Door, 7of7

~ 3 Functions of Doors ~

Doors do three primary things—admit some, protect some, and exclude some.  

Admit  ~  Jesus said, “I am the door.  If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).  “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

Protect  ~  “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).  “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns?  It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39). 

Exclude  ~  Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

Summary  ~  A man can choose to go to hell in his own way (there are numerous doors)—but to go to heaven he must choose to go God’s way—through Jesus Christ (the one and only Door). 

Closing Comments  ~  First, the Door we have been describing through seven posts is not an ordinary door made of wood or iron, but a living person!

Second, the Biblical sheepfold was a circular enclosure with an opening on only one side.

Third, in Biblical times the shepherd would lie down at night with his body across the opening. 

Fourth, for an intruder to reach the sheep in the fold he would have to first pass over the body of the every watchful shepherd.

Finally, the safety of the sheep within the fold is assured by the presence of the shepherd who is guarding them with his life. 

The above being true how much safer are Christians with a divine rather than human shepherd! 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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