John 10:18

“No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it again. This commandment I received of my Father.”

Now Jesus again makes clear that what was to happen was not finally in men's hands but was in His own hands. ‘No one takes it from me, but I lay it down by my own decision and choice.' And this was possible because He had the power and authority to do it.

Indeed ‘I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again.' ‘Exousia', translated ‘power', has in fact a wider sense, for it includes the idea of freedom to do so, as well as the ability and power. It was totally under His control. He would lay His own life down, voluntarily and willingly. Then He would take it again. This was because He was Lord of life and death.

This brings out that through all that was to happen Jesus would retain full control. The Judaisers may have thought that they were in control. They may have plotted and schemed as they would. But He was not in their hands. Everything was in His own hands. He had the power to live or die as He chose, and if He died He had the power to raise Himself again.

‘This commandment I received of my Father.' In all this He would be acting according to His Father's will. It would not be easy, and at times He would long that He could withdraw (‘not my will, but yours be done' (Mark 14:36)), but He would obey His Father by His own choice. And by His own power He would rise from the dead. Elsewhere we are told that God raised Him from the dead (Acts 2:24; 1 Corinthians 15:15; Ephesians 2:6) but here we learn it was by His own power. Of course there is no contradiction. When He raised Himself it was God Who was raising Him. The Godhead act as one.

We must not diminish this into signifying that Jesus could simply do these things because He was really obeying the One Who would bring about these things. A careful reading of the passage emphasises Jesus' absolute confidence that the power and authority lay within Himself. Nevertheless He also wants it to be clear that in so acting on His own initiative He is in perfect conformity with the will of the Father.

Compare with this claim to lay down His life of Himself the statement that it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). He and His Father were in fact so acting in union that His personal will was aligned with the determinate counsel of God, and the implication is that had He so willed it (Which, because of Who He was, was impossible) He could have refused to follow that determinate counsel. However, because they were One in all things (John 10:30) He would never do so. God always acts as One.