Hebrews 13:20, commentary and pictures

The God of peace brought Jesus back from the dead as the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant to make believers complete in every good work to do His will. His resurrection is the ground of the church's hope, strength and salvation, for death could not hold the sinless Conqueror, and as Lord our Righteousness He alone pardons, justifies and restores repentant sinners to peace with God. His blood seals the everlasting covenant made from eternity, and by His sacrifice He makes peace, sanctifies His people, and opens the way for grace, mercy and love to reach sinners. As the good Shepherd He knows His sheep by name, leads them, seeks the wandering, lifts the fallen, and gives His life for them as no under-shepherd can. Through Him God completes those who struggle with temptation, removes self from the self-centered, and works in believers what pleases Him so they take Christ's yoke, reflect His likeness, and gather souls with Him.

Resurrection and Everlasting Covenant

The verse presents God as the God of peace who brought Jesus back from the dead as the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, and it links that resurrection to making believers complete in every good work to do His will by working in them what pleases Him through Jesus Christ. The penalty of the law was fulfilled in Christ by obedience unto death, opening eternal life to every sinner through repentance and faith in Him as Redeemer, Surety and Substitute. Jesus was delivered up, descended into the prisonhouse of the grave and was enclosed in the new rocky tomb, and if one single sin had tainted His character the stone would never have been rolled away and the world with its burden of guilt would have perished. For a little while the divine Vanquisher seemed vanquished and the serpent bruised His heel, but death could not hold Him; the stone was rolled away and He walked forth from His prison house a triumphant, majestic conqueror, giving every believer cause to rejoice in a living hope by His resurrection from the dead.

His resurrection is the ground of the church's hope, strength and salvation. As the Lord our Righteousness with all power in heaven and earth, He alone pardons sin, justifies repentant sinners, restores God's moral image in them, and brings the humble and contrite into peace with God for churches, families and individuals. His blood is the basis that seals the everlasting covenant; through His sacrifice on Calvary He makes peace, sanctifies the people, and opened the way for grace, mercy, peace and love to reach sinners. That same work calls believers to come to Him, bear His reproach and offer continual praise. Sinless, He offered Himself as both priest and victim, having power to lay down His life and take it up again.

He receives those who confess and forsake their sins, transforms their character, and alone prepares them for eternal life and entrance into the holy city. The everlasting covenant was made from eternity before the foundations of the earth were laid and later given to Abraham hundreds of years before Christ came, providing abundant grace so that those who obey and receive it may become holy and blameless before God and be adopted as His children. The covenant is delivered by God to His people during the time of trouble as He speaks the day and hour of Jesus' coming, with its blessing pronounced on those who honored God by keeping the Sabbath holy, who shout in victory over the beast and its image.

Christ the Great Shepherd

Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep, whom God brought back from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant. As the good Shepherd He knows His sheep and leads them, and He gives His life for them. No under-shepherd can do for the flock what He has done. He stands in utter contrast to false or hireling shepherds who abandon and scatter the sheep when danger comes.

He calls His own sheep by name and invites them to follow in His steps. He seeks those who wander, and by the light of His word shows them their danger. By warnings, reproofs, and invitations He calls them to return to the right path, helping those who err and lifting up those who fall. Those who refuse His voice and follow a false guide move ever farther from light and peace and happiness and rest.

His care and love for His sheep never fail, and He never misleads His flock. His followers therefore must show tenderness and long-suffering toward erring and straying believers. They are to seek out the lost and care for them rather than abandon them.

Moses learned this shepherding in caring patiently for afflicted, straying, unruly, young, and feeble sheep, and that work drew him nearer to Christ the great Shepherd. As leader of Israel he was to depend wholly on Christ and serve as a willing instrument in His hands. David likewise, in watching over his flock, came to appreciate the Lord's care as the Great Shepherd. His defense of the sheep developed in him courage and fortitude and faith.

When persecution comes the true sheep hear His voice and cling to Him as a personal Saviour. Those who have strayed from the fold may then return to follow Him. Common allegiance to the Shepherd draws His people together and ends disputes over who is greatest.

Those who shepherd God's people are to keep Christ continually before them and turn the attention of their hearers to Him. They are to exalt Him in word and conduct and spirit. For He is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His example is more than preaching, for He studied Scripture with His disciples and with the people, taught them personally, met their needs, and made truth plain through parables and symbols.

His voice still guides His followers where to go. When the Lord gives a person light to go to any place, that person must hear His voice and follow Him. Others must not hold him back, so that God's will and God's way may be done.

The redeemed are His flock gathered safely at last into His fold in heaven with the white-robed ransomed. The faithful worker and the souls saved through his self-denying labor are gathered together there. They are greeted by the Lamb in the midst of the throne, led to the tree of life and to the fountain of living waters, and made sharers of the Redeemer's glory and throne. Heaven is made more precious to those faithful in saving others by beholding these redeemed ones with them.

Made Complete for Service

The God of peace who brought Jesus back from the dead as the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant is asked in the prayer that follows to make believers perfect and complete in every good work to do His will and to work in them through Jesus Christ what pleases Him. That completing is promised through the sanctification of the Spirit. It assures those struggling against temptation that God will complete them in every good work and work in them what pleases Him through the blood of the everlasting covenant and through Jesus Christ.

For self-centered believers who seek special favor, cherish grievances and scatter others away from Christ, the verse means God must remove self and fit them to stand shoulder to shoulder with brethren, carry their share of the heavy load and gather with Christ. Believers are to acknowledge Him in all their ways, gathering heavenly light by following on to know the Lord and then communicating what they receive. For parents this calls for earnest united effort to train children for Him by cultivating the graces of the Spirit in the home, and as they awaken to duty and become learners of Christ they are taught how to do that work acceptably.

As the great Shepherd He teaches His people how to work and how to hunt for souls in the wilderness of sin and draw them to Christ, while the Holy Spirit gives efficiency and power to their labor to save perishing souls ready to die. His followers take His yoke upon them, lift His burdens, possess His meekness and lowliness, and His likeness becomes more distinct in their characters. He gives eternal life so they shall never perish and none shall pluck them from His hand, but the promise is conditional on not following a stranger and on knowing the voice of Christ, which is the only election shown in God's Word, illustrated by the white-robed multitude from great tribulation washed in the blood of the Lamb and fed and led by the Lamb to living fountains of waters.