THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL & DESTROY (PART XXI)

“The Way, the Truth, and the Life”

By Akin Ojumu

Part XX of this commentary series focused on John 10:2-5. In expounding these verses, we learned about the unique relationship that existed between the shepherd and his sheep in ancient Israel. Because of this bond, shepherds were able to tell their sheep apart from sheep belonging to other shepherds in the common sheepfold shared by the entire local community. It was this close relationship that also made it possible for the sheep not only to be able to recognize the voice of their own shepherd, but also to ignore the voice of strangers and respond only when their own shepherd called.

John 10:2-5

“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

By using this metaphor of sheep and shepherd, the Lord Jesus is letting the Pharisees and the people gathered around Him understand that the reason the religious leaders reject Him and refuse to believe His Word, despite all the signs and wonders He performed in their midst, is because they do not belong to Him. And the reason the people choose to follow the lead of their religious leaders in rejecting Christ is also because they also are not of His sheep. Had they been of His flock, they would have recognized Him as the Messiah and believed.

As stated last time, the broader implication of this metaphor is for us, today, is that those who belong to Christ recognize and respond to the voice of Christ in His written Word, i.e., the Bible. True followers of Christ will only respond to the true teachings of Christ and not to the destructive heresies perpetrated by false teachers. 

Genuinely born-again believers in Christ will never follow after wolves in sheep’s clothing. It’s impossible for someone who has sincerely surrendered their life to Christ to fall into the hands of impostors and Gospel Hucksters. No legit follower of Christ would submit themself under the spiritual authority of twisters and distorters of Scriptures.

Just as in prior verses, the Lord Jesus continues with the use of the shepherd and sheep metaphor in John 10:7-9, but with a slight twist. 

John 10:7-9

“So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Whereas He was the shepherd of the sheep in verses 1-5, here He describes Himself as the door of the sheep. In verses 1–5, He was the shepherd who led the sheep out of the sheepfold, here He is the door to the sheepfold through which the sheep go out to find pasture.

Perhaps a brief reminder of the historical context will help us understand what the Lord is saying in John 10:7-9.

At the time of the Lord Jesus, Pharisaic Judaism with its invented Tradition of the Elders had supplanted Judaism and the Law given to Moses by God. Under Pharisaic Judaism, external displays of pietism are regarded as hallmarks of spirituality. The Pharisees believed and taught that if they looked and acted spiritual on the outside, God would deem them righteous on the inside. So, they established their own man-made rites, rituals, and ordinances which they heaped on the people to follow. 

When boiled down to its lowest common denominator, there are really two religions in this world. There may be a thousand different religious names and terms, but only two religions really exist. On the one hand, we have the true religion of divine accomplishment, which says God has accomplished it all in Christ. Then, there’s the false religion of human achievement, which says humans have a hand in saving themselves. The former is the religion of grace, and the latter, the religion of works. One offers salvation by faith alone, the other offers salvation by the works of human hands.

Pharisaical Judaism was, and still is till today, a religion of human achievement. The Pharisees believed it’s the righteousness and/or lineage of the individual that guarantees salvation. In the Pharisaical tradition, what determines whether an individual will enter Heaven is how well they kept the Traditions of the Elders and how much good works they were able to store up in their ledger while alive.

John 14:6

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.””

On the contrary, the religion of divine accomplishment says, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. By His death, the Lamb of God brought an end to man’s effort of seeking God by obedience to the law. The Messiah laid down His life to usher in the dispensation of grace and the acceptable worship of God which is in Spirit and truth. On the Cross, Christ brought an end to human efforts of seeking to be right with God through their own self-righteousness. His vicarious death ushered in salvation by grace alone and it put an end to salvation by works.

Even though the Lord Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, self-proclaimed men of God, blinded by the veil of religion and man-made traditions, insist that He is not. These false shepherds have turned themselves into a high wall of obstruction blocking the path to the way of life. Their erroneous teachings prevent the light of God’s grace from shining upon the hearts of those in need of Christ’s love and forgiveness. 

Since the inception of Christianity, men have devised ways to obstruct the Way of Truth. For a variety of reasons, obstacles are laid on the path to salvation. Like the Pharisees of old, false shepherds of our day create insurmountable man-made barriers along the road to eternity. Bombarded and burned with hifalutin doctrines, meaningless rituals, and ineffective ordinances, those who want to live the Christian life find themselves engaged in a constant battle to get off their backs the unbearable burden of the traditions and opinions of men.

By their utterances and deeds, modern-day false shepherds give the impression that the blood of Jesus that was shed for the remission of sins is not enough to wash away our sins. They’ve replaced a simple faith in the saving grace of our Heavenly Father with a heavy burden of empty works, showy piety, and performative theatrics. 

A humble and bowed heart communing with a merciful God is no longer deemed sufficient for our prayers to reach the ears of God. To bring Heaven down, we are now told it takes some deep and exotic kind of prayers that only a select few are able to muster. For these prayers to even have effect at all, we are told they must be prayed at specific times of the day.

The Holy Spirit, we are made to understand, responds only when called upon by a certain special class of people who are high and mighty in the spiritual totem pole. In order to be heard, the rest of us must come to God crawling on our knees and lying face down through these spiritual giants whose intervention we need to bring our prayers to the Gates of Heaven.

Colossians 2:8

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Yet, the Bible is pretty clear. There’s no salvation in the elemental spirits of the world. Obsessing over man-made rules and regulations will not make anyone more pious. A religion of human achievement that relies on human-centered efforts will not make you right with God. Putting on external displays of spirituality by ritualistic ceremonies, gymnastic performances, and wardrobe preferences are not the marks of holiness.

The Lord Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep.” He alone is the gateway for eternal life. It is He who leads the sheep into good pasture. In Him alone is our hope of Heaven. To point people to another door is to lead them astray. False apostles, false prophets and false teachers who would not stay within the boundaries of what is written is Scriptures are perverters of the way of life leading people on the broad road that leads straight to hell.

We’ll take it from here next time.