John 10:7–11

The men the Lord is speaking to do not understand the parable He told them. He Himself, in grace, supplies the application.

But there is more than this that follows (v. 7): the Lord Jesus now takes an entirely new place outside Israel. He introduces this truth in the same solemn way. It is not the sentence of death on Judaism. It is the opening out of life and salvation to sinners. "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved." How wonderful! He is speaking to the same souls. What love — to the very souls who could not understand Him!

The fold is left aside here. What could Judaism do for the saints any more than for sinners? Christ is the door of the sheep. They might be thrown out, like the blind man He gave sight to. Where were they to turn, and where were they to go? "I am the door of the sheep." He is the entrance to the new and lasting blessings of God for His own. He is the entrance to the God who blessed them — yes, to the Father, as they learn in time.

Now He was the door of the sheep, the door out, a door by which they might get out of the fold when His voice led them out. But He was the door generally to the sheep, the appointed way of access. He came in by the door, and therefore was the door. That is, He, and He alone, came in by God's appointed way, and therefore was God's appointed way to others (the sheep).

Christ Himself now becomes the door of the sheep. The Jewish fold, though corrupted by man, had been set up and approved by God. What right, then, did the sheep have to leave the nation under judgment, unless God Himself opened a way of escape? Christ was God's door. By following the Shepherd, the sheep could take a place outside the nation without fear. So too in our own day: believers can safely follow the Shepherd outside every man-made imitation of the Jewish camp.

They found in Christ the Door. It was not the door back into the fold He had called them out of. It was the Door into spiritual blessings the fold could never supply: salvation, liberty, food, life in abundance.

You are shut up to something — or rather, to Someone. What a moment that is — the soul never forgets it! I discover that for time and for eternity I am shut up to Christ, nothing but Christ! And He stands and says, "I am the door of the sheep." You ask, "What does Christianity begin with?" It begins with the "I" of this verse. And what does it go on with? With the "I" of this verse. And it ends with the "I" of this verse.

He has become the door of salvation and liberty for the sheep. He is the God-appointed and only way of blessing. But He has become that door by giving His life for them. There was no other way He could deliver them, for every one of them was a sinner, held in the power of death.

The Lord does not include the prophets among the thieves and robbers. He means all who set themselves up as "the Shepherd," such as Theudas and Judas of Galilee. He also means all who treated the sheep as if they were their own and not God's — such as the rulers who had just thrown out the man Jesus had healed.

Some men before the Lord Jesus did seek the good of Israel. Josiah, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat and David were far from being thieves and robbers. They were witnesses to the coming Messiah, not men seizing a place that was not theirs. But those who claimed the sheep as their own, when the sheep in truth were God's — what else could they be called but thieves and robbers?

First, there were all those who before Him had pretended to be the shepherds and leaders of Israel. Whoever they were, if they did not come in by the door, they were thieves and robbers. They climbed over the wall and forced their way in by violence or cunning, and so they showed their true character. The sheepfold was Israel. These men wanted to take the sheep for their own profit and their own glory. They were not Messiahs, they were not servants of God, and He had not sent them. They were very far from being one with the Father.

"All who came before me are thieves and robbers." They did not come in by the door. They were robbers of the fold itself. "But the sheep did not listen to them."… But they had none of the sheep, whatever harm they may have done to the fold. The sheep — and this is a blessed truth — did not listen to them.

He had just spoken of leading the sheep out of the fold (verse 3). Others had tried to do that before, but they failed. And now the Lord gives the reason. Christ, and Christ only, is the door of the sheep. There is no way out of the fold of Judaism except by Him… So, after the Lord's death and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Church was formed. The door of the fold stood open, and thousands came out. Before that, men the Lord described as thieves and robbers might rise up, but the sheep did not listen to them.

Teachers of error are everywhere today. May God grant that it is true of us that "the sheep did not listen to them." And may He tune our ears to the Shepherd's voice, so that we listen to Him and follow Him. Then we will be able to tell whether those who take the place of preachers and teachers are really His servants or not.

"I am the door of the sheep." He came in by God's appointed way, so He is God's appointed way for everybody else. That is why He is the door. "If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved" — He is not taking them out now — "and will go in and out and find pasture."… If a soul goes in by Christ, he gets salvation, liberty, and food.

In verse 7 He is the door of the sheep, for those inside the fold. In verse 9 He is still the door, but not of the sheep. Grace and all it provides are for any, for all, who will accept them. So the language changes, and here the door stands wide open… Yet even with the door wide open, letting in people from the Gentiles as well as from the Jews, it is still a narrow entrance; only through Christ, the door, can anyone enter.

It is not a long, dreary, winding passage, but a door; and to enter a door takes only one step. A person outside the door takes one step, and he is inside; he has entered in. And so the soul that believes what God says — that salvation is by Christ alone — enters God's presence at once by faith, through Jesus the Saviour, who died to save sinners.

To enter through the door is to believe on Jesus the Son of God. Whoever does can be sure of salvation on His word: "he will be saved." Note this well: He promises it to the one who enters through Christ. No one but the Son of God gives such assurance. He is the Saviour, and no one else is. The church consists of the saved, but cannot save: only Christ can and does.

A second blessing is liberty. The Shepherd directs His sheep, and they "will go in and out". The Jewish fold shut the sheep out from direct access to God, and forbade them to go out to the Gentile. Under the leadership of Christ, His flock has the liberty and privilege of access to God in worship. It can also go out to the world with the good news of the grace of God.

The next thing is, "and find pasture." Under the law there was no food for sinners, only the curse and death… How sweet it is when the saints are eager to feed on Christ. How sweet it is when they take the chance to study the word on their own, not as an intellectual exercise, but as food for their souls… The food we have is Christ.

The sheep found salvation in the Shepherd, which the fold could not give. The sheep were to be free. The fold gave them a sort of safety, but it was the safety of a prison. They would find pasture; they would feed in the rich pastures of God… Security is no longer imprisonment, but the care of the Good Shepherd. Free under His care, the sheep feed in safety in the vast and rich pastures of God.

As for the thief, he came to steal, to kill, and to destroy. He wanted to profit himself by greed and dishonesty, and he did it by causing the sheep suffering and loss. The Good Shepherd came instead to save and to give life, and to give it more abundantly. It cost Him His own life, laid down for the sheep.

If He had not come and died, there would have been no life at all for sinful people. Because He came and died, He gives life — and gives it in abundant measure to His sheep.

"I came," said the Lord, "that they may have life and have it abundantly." That is how the original should read. The older King James translation says "more abundantly," and that is not the sense. He gives life in its fullness, in its abundance. What a word for the Jews standing by! The One they despised, and would kill if they could, came to give life to dead souls!

"Above the common" is the force of the word "abundantly." Christ came to give this new life.

There had been life when there was only a promise; there had been life all through the dealings of law. Clearly Christ had always been the means of life from the day death entered the world. But now that He had come, they would not only have life. They would have it "more abundantly." That was the effect of God's Son being here in this world. The Son of God humbled Himself in this world, even to death, the death of the cross. He also died in atonement for sinners. Was it not right that God should mark that infinite work and person with a far richer blessing than He had ever poured out before?

The "more abundantly" of verse 10 means more than the life every believer from Adam had. It means the liberty that redemption brought them into. It means life in resurrection power and character. Before that, they were treated no better than servants, though everything was theirs.

Last of all, these blessings bring the sheep into the enjoyment of life. It is a life of communion with divine Persons, and it leads to fullness of joy. This is the abundant life. Natural life, even at its best, falls short, and its joy fails.

"I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly." That is our portion. Not the weak life of a sick man. Not bare existence. Thank God we have spiritual existence, but we have more. We have spiritual vitality, strength and enjoyment. These are ours in the risen Shepherd, who in His goodness once laid down His life for the sheep.

To us today there is not only life but life "more abundantly". It is a good thing to ask ourselves, "Am I taking hold of the real abundant life that Christ has made known?" We all have to look at ourselves, whether we are young Christians or old ones.

Since the days of Abel there have been many faithful shepherds. Men like Moses and David tended their flocks with the care of a kind shepherd. As men, they were "good shepherds." But "a good shepherd," or "some good shepherd," is not "The Good Shepherd" — or "The Shepherd, the good One."

He protected his father's sheep, entrusted to his care, at the risk of his own life. Through the grace and help of God he proved himself to be the very best of all good shepherds among men. But could David, for all that, ever be called "The good Shepherd"? No. David has not given, nor could he "give" his life. Staking your life and giving your life are two very different things. At first glance they may look almost equally worthy, or even the same… Only Jesus could give His life, as perfect Man, because His life had not, like ours, been forfeited by sin. So He alone, and no one else, can be called "The good Shepherd."

When He gave up His life for the sheep, the Lord showed Himself the very opposite of the hired shepherds before or since. Their slender interest in the flock vanished at the first roar of the lion or growl of the bear. Shepherds like that bargained for wages, not for wolves. They cared for themselves, not for the flock.

His death has done everything for them. It has redeemed them, washed them from their sins, justified them, and bought them for heaven. Still, I think the aim of the passage is the love and devotion of the Good Shepherd. Rather than lose His sheep, He lays down His life.

But this really made His death necessary. No one born in sin could enjoy any spiritual blessing apart from the Lord's atoning death. Everything believers enjoyed from Abel until the Lord's day was given in view of the sacrifice He would offer. The sacrifices of the past were only pictures of it… Here in this discourse (verse 11) the Lord first speaks in plain language of His death, and that for the sheep. They all need life. He would provide it, and He would die so that they might have it forever. Love indeed was this!

The sword awoke against the Shepherd, and He proved Himself to be the Shepherd by standing between that sword and the sheep… He laid down His life; no one took it from Him. He had power to lay it down and power to take it again. These are wonderful words, proclaiming the fact of His Deity, for no creature could have spoken like that. Yet in the same passage He says, "This commandment I have received from My Father" (v. 18)… The supreme power of Deity was His. Yet He shows Himself to us in complete submission to the Father's command.

He gave His life for the sheep. He entered the field where death seemed to rule unchallenged. There He brought to nothing the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil. David struck down the mighty giant in the valley of Elah. In the same way the Good Shepherd, by dying, destroyed the great enemy and won deliverance for the sheep.