John 10:7 Commentary and Bible Study

He spells it out so simply – ‘Verily, verily, [truly, truly] I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.’ Some people think these words were uttered in the women’s court of the Temple. Well, that would have been electrifying if so. Electrifying anyway, but I think they are rather nearby. ‘I am the door of the sheep.’ No, no, they would have thought; the Temple: this is everything. Our ritual worship, our sacrifices, this is the door. They did not grasp these were symbols, these were lessons. The real door is Christ who will make an atonement for sin and suffer and die. But for him to say, if he said it in the Temple or even near the Temple, within view of the Temple, ‘I am the door of the sheep’ – this is a momentous statement.There are two pictures of Christ running side by side in this parable: he is the door of the sheep and he is the Shepherd of the sheep. Is it confusing? No, because the door is his qualifications, whereas the Shepherd is the work that he actually does. ‘I am the door; I am the authentic one who fulfils all the requirements. I am the Prophet, the Teacher, the Priest, the one who will suffer and die and be offered up as Sacrifice. I am the King.’ His offices, as it were, are represented by the door, the authentic one, and Shepherd will describe his work.