I am the good shepherd

With reference to John 10:11—SATAN took the price of release. In the day of his power he valued the blood at thirty pieces of silver. In this was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, "They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver: and cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them" (Zech. 11:12, 13). The life being purchased for this amount of blood-money, Satan nailed the Christ-Lamb to the tree; and poured out his life with a spear. Jesus entered no protest against the arrangement. On the contrary, he lovingly laid down his life for the sake of those who had died under the law of Moses, walking in the steps of Abraham's faith; and for them also, who should afterwards become Abraham's children by adoption through himself. With the first class, as a man, he had no personal acquaintance; with the last, comprehending multitudes of his contemporaries, his acquaintance cost him his life. Unknown by the one, and condemned and persecuted by the other, he nevertheless laid down his life to purchase their release from the bondage of Sin and Death. "I am," said he, "the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep; and I lay down my life for them of myself. No man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10). He regarded this as the greatest evidence of love; for, as Paul reasons, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Well, therefore, may it be said, "Unto him that loved us, to him be glory and dominion for the Aions of the Aions" (Apoc. 1:5, 6).