Christ makes a number of bold “I am” statements throughout the gospel of John, and John 10:7 contains one of those statements.
In John 10:1, the Jews would have understood “door” to mean all the trappings of Jewishness and genealogy. In the Old Testament, however, many were admitted into Israel who were not born into a Jewish home. By this, we understand that the “door” to the righteousness of God is justification by faith and not rituals, outward ceremonies (such as baptism), or genealogies.
In verse 7, Christ says, “I am the door”. Matthew Poole writes that we enter “by Christ, that is, by a true and lively faith wrought by the Spirit of Christ in the soul”. This is the way, the only way, to gain entrance into the body of Christ.
We have been tracing new birth in the gospel of John, and verse 7 very plainly represents new birth. The doorway not just into the true church but into heaven is only through new birth which is justification by faith on the blood of Christ and baptism by fire through the Holy Spirit.
Implied and implicit in the statement by Christ is justification by faith, new birth, regeneration, and purification into holiness through the Holy Spirit.
An interesting cross-reference may be found in Psalm 118. Verses 1-4 give praise to God, and verses 5-18 recount the Psalmist’s difficulties. Then, in verse 19, we read, “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD.”
A number of commentators agree that verse 20 is a response. Verse 19 is a request, “Open to me the gates of righteousness”. If we rephrase the request, it may be, “What are the gates of righteousness?” or “I want to enter into the gates of righteousness; how may I be saved?”
Verses 20-29 provide the response. “This is the gate of the LORD; The righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, And You have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. This is the LORD’S doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. O LORD, do save, we beseech You; O LORD, we beseech You, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
What is the gate of the Lord? The gate of the Lord is Christ. Psalm 118:19-29 contain a Messianic prophecy. Christ is the door. See also 1 Peter 2:4-6. Christ Himself quotes Psalm 118:22 and applies the verse to Himself in Matthew 21:33-46.
Christ is differentiating the traditions accepted by the Jews and leaders in that day, as well as in ours. The door to the kingdom of Christ is not salvation by works, works-based righteousness, self-righteousness, prosperity gospel, easy-believism, or any other buzz words. The only door to the true church, the body of Christ, is justification by faith through the blood of Christ and baptism by fire through the Holy Spirit.
As John the Baptist said, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” There is no other door, and any other way is a false way.
Christ is the door for the shepherds and leaders of the church as well as the sheep or the individual members of the church. If it is not plain enough, the door to which Christ refers is Himself and His atonement for sin on the cross. All throughout the exodus in the Old Testament, God expected the people to depend solely upon His provision through faith. Christ calls us in John 6 to eat of His body and drink of His blood. This is dependence upon Him through faith. We can also only approach God through the atonement of sin, and Christ is our atonement.
Thus, the door to which Christ refers for both shepherd and sheep is dependence upon His body and His blood and atonement for sin by His blood.
So what? Why does it matter? If we enter through Christ or chart our own path, what difference does it make? We find the answer in John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Christ holds Himself out to us as the door into righteousness and acceptance before God because the wrath of God abides on those who refuse Christ. John the Baptist said something similar in Matthew 3:7, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’”
When we know that the wrath of God abides on those who oppose Him, we must be all the more diligent to ensure we follow the exhortation given to us in Scripture. The wrath of God is implicit in John 10, and Christ differentiates the true pathway to God and the false paths we often try to take.
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