fold, and be our shepherd also!
But there was opposition against Gentile believers by the Judaizers, who sought to keep the fold all-Jewish. Even the apostles at first were reluctant to include Gentiles in the Gospel, until the Holy Ghost had better instructed them.
Judaizers tried to interpose the Mosaic Law between Gentile saints and Jesus, but Paul denounced such as a false gospel of pirated in works righteousness that can only condemn.
We are all saved by faith just like Abraham, and not by any of our own works. By faith we are joined unto Christ, Who is the true blessing of all who would be saved.
All this was insulting to those who presumed they were entitled to be Christ's sheep in His fold by virtue of their physical descent from Abraham. Christ had insulted them by promising to find His other sheep!
It seems that they misunderstood how one got into Christ's fold. They thought entrance should be granted to good Jews who kept the law. They viewed it as their birthright.
But Jesus set them right: if anyone doesn't believe in Jesus, it's because they aren't His sheep, and if they aren't His sheep, they won't be permitted into His fold.
Thus, Jesus announced the purging of His fold of all the folks who weren't His sheep, and didn't trust in Him.
How dare Jesus cast people out of His fold! They were expecting a political Messiah, one that would include all of ethnic Israel in His fold as His sheep.
But only those who trust in Jesus are included by Christ!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
