Jesus Christ, the Door of the Sheep

John 10:7-15 ESV

“So Jesus again said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.’”

Jesus is The Door

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is the only way, the only truth, and the only life that is of God and that leads to God, and that leads to salvation from sin and eternal life with God. Only through God-given and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ can any of us be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God. There is nothing in ourselves, in our own flesh, that will ever be good enough to earn our own salvation.

But the way of our salvation, and even the faith to believe in Jesus Christ is not of our own doing. It is not of our own thinking, either. So we don’t get to determine what that faith looks like. God does! And his word does! For Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of that faith, and God is the one who gifts us with that faith, which is divine persuasion as to God’s will for our lives. For Jesus died on that cross that we might die to sin and live to his righteousness and that we might live for him and no longer for self.

For by faith in him we are crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore, we are to not let sin reign any more in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its passions. For if sin is what we obey, in practice, it will lead to death. But if obedience to God is what we practice, it leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God, by the Spirit, by God-persuaded faith in Christ Jesus.

So, when Jesus says that he is the door of the sheep, he means that he is the way of the sheep, i.e. we are to be those who follow him in his ways and in his truth and in his righteousness and holiness, and no longer in sin. We are to be those who obey his commands (New Covenant), in practice. For if all we do is give him lip service, and so we don’t obey his commands, and so we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, then we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith our lips profess in him.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 4:17-32; Titus 2:11-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 2:6-8; Galatians 6:7-8; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15,21]

Thieves and Robbers

So, when Jesus said that all who came before him were thieves and robbers, he was not including the prophets of God of the Old Testament. He was talking about all those who proclaimed to have the correct god to worship, and the right mode of worship, and the right path to follow, and/or any who preceded him who claimed to be the promised Messiah of the people, the chosen one. It was all those who professed and taught a way to heaven or to eternal bliss that was not of God, and not of the Spirit of God.

So, he was letting the people know that he was/is the promised one who was to come, the Christ, the Messiah, the only way to God the Father and to salvation from sin and to eternal life with God. And anyone who is teaching what is contrary to what Jesus taught, and to what his NT apostles taught regarding our salvation and eternal life with God, are thieves and robbers, for they rob the Scriptures of the truth, and they rob the people of the truth by telling the people lies while calling it “truth” which comes from God.

So, then he said that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly. So, how do these thieves and robbers steal, kill, and destroy? They do it through the lies that they tell the people when the people believe their lies, and so they follow the lies and not the truth. For so many of them are teaching a “gospel” absent of repentance and walks of obedience to God and submission to Christ as Lord and walks of holiness, righteousness, honesty, faithfulness, and moral purity.

And so they are those who are perverting the grace of God into a license for immorality and sensuality and selfishness and sinful practices. And they do this by telling them that a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ is enough to secure them forgiveness of all sins, even future sins, and heaven as their eternal destiny, which they say cannot be taken away from them, but regardless of how they live. But that is not biblical faith which saves. That is of man, not of God. For Jesus didn’t teach unconditional salvation.

Jesus taught that to come after him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to (save) our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we lose our lives, i.e. we deny self and die daily to sin and walk in obedience to his commands, then we have eternal life. And he said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father.

[Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; cf. Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14]

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full… 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

https://vimeo.com/114938263