So, Jesus said to them, “I am the door… (John 10:7, 9)
In a section of Scripture that mostly refers to Jesus as The Good Shepherd (next week), we can’t move forward until we stop at these words, “I am the door.” He is: the way in, the opening, the gate, the entrance. If you come in any other way, you don’t belong (in fact, you would be a thief or a robber).
Obviously, Jesus is referring to being the only way to salvation…the only way “in” to heaven. He is the only way “in” to a relationship with the Father. Yet, I think there’s more; there’s more to being a door. Not only did the door allow entrance, the door kept out that which should not go inside. The door was the filter, the guard that kept good protected, as well as defended, yet kept out the bad. If Jesus is the door, then He, too, is the filter; and the Bible makes it clear that as The Filter, He is love. He is good.
So, unless we create another way in, evil (as in the thief/robber) cannot be present in the sheepfold. Yet trials, hardship, struggles, and suffering sometimes hit the sheep in the pen. If Jesus is The Filter, how come? Why? After all, we just said it, He is love. Those are the questions we often ask. Yet, The Filter can’t be what He is not. He has to be good. He has to be love. The door simply is what it is. So, reason stands that if this is true, those things that are allowed in that seem bad are really good.
Whoa! Wait a minute! We can’t call bad good! Why not? Is bad not redeemable? If it can’t be redeemed, then can Jesus be The Redeemer? Bad always becomes good when it passes through the door. It is transformed in the midst of the filtering process. Because bad is transformed into good, it also becomes transforming. The sheep are changed. True, they may be broken down, but, always for the purpose of being built back up. Bad becomes good because of the transforming redemptive quality. It has been used for Redemption’s sake.
There is nothing…no circumstance, no trouble, no testing that can ever touch me until, first of all it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret. For I will rest in the joy of what my Lord is! That is the rest of VICTORY!