John 10:29,30

John 10:29-30. My Father, which hath given them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. The apparent object of these words is to establish more completely the safety of His sheep. But in answering this purpose they also answer a still higher end; they are a revelation of Jesus Himself. In effect they give a reply to the question of the Jews, but such a reply as only the heart prepared to listen to the truth will receive. Jesus has spoken of ‘My sheep;' they are His by reason of His Father's gift. The Father who has given will maintain the gift: and He is greater than all who could seek to snatch away the sheep, none can snatch aught out of the hand of the Father. The progress of the thought is perfectly simple, but the transition from ‘my Father' to ‘the Father' is full of meaning. The letter name is fitly used, since here the axiom of Divine Almightiness is expressed; the same name, moreover, is most appropriate in a passage which traces the development of God's purpose to make men His sons through His Son. Jesus has used the same words of Himself and of the Father; ‘no one shall pluck them out of my hand,' ‘no one can pluck out of the Father's hand.' He might have left His hearers to draw the certain inference, but He will so far grant their request as to ‘tell' this ‘plainly:' ‘I and the Father are one.' There is perhaps nothing in this saying that goes beyond the revelation of chap. 5; but its terseness and its simple force give it a new significance. Unity of action, purpose, power, may be what the context chiefly requires us to recognise as expressed in these words; but the impression which was made upon the Jews (John 10:31), the fuller statement of John 10:38, the analogy of chap. 5 and of expressions (still more closely parallel) in chap. 17 forbid us to depart from the most ancient Christian exposition which sees in this saying of Jesus no less than a claim of unity of essence with the Father.