Jesus makes His third “I AM” statement in John 10:7 where He says, “I AM (what you need me to be) the door of the sheep.”
The good Bible student would ask: Why do we need Him to be a Door? A “door” speaks of entrance. This identifies the need—He is the Door because man in sin is in desperate need of ingang.
Recall that in Genesis 3, man was expelled from Eden (a picture of the presence/pleasure of God) after he sinned.
Genesis 3:22-24 (NKJV)
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, (actually the Hebrew says “man has become separate from Us”) to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God SENT HIM OUT of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He DROVE OUT the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to GUARD THE WAY to the tree of life.
Genesis 3 shows its readers that SINFUL man was barred from accessing eternal Life. Man has been seeking entrance back to God’s pleasure EVER SINCE.
2 Samuel 14:14 tells us that God devises MEANS so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him. Jesus is God’s solution. He is the entrance through which SINFUL man can find his way back to God, the Tree of Life.
Psalm 118:20 prophesies about Him: This is THE GATE OF THE LORD, through which THE RIGHTEOUS shall enter.
So He is a Door because man needs entrance. The sheep can now enter through Him and become part of God’s people. We enter by faith in Christ to eat of the tree of Life, that is, to receive eternal Life!
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2022.
