⁹ I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:9–10)

Doors are for entering into places, for walking through to another location. They are the transition from here to there. Doors open to a new experience, a new existence. Jesus is the door to life, and that life is abundant. Anything else, by comparison, leads not to life but to something else, an alternative existence.

Nothing is more central to Christian faith than this truth. While popular philosophy tells us there are many paths that lead to God, the Bible is clear when it quotes Jesus’ own words, “no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). He is the only door, the only path. Peter was not cowed by the “religiously-correct police” of his day when he proclaimed, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There are not many doors that lead to God; there is only one and that is Christ. All others result in eternal destruction. If some think Christianity is narrow-minded, it is only because Jesus spoke the truth, and the truth is by definition narrow-minded.

Jesus in His upper room prayer said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). The abundant life of John 10:10 is the eternal life of John 17:3. And both come through Jesus Christ, who is the doorway to that life.

Notice, first of all, that entering the door leads to salvation. In context, the analogy Jesus relates is confusing to the Jews, but to us who know the whole story, this salvation refers to being rescued from separation from God and the death it leads to, and the restoration of relationship with Him—in other words, spiritual salvation. Notice also, this is connected with entering through a door into life. What was left behind was death, and what lies ahead is life. As if that did not communicate enough, Jesus clarifies, this will be abundant life. This is life now and anticipates life to come. In other words, we now begin the abundant life we will live to the fullest in the future.

Of all people, we believers have a reason to wake up in the morning, to live another day of abundant life. We can go “in and out and find pasture.” There are times of rest in the sheepfold away from the world, and there are times of heading back into the world full of spiritual life. And this aliveness can’t help but communicate to those around that Christ is alive and living in us.

Lord, I want to live more of the abundant life by trusting continually in Christ.