On verses 28-30. "And they shall never perish" (Jn 10:28). You may understand Him as if He went on to say to those Jews, "But you will perish forever, because you are not of My sheep." "And no one will snatch them out of My hand" (Jn 10:28). Listen with still greater attention: "My Father, what He has given Me, is greater than all" (cf. Jn 10:29). What can the wolf do? What can the thief and robber do? They destroy no one except those predestined to perdition. Of those sheep of whom the Apostle says, "The Lord knows His own" (2 Tim 2:19), and, "Whom He foreknew, He also predestined; whom He predestined, He also called; whom He called, He also justified; and whom He justified, He also glorified" (cf. Rom 8:29-30), not one is led away by the wolf, snatched by the thief, or killed by the robber. He is secure about their number, He who knows what the Father gave Him for their sake. Of this He says: "No one will snatch them out of My hand" (Jn 10:28). And also concerning the Father: "My Father, what He has given Me, is greater than all."
What did the Father give the Son that is greater than all? That He should be His Only-begotten Son. What, then, does "gave" mean? Did He already exist when the Father gave Him this, or did He give it in begetting Him? If He already existed when the Father gave Him to become Son, then at some time He was not Son. It cannot be that at some moment the Lord Christ was not Son. This can be said of us: once we were children of men and were not children of God. Grace made us sons of God, but nature made Him so, for He was born Son of God. Do not say, "He did not exist before He was born," for He was never not born, who is coeternal with the Father. Let him who understands receive it. Let him who does not receive it by understanding believe and be nourished, so that he may receive it. The Word of God is always with the Father, and the Word is always. Because the Word is eternal, the Son is also eternal. Therefore the Son is eternal and always equal to the Father. He is not equal to Him because He grew up to Him, but through birth. He is the eternal Son born of the Father, God from God, from the eternal One coeternal. The Father is not God from the Son, but the Son is God from the Father. Therefore the Father, in begetting, gave the Son to be God. In begetting, He gave Him to be coeternal with Him. In begetting, He gave Him to be equal to Him. This is what "greater than all" means.
In what way is the Son both life and the possessor of life? He is what He possesses. What you possess is one thing, and you yourself are another. For example, you possess wisdom. Are you wisdom itself? Since you are not what you possess, when you lose what you possess, you return to the condition in which you did not have it. You lose it and receive it again. So our eye, because it does not have inseparable light in itself, is opened and receives light, or is closed and loses it. But the Son of God is not God in this way. He is not the Word of the Father in this way. He is not a word that passes through sound, but the Word who abides by birth. He possesses wisdom in such a way that He Himself is Wisdom and makes men wise. He possesses life in such a way that He makes men alive. This is what "greater than all" means.
The Evangelist John himself looked upon heaven and earth, wishing to speak of the Son of God. He looked and passed beyond them. He saw in heaven thousands of angelic hosts. He saw them, and, like an eagle in the clouds, by his mind he surpassed everything created. He surpassed all that is great and reached Him who is greater than all, and said, "In the beginning was the Word" (Jn 1:1). But because He, being the Word, is not Word from Word, but Word from Him whose Word He is, He said: "What the Father gave Me." That is, "He gave Me to be His Word, to be His Only-begotten Son. To be the radiance of His light, greater than all." Therefore, He says, "No one will snatch them out of My hand, and no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand" (Jn 10:28-29).
"Out of My hand" and "out of My Father's hand." What does this mean: "No one will snatch them out of My hand, and no one can snatch them out of My Father's hand"? Is there one hand of the Father and the Son? Or perhaps is the Son Himself the hand of His Father? If we understand "hand" as power, then the power of the Father and the Son is one, because Their Godhead is one. But if we understand "hand" as the hand of which it is said through the prophet, "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" (cf. Is 53:1), then the Son Himself is the hand of the Father. This is not said as though God has a human form and bodily members. It is said because He has made all things through Him. People also customarily say that other people through whom they do what they wish serve them as hands. Sometimes a person's own work is called his hand, because it was done by the hand. Thus, when someone recognizes what another has written, he says that he recognizes his hand. Since one may speak in many ways about the hand of a man, who has a hand as one of the members of his body, how many more ways are there to understand the hand of God, who has no bodily form? Therefore, in this passage it is better for us to understand the hand of God as the power of the Father and the Son. If we understood the Father's hand here as the Son Himself, carnal understanding might suddenly compel us to seek another Son belonging to the Son Himself, whom it would understand as Christ's hand. Therefore "no one will snatch them out of My Father's hand" means, "No one will snatch them from Me."
But so that you may no longer doubt, listen to what follows: "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30).
THEOSIS