Jesus therefore said again to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
The crowd had just heard a picture about a shepherd, a fold, and a door, and they missed the point. So Jesus starts again with His most solemn words. This time He puts Himself into the picture in a new way. He is not just the One who enters. He is the entrance.
He does not scold them for missing it.
The men the Lord is speaking to do not understand the parable He told them. He Himself, in grace, supplies the application.
What follows is more than a repeat:
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 wording is exact. His door is for the sheep, not for the fold.
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.
Why can He claim the title? The answer is in how He Himself came in.
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).
Leaving the religion of the nation was a serious step. It needed God's own authority.
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.
The way out was never meant to become a way back in:
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.
A door is single. To say He is the door is to narrow everything down to Himself.
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.
Becoming this door had a cost.
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.
- Grace repeats. They missed the picture, so He said it again. The souls who could not understand Him got a plainer word, not a colder one.
- Qualified. He came in by God's appointed door, and that is why He can be God's appointed door for everyone else.
- Of the sheep. Not the door of the fold, but of the sheep. The fold drops away, and He is the entrance to the God who blesses them.
- Out and in. God opened this door. So believers may step outside a system under judgment without fear, and step into salvation, liberty, food and abundant life.
- One "I". Everything narrows to one Person, who became that door by laying down His life. Christianity begins, continues and ends with the "I" of this verse.
All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them.
The rulers had just thrown out a man Jesus had healed. Now Jesus calls every rival claimant to His flock a thief and a robber. The words sound wide enough to include the prophets. So two questions follow: who does He mean, and why did His sheep never listen to them?
The words do not sweep in everyone who served Israel before Christ. They fall on two groups — men who claimed the shepherd's place for themselves, and the rulers standing in front of Him:
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.
The same test clears the faithful leaders of Israel's past. They never claimed the flock as theirs:
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?
A thief works by stealth; a robber uses force. Both got in the wrong way:
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.
The harm such men do is real, but it stops short of the sheep themselves:
"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.
Earlier in the chapter the Shepherd leads His own sheep out of the fold. Others had tried to lead Israel out before Him, and every attempt failed:
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.
The sheep were kept safe by a deaf ear, not by a better argument. The same holds now:
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.
- Ownership. The charge falls on men who treated God's sheep as their own. It does not touch the prophets or the godly kings, who pointed to the coming Messiah.
- Entry. You know a thief by how he gets in — over the wall, by cunning or force — never through the door God appointed.
- Motive. They wanted the sheep for their own profit and glory. God had not sent them, so they had no right to the flock.
- Preservation. They could harm the fold, but they could not take one sheep. "The sheep did not listen to them" is the note of God's keeping.
- Discernment. Safety is not skill in arguing down error. It is an ear tuned to the Shepherd's voice, so strange voices get no hold on us.
I am the door if any one enter in by me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and shall go out and shall find pasture.
Jesus has just described the shepherd who enters the sheepfold by the door; now He calls Himself the door, and He opens it to anyone. Three things follow for whoever steps through: salvation, freedom, and food.
How Jesus Himself came in settles what He can now be to others.
"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.
Verse 7 spoke of the door of the sheep. Verse 9 drops that limit.
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.
And a door is not a long journey. It takes one movement to be on the other side of it.
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.
The promise hangs on a Person, and on entering by Him. That rules out every rival claim to save.
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 sheep shut in a pen is safe but confined. Christ's sheep move, and the movement runs two ways.
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 verse does not stop at rescue. Sheep must eat, and what they feed on is Christ Himself.
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.
Put the three results together. This safety is not the safety of walls.
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.
- Door — Christ Himself is the entrance; He came in God's appointed way, so He is God's appointed way for everyone else.
- Any — the door widens from "the sheep" to anyone, Jew or Gentile alike. It stays narrow too: there is only one.
- Saved — one step of faith puts a soul inside. Only Christ gives that assurance; no church can.
- Free — "go in and out" means access to God in worship and a way out into the world with the good news.
- Fed — the pasture is Christ, found in His word; safety comes from the Shepherd's care, not from the walls of a pen.