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Yeshua -> “I Am the Door of the Sheep” : The Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophesy

THE TOTALITY OF Scripture unmistakably presents Jesus as the only means, by which, one is offered salvation and eternal life (Jn 10:28, 14:6, 8:58). Just a cursory survey of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) validates this position and solidifies the identity of the lover of our souls (Charles Wesley, 1707-1788).

       In John 10:1-2 we read, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep” (ESV). What Jesus is plainly communicating, is that He, and only He, can provide the payment for our sin debt. This is a definitive, declarative, and exclusive statement to the deity and sufficiency of Christ. There is no other person, belief system, or teaching that finds its way to salvation but that which makes “a bee-line to the cross” (Charles Spurgeon).

       The dominate theme that pervades, virtually, every false teaching and worldview is one that seeks to redefine the character of Christ and to subjugate (enslave) the people of God. Fortunately, for the Christian, the fourth Gospel (John) is replete with claims to the deity of Jesus. In John 10:1 we are told that the true shepherd enters in by the gate, or door. By contrast, a “thief,” or “robber” would try to climb over the wall. Consider Leon Morris’ words:


"In the chapter in which he employs some vivid imagery about the sheep and the shepherd, Jesus twice speaks of himself as “the door” (10:7, 9), the first time referring to “the door of the sheep” and the second time simply to “the door.” The chapter has begun with a reference to a sheepfold in which the sheep find safety and to which there is access by a door (anyone who climbs over the wall and does not use the door is up to no good)."


       Harkening back to the first I AM statement, Jesus declares in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (ESV). This truth even permeates the Old Testament as well. In Psalm 118:20 we read, “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it” (ESV).

       Jesus identified Himself as “the door” for good reason. In the early morning hours, the shepherd would open the gate to let the sheep out into the pasture. In essence, he (the shepherd) was the conduit by which the sheep found their provision. Dr. Elmer Towns explains it this way:


"Jesus is the Door to the fold of salvation. Jesus emphasizes the exclusiveness of Himself as Savior by using the definite article (“the door”); He was not just another door or offering another way of salvation. By identifying salvation exclusively with entering the fold through that door (10:9), He denied syncretism. The expression di emou (“by me”) is in an emphatic position so as to clearly identify the door by which people find salvation."


       As we cross the finish line with John 10:7-9 and how the words of Christ fulfill Old Testament prophesy, let me leave you with the only possibilities as to the nature of Jesus, via the genius intellect of C.S. Lewis:


"Jesus…told people that their sins were forgiven. ..This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin…I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."


- Prepare Today | Prevail Tomorrow -


Lee

Psalm 91 for all of us.



"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door

but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” 

-

Yeshua


---


Sources:

MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: John 1-11. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2006.

Martindale, W. (Ed.) & Root, J. (Ed.). The Quotable Lewis: An Encyclopedic Selection of Quotes from the Complete Published Works of C.S. Lewis. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 1990.

Morris, Leon. Jesus is the Christ: Studies in the Theology of John. Leicester: Inter-Varsity press, 1989.

Towns, Elmer. A Journey Through the New Testament. Mason: Thomson Custom Publishing, 2004.

Towns, Elmer. The Gospel of John: Believe and Live. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2002.




NOTE: Photo credits go to Unsplash.com.
NOTE: Photo credits go to Unsplash.com.

 
 
 

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In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of

Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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       He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

       He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

       He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

       He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

       He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

       He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

       He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

       He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

       He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

       He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

       He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

       He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

       He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

       For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

       For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

       For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

       For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

       For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

       For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

       For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

       For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

       For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

       He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

       He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

       He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

       He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

       He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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