What did Jesus mean when He said “I am the door”? (John 10:7)

In John 10:7 Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”

In John 10:9 Christ then says “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

“I am the door” is one of the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7), it was a metaphor to explain His divine function as the one and only exclusive means by which any person can have access to God and experience eternal life.
In another “I AM” statement, in John 14:6 Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

5 Reasons Why Jesus is the Door

1. Jesus is the door to eternal life
Salvation is exclusively through Jesus Christ because of the finished work that Jesus completed on the cross on our behalf. Jesus paid the debt we could not pay. He took the punishment and experienced the wrath of God that we deserved on the cross. On the third day He resurrected from the dead to prove His victory over death and to prove that He is the Giver of eternal life.

So we receive eternal life when we receive Jesus Christ to be part of our life through placing our faith / belief in Him as our Lord and Saviour (John 1:12; John 3:16).

1 John 5:11-12 says: And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Jesus is the door to eternal life. Without Jesus Christ in our life, we cannot experience eternal life. If we reject Jesus Christ we are doomed to eternal punishment because we have denied the only Person who can give us everlasting life.

2. Jesus is the door to eternal forgiveness
We are all sinners who have sinned before a just and holy God. We deserve to be punished because of our sins and the Scripture says that wages of sin is death.
However God is merciful and forgiving. It is exclusively through Jesus Christ that we can receive eternal forgiveness because of the blood He shed on the cross to pay for our sins.

In Matthew 26:28 Jesus says “For this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Ephesians 1:7 says: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

Hebrews 9:22 says: Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Jesus is the door to forgiveness. Without Jesus we cannot be eternally forgiven of our sins against God. It is only through Christ that we have redemption.

3. Jesus is the door to grace and mercy
According to Scripture, we cannot be saved by our own merit or personal works. Instead it took the love, grace and mercy of Christ for salvation to be available as a free gift. So we are saved not by through our own merit or effort, but we are saved because of the mercy and unmerited kindness of God.

Titus 3:5 says: He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Ephesians 2:8-9 says: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

So without Jesus Christ we cannot experience the grace and mercy of God on Judgment Day. It is only through Christ that we will escape the judgment of hell.

4. Jesus is the door to relationship and reconciliation with God
Without Jesus we cannot be reconciled back to God. People who reject Jesus Christ are in rebellion against God. Without Christ, we are friends of the world and enemies of God until we accept Jesus Christ into our life.

Romans 5:10-11 says: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

1 Timothy 2:5 says: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

Therefore Jesus Christ serves as the exclusive Mediator between God and humanity. Without Jesus there is no peace between God and man. Without Jesus there is no relationship between God and man.

Jesus Christ serves as the doorway by whom we can meet God and be reconciled to Him.

5. Jesus is the door to salvation
Without Jesus we cannot become born again. We can only become a new creation through belief and faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Without Jesus we are headed for eternal punishment, but if we repent and believe in Jesus we will be saved and escape the eternal wrath of God which will be experienced by people who enter hell.
So Jesus is declaring His divine and exclusive role as the only means for eternal salvation and an eternal relationship with the living God.
Jesus is declaring that there is no other door; no other means; no other religion; no other person through whom we can be saved except through Him alone.

Acts 4:12 says: And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Conclusion

By claiming to be the door Jesus was declaring His divine exclusiveness as the only means or gateway to eternal forgiveness of sins, eternal life plus an eternal relationship and reconciliation with God.

Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross by paying for the sins of mankind and resurrecting on the third day. His finished work on the cross proves His exclusivity as the door or the only means by which we can experience true and eternal salvation.