How Is Jesus the Door?

The building that houses the church I serve has grown and expanded over the decades, with several extensions and additions, giving it a complicated floor plan with many entrances and exits. It’s not at all uncommon to find people who are still new to the congregation arriving for an event being held in a specific location, wandering a little lost outside the wrong door. “We can’t figure out how to get in,” they say.

The metaphor Jesus uses in John 10:7–9, “I am the door,” conveys very simply the gospel truth that the “way in” to salvation is by Him alone. Unlike the many entry ways at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, there is only one way of access to eternal life. But unlike the various ways in and out of our church building, access to the redemption Jesus supplies isn’t hard to find. God has made it obvious, uncomplicated, easy: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). You enter by trust in Him. He opens the way. He makes available to you a place in God’s flock. The simplicity and freedom of the gospel message is at the heart of the metaphor. There is one way in—Jesus. To gain entry, you need only come to Him and ask.

In context, Jesus is developing the image of the shepherd and the sheep pen. He rather mixes His metaphors, sometimes comparing Himself to the shepherd (John 10:2, 11) and other times to the door to the sheep pen (John 10:7, 9). It’s best not to try to press these metaphors and attempt to reconstruct a historical scenario in which a typical Near Eastern shepherd was also somehow the door (perhaps lying across the entryway of the sheep pen to protect and guard the flock from predators in the night). Whatever plausibility these imagined reconstructions may have, it is likely safer simply to acknowledge that Jesus selects various aspects of the familiar scene of sheep, sheep pens, and shepherds, as well as of the thieves and robbers who seek to steal the livestock, and He likens different aspects of His person and work to different facets of the analogy. He can be both the shepherd and the door at the same time. The shepherd image emphasizes His sacrificial care for the flock (John 10:11). The door image highlights the exclusivity of access to the flock that Jesus alone provides.

It’s worth noting, however, that in Jesus’ analogy, it’s not just the sheep who use the door, but it’s those who would shepherd the flock under His lordship. He is the Chief Shepherd, but there are others sent to care for the flock under His supervision. The identifying mark of a true under-shepherd—a pastor or elder—is that they come to the flock through the door. They do not climb in over the wall, like the thieves and robbers, who come only to steal and destroy (John 10:10). Likely, Jesus has in mind the Pharisees, with whom He has been locked in heated debate in John 9. They are false shepherds (see Ezekiel 34). They destroy the flock rather than care for it. But true under-shepherds enter the flock by the door of Jesus Christ. They are in living, personal fellowship with Him. He has called and sent them. He has given them access to His sheep. They come in His name and are utterly subservient to His design and purpose for the flock.

So, what does it mean that Jesus is the door? Primarily, two things. First, it means that God has provided an open door to sinners, that by faith in Jesus Christ we may enter the flock of God and come under the saving care of the Good Shepherd.
Jesus, the door, says to you: “Come in, and be welcome. Trust in Me, and I will love you and keep you forever.”

Second, it means that all who seek to serve the church as under-shepherds, ministering the Word of God in Jesus’ name, must do so through Christ alone. They must first have come in by the door themselves. An unconverted minister is a thief and a robber who will destroy the flock. And an under-shepherd may only serve where Jesus, the door, has opened the way for him, at the Lord’s call and commission, and for the Lord’s glory and praise. Jesus alone is the custodian of the sheep, and as the door, He alone reserves the right of access to the care of the flock.

This article is part of The “I Am” Sayings of Jesus collection.