pastorway: I AM the Door

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional

Verse for the Day: John 10:7
Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, I Am the door of the sheep’.

Daily Scripture Reading: 1 John 2

The Puritan Catechism
Question #3 - What do the Scriptures principally teach?

Devotional Thoughts

Even in light of the fact that the crowd did not understand what Jesus was attempting to teach He starts again by telling them about Himself and themselves in a word picture about sheep and the shepherd. He “said to them again” - He began to restate what He has just taught. He was determined to make a point to them and to us about Himself, our need for Him, and our relationship to Him!

The statement that follows is even more specific than the earlier statements about the door to the sheep fold. Before He had said that there was one door and that the shepherd came in by the door while thieves and robbers came in by other ways. He had told them the shepherd came through the door to care for the sheep and lead them out to pasture, but now He is being even more specific.

He tells them that not only is He the shepherd but He is also the only Door! Of course the phrase He uses is deep and rich in meaning. He said "I AM!" This phrase alone identified Jesus as God. He is God in the flesh. Just as God in the burning bush told Moses that His name is "I AM", so even now Jesus uses the phrase to describe Himself - "I Am the door" He said.

Jesus isn't just the shepherd who enters by the door, He is actually and factually the ONLY DOOR into the sheepfold that represents God's Kingdom. If you want to gain entrance into His Kingdom there is but ONE WAY and that Way if Jesus. He is the only door, the door to the sheep fold where His children are at rest in His care.

Once again we see that either Jesus is a madman and a liar, or He indeed is the only Way to salvation. For those who claim that Jesus never claimed to be God or to be the only way to heaven, those people just have not read the Bible with any understanding. And those who have read it and still don't believe try to explain it all away. Theological liberals (those who don't believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God) will tell us that Jesus never really said most of what is recorded in the Scriptures. They say that the disciples just made it up to influence other people. HA! Either God is true or a liar, and He can't be both! And either Jesus is everything or nothing of what He says He is – all or nothing.

Jesus IS THE ONLY WAY TO SALVATION. There is NO OTHER WAY. No other religion. No other Savior. No system of good deeds and faithful works. It is either Jesus alone or we are all doomed to hell forever! He is our redeemer or irrational. He is divine or He is demonic. He is truth or a lie. He is the door into God's kingdom or He is a trap door to insanity, false faith, and destruction. By God's grace, I believe what He said! How about you?

So if Jesus is not just the shepherd but the very door itself then we must strive to make Him known! Our goal as His children each day is to know Him more and to make Him known more to others! He is the Way. Do we respond to others as if eternity depends on it? Think about it - for all those who would ignore us or hate us or mistreat us, the lost are all dead and bound in sin, captives to their own fleshly desires and slaves of the devil. Why should we be hurt when they lash out against those of us who are free and at peace with God? See them for what they are. Lost and doomed sinners. And give them what they really need, an invitation to to be reconciled to God through Jesus.

Today, remember, He really is the only door. The only way to God and salvation. And you belong to Him alone. Our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Lonely to be so alone? NO! Forever in the presence of God because He alone died for YOU! And that is enough!

Bible Reading For Further Study
Read these verses and find out if the 'I Am" refers to God or to You!