Verses 1-4 and 9 show us that Christ is the door of the sheep.
Christ was the door of the sheep for the Old Testament saints to go into the law as the custody (v. 9a). The fold in John 10 signifies the law and also Judaism, the religion of the law. Before Christ came, God put His chosen people under the custody of the law. God did this through Christ as the door by which God’s elect entered into the custody of the law. The law was the fold where God’s people as the sheep were kept and protected temporarily until the pasture, the permanent place for the sheep, was ready.
Christ is the door not only for God’s elect to enter into the custody of the law, as did Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in the Old Testament time, before Christ came, but also for God’s chosen people, such as Peter, John, James, and Paul, to come out of the fold of the law now that Christ has come. Thus, the Lord Jesus indicated in verse 9 that He is the door not only through which God’s elect may go in but also through which God’s chosen people may go out.
God no longer intends to keep His chosen people in the fold of the law. He wants them to come out of the law into Christ. Now, during the New Testament age, God intends to bring His people out of the law through Christ as the door. Christ has come, and the pasture is ready. There is no need for the sheep to be confined any longer in the custody of the Judaic law. They must be released from the fold of the law to enjoy the riches of the pasture. Christ is the door through which His believers may come out of any kind of fold and come into Him as the pasture.
As the door of the sheep to leave the fold, Christ is our freedom from legality. In Christ we have the freedom to go in and to go out. This means that we do not have any legality. The freedom we enjoy is Christ Himself. Because Christ is our freedom, our door, we are not bound by any legality. This, of course, does not mean that we are free to indulge the flesh (Gal. 5:13). In Christ we are not in bondage to legality. Because Christ is our door, we have true freedom.
Today we may experience and enjoy Christ not only as the Shepherd and the door but also as the pasture. For Christ to be the Shepherd of the sheep, He has to be the door for the release of many sheep of God’s flock in Judaism. Now after setting them free from the Judaistic fold as the door of the sheep, Christ feeds them with Himself as the rich pasture of the sheep. John 10:9 says, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved and shall go in and go out and shall find pasture.” The pasture here signifies Christ as the feeding place for the sheep. When the pasture is not available, the sheep must be kept in the fold temporarily. When the pasture is ready, there is no further need for the sheep to remain in the fold. The sheep should come out of the fold and remain in the pasture permanently. To be kept in the fold is transitional and temporary. To be in the pasture enjoying its riches is final and permanent. Before Christ came, the law was a ward, and being under the law was transitional. Now that Christ has come, all God’s chosen people must come out of the law and come into Him to enjoy Him as their pasture (Gal. 3:23-25; 4:3-5). This should be final and permanent.
The Lord Jesus said that He came that we may have life and have it abundantly. This means that, because Christ is the pasture of the sheep, He came to impart Himself as life into the sheep. As long as the sheep stay in the pasture, they will have the supply of life abundantly. By feeding on the pasture, the sheep experience and enjoy the pasture as their abundant life supply.
In order to be the pasture of life to the sheep, Christ had to die for them. Hence, He laid down His life for His sheep, dying for the sheep in order to minister Himself as life to them and thereby be the pasture to them. Today our pasture is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit. In our daily life we should have the definite realization that we are in the pasture experiencing and enjoying Christ as the rich supply of life.