Christ's Sheep must Believe and Why !
Jesus said this Jn 10:16
16 And
other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and
they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Jesus here means by this, that He had other Sheep besides those He had in the jews, that He had Gentile Sheep too !
The key word here is
Have Jesus says He has them ! The word have is the word
echō and means:
to have, i.e. to hold
- to have (hold) in the hand, in the sense of wearing, to have (hold) possession of the mind (refers to alarm, agitating emotions, etc.), to hold fast keep, to have or comprise or involve, to regard or consider or hold as
- to have i.e. own, possess
Notice that it means not only to possess, but to own !
And such that He owns and possess shall hear His Voice and believe, because faith cometh by hearing the voice of Christ Rom 10:17
So then faith
cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
Some Translations read:
So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [
of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).
So belief cometh of hearing,
and hearing by the word of Christ.
They shall hear Christ's voice through the Preaching of His servants as they Preach about Christ !
Now , concerning our text, even though Christ own and possed Sheep, they had yet to believe, however by the simple fact that they were His Sheep that He owned/possed they must believe; and heres why:
Those who belong to Christ, as a token or seal of His ownership of them, His Spirit is given to them, to mark them as His, and to reveal them as His, and so we read in Rom 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Now of course even the Sheep before New Birth dont have the Spirit of Christ experimentally, however thats why they must be born again, to show that they are Christ's Sheep, that they belong to Him !
Now this means that if a person never receives the Spirit of Christ, then they were never of His Sheep that He owned and Possess. Now understand, Christs Sheep were His Sheep before they believed and received the Spirit, but there was no evidence of them being owned by Christ and being His Sheep until they believe !
Its just not possible for anyone of Christ's Sheep to live and die without the mark of ownership [The Spirit], which is His Spirit Rom 8:9, and upon believing He seals them as Christ's Sheep Eph 1:13
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard[Jn 10:16] the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also
after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Now the word
sealed is the greek word
sphragizō and means:
sphragízō (from
4973 /sphragís, "a seal") – properly, to seal (affix) with a signet ring or other instrument to stamp (a roller or seal), i.e.
to attest ownership,
authorizing (
validating) what is sealed.
sphragízō ("to seal") signifies ownership and the full security carried by the backing (full authority) of the owner. "Sealing" in the ancient world served as a "legal signature" which guaranteed the promise (contents) of what was sealed.
The Holy Spirit is Christ's signature attesting to the Sheep being His.
Now where they His Sheep before the attesting of the Spirit ? Yes, we know this because He said, other Sheep I have that are not of this fold and they shall hear my voice Jn 10:16.
And of course they seal is applied after believing, which is the Fruit of the Spirit Gal 5:22
22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith,
The Spirit gives us Faith to believe because we belonged to Christ, and because of that we must spiritually hear His voice and Believe as Promised Jn 10:16 !