John 10:7: Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
What does Christ mean by the “door”? John Lightfoot wrote, “Pure Israelitism among the Jews was the fold; and the door; and all things. For if any one was of the seed of Israel, and the stock of Abraham, it was enough (themselves being the judges) for such a one to be made a sheep, admitted into the flock, and be fed and nourished to eternal life. But in Christ’s flock the sheep had another origin, introduction, and mark.” That is to say, the qualifications and credentials to be an Israelite were rooted in external matters. Were you born into the right family? The doorway to be an Israelite was family status.
This is very different from what we see in the Old Testament. God specifically instructed Israel to welcome outsiders and to instruct them in His ways, laws, and righteousness. Multiple times in the Old Testament were non-ethnic Jews admitted into Israel. God called Israel to be a light to the nations – not to Israel only. By definition and implication, this calling and mission God placed on Israel results in the conversion of a non-ethnic people into a righteous people. Israel was about becoming a holy and righteous people, not an exclusive compound – the “frozen chosen”.
The door to membership in Christ’s church is Christ Himself.
Matthew Poole wrote, “Circumcision, baptism, external profession, are the doors into the visible Church.” There is a vast difference between membership in the visible church and membership in the kingdom of heaven. The bar for entrance into the kingdom of heaven is far higher. While the doorway into membership in the visible church may be outward ceremonies, the doorway into the kingdom of Christ is justification by faith in Christ. Justification necessarily encompasses confession and repentance as well as baptism by the Holy Spirit.
Joseph Benson wrote, “[I]t is by the knowledge of, and faith in Me, by an interest in My merits, and by a participation of My Spirit, and in no other way, that men must or can enter into the truly spiritual enclosure of My church.”
Christ plainly taught “faith in Me” in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Earlier in John chapter 3, Christ taught that we must be born again, meaning regeneration through the Holy Spirit imparting a new nature to us.
In another “I am” statement, Christ said in John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” We may be offended at the exclusivity of the statement, that Christ is the only way to the Father. Christ is teaching, however, that our rest in alternative “doors” is misplaced. There is but one door, no matter how many other doors we try to construct.
Recalling John Lightfoot’s quote above, Christ earlier in John 10 exposed false doors and labeled them “a thief and a robber”. Christ condemned a works-based salvation, one which proposes to attain unto righteousness purely through the alignment of behavior. The Jewish leaders in Christ’s day held to rote obedience of the Law of Moses and proclaimed this behavior as a deserved and an earned righteousness before God. However, in multiple ways, they missed the heart of God.
The Biblical Illustrator reminds us of this importance, “Personally. ‘I,’ not My teaching, example, propitiation.” Notice again the language of verse 7, “I am the door”. The door is not what Christ taught us, the example He left us, the cross, or His atoning sacrifice. Christ Himself is the door.
Recall the words from John 6:48 and 53, “‘I am the bread of life’… Jesus therefore said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.’”
There in John 6:48, another “I am” statement, makes Christ our spiritual food. We make it through this life only by leaning on His strength. We can live the Christian life only through Christ. He is our strength, He is life to us. Indeed, Christ is the source of life. As plants grow in the soil God created, we must be rooted in Christ Himself for our sustenance and food to grow and bear Godly fruit.
Consider Acts 17:24-28, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”
“In Him we live and move and exist” signifies that we can do nothing apart from Christ. Consider another of Christ’s “I am” statements in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Apart from Christ, we wither and die quickly as a branch separated from the vine.
I was removing vines which had grown up the side of a building my son purchased and noted how quickly the leaves withered once I cut the base of the vine from the root in the ground. Within an hour, the leaves had changed in appearance and were no longer vibrant. This is us apart from Christ. He is the vitality, the food, the nourishment we need to live in this world day-to-day.
It looks like many people are making a go of life without Christ. Consider, though, that the Holy Spirit sustains all life and strives with us that we “would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us”. Their lives, though far from the mind of Christ, would be nothing without the striving of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is the “grace upon grace” which we read earlier in John 1:17. He is grace to us, the grace we need to make it through each day and face each difficulty in life. Any righteousness we bear in this world comes through Him. Any goodness we demonstrate has its source in Christ. Our obedience of God’s Word is enabled through Christ. He is the door.
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