Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
Therefore doth my Father love me,.... Christ was the object of his Father's love from all eternity, and was loved by him on various accounts; first and chiefly, as his own Son, of the same nature with him, equal to him; and also as Mediator, engaging for, and on the behalf of his chosen people; and likewise as he was clothed with their nature, and...
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, &c.--As the highest act of the Son's love to the Father was the laying down of His life for the sheep at His "commandment," so the Father's love to Him as His incarnate Son reaches its consummation, and finds its highest justification, in that sublimest and most affecting of all acts.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. (5) Christ is by the decree of the Father the only true shepherd of the true Church, for he willingly gave his life for his sheep, and by his own power rose again to life. (g) He uses the present tense because Christ's whole life was as it were a perpetual death.