Jesus said, “I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:9-10)
At the front of my house is a gate. When you enter the gate, you come into a beautiful garden, and from that garden you can enter my home. My gate is a picture of what Jesus is talking about when he calls himself the gate. He says, “I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:9). As with my gate, friends are free to come and go in safety.
When you enter my garden, you find a place of beauty and rest. The palm trees sway, there are abundant ferns, flowers and a trickling fountain. When you enter God’s kingdom through Jesus, the gate, Jesus offers abundant life. He says, “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10)
If you check the area around my gate, you will see that surrounding the gate is a row of plants, and it would be quite simple to climb through the plants, or even to climb over the gate, which is only 4 feet high. However, why would my friends climb through plants or over the gate, if they can just walk in through the gate? Only thieves and robbers would enter my garden any other way.
This is exactly what Jesus is pointing out in this illustration. Jesus is the gate; he offers free entry. However, not all people are willing to enter through the gate because they choose a different way. Jesus calls these people “thieves and robbers . . . A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:1,8)
Many in our culture today believe that there are many paths to an abundant life, both now and in eternity. Jesus says that only he can save; that all who offer paths other are “thieves and robbers,” who don’t offer abundant life, but rather come to “steal, kill, and destroy.”
This teaching seems very clear to me, but those whom Jesus was teaching “did not understand what he was telling them” (John 10:6). Do you understand? Are you entering the gate that Jesus offers, or are you trying to enter another way?