Christ, the Door

Christ, the Door - Walter Hughes

March 6, 2020

"I am the door.”—John 10:9

Here we find one of those grand, wide-sweeping statements that the Lord often made. How He delighted to choose common place things of life as illustrations of His Person and symbols of His power! Once He said, “I am the bread” (6:35) and also “I am the light” (8:12).

How remarkable that Christ should compare Himself with things so simple and yet so essential!

Here in this text we have one of those homely illustrations. Surely a door is a commonplace thing and a door of a sheepfold is certainly quite matter-of-fact and yet quite necessary.

The usual sheepfold would have a low wall made of mud and stones. Why, you might ask, with the aperture for the entrance and exit of the sheep was there no door across it so as to fasten the fold securely at night?

When a shepherd was asked the reason for this, he would reply, with evident surprise, “I am the door.” It was his custom to lie down at night in the aperture and then no sheep could get out without his becoming aware of it.

The Only Door

Jesus did not say, “I am a door.” He said, “I am the door.” There is a vast difference between a door and the door. There is only one door into God’s fold and that door is Christ. He is the only door.

“There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby

we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus said, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

He is a solitary Savior for sinning men. There is no other Savior.

Near the deathbed of a man who all his days professed infidelity and who belonged to the infidel club of his city, this testimony was found:

I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only Jesus. —James Proctor

There are many trying, as he did, the thousand ways; but we must come to the place, as he did, where we recognize and gladly confess that Christ is the only way.

So many are trying religions, while some try respectability and some, reformation; but all these avail nothing. Christ is the only door.

Oh, that we could get men’s minds off ritual and their own deeds and vain hope, to look to Christ who died for their sins and rose again for their justification. None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. Christ is the only door.

My only hope must be in Jesus

To lose the burden of my sin.

There is no other power to help me;

Anew in Christ I must begin.

There is no other Savior given,

No other hope beyond the grave,

No other Name in earth or Heaven,

Thy guilty, dying soul to save. —Ina Duley Ogden

The Open Door

Christ is the entrance, or the door open. He is the open door that no man can shut. After all these years the door is still open today. God alone knows how soon the door will shut and no more sheep will enter the fold.

The thought of the open door gives us the picture of Christ standing with open arms and pierced hands and tenderly saying, “Come.”

Yes, the door is open, inviting, appealing, entreating, enticing, welcoming, wooing and, thank God, winning!