Outside the fold is the green pasture. Pasture here signifies Christ as the feeding place for the sheep. When the pasture is not available in the wintertime or in the night, the sheep must be kept in the fold. When the pasture is ready, there is no further need for the sheep to remain in the fold. To be kept in the fold is transitory and temporary. To be in the pasture to enjoy its riches is final and permanent. Before Christ came, the law was a ward, and to be under the law was transitory. Now, since Christ has come, all God’s chosen people must come out of the law and come to Him to enjoy Him as their pasture (Gal. 3:23-25; 4:3-5). This should be final and permanent. Now is the springtime, the right time for the sheep to come out to the pasture and feed on the green grass. The disciples Peter, James, and John were also ones in the fold, but they came out of it to feed upon Christ as the pasture. When they were in the old religion, they were starved to death in the fold. There was no door, meaning there was no freedom, and there was no pasture, meaning there was no feeding. One day, they met Christ, the living One, the shepherd, and He said, “Come and follow Me.” They followed Him out of the fold and into the pasture.
If you follow the Lord as your shepherd, it will stir up a storm that will force you out of the fold. You do not need to strive or to exercise any effort to follow the Lord Jesus out of the fold, for, as long as you follow Him, the old religion will force you to get out. They will cast you out. The more you follow this living Jesus, the more religion will force you out. Religion cannot put up with Jesus, and Jesus will never remain in religion. These two are absolutely different, and there is no possibility of reconciling them. Jesus is life, and religion is something other than life. The living Jesus simply cannot tolerate religion. Praise the Lord that we are all out of religion and are feeding on the green pasture! The pasture certainly is not in the fold; it is outside of the fold. If you are going to enjoy the pasture, you must come out of the fold. Once you come out of the fold, you will find yourself in the pasture. Hallelujah!
We need to say a word about who the doorkeeper and the thieves and robbers are. The doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit, and the thieves and robbers are those who pretended to be prophets. Those who did not enter into the fold by the door but by climbing up another way are the prophets who lived after the Old Testament prophets and before John the Baptist. During this time many came into the law not through Christ but by themselves. They pretended to be the prophets sent by God. But all of the proper Old Testament prophets came through Christ and for Christ. In other words, they came into the law through the door. After these Old Testament prophets, many people came into the law not through and for Christ, but by and for themselves. They were the thieves and robbers who damaged and spoiled God’s people. A period of four hundred years existed between the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist. For approximately four hundred years those thieves and robbers damaged God’s chosen people. Consequently, the Lord said that the thief came to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but that He came that the sheep might have life and might have it abundantly (10:10). This means that the Lord came to impart Himself as life to His sheep because He is their pasture. As long as the sheep stay in the pasture, they will have the supply of life abundantly. By feeding on the pasture, the sheep will enjoy the pasture as their abundant life supply, for the Lord is their abundant life. They will enjoy the Lord and experience Him as their life more abundantly.
How could the Lord fulfill this matter of being the pasture of life to the sheep? It is by realizing that the grass, in order to be eaten, must pass through the process of death. All of the living grass eaten by the sheep must pass through the process of death. Hence, as we shall see, the Lord said that He had to lay down His life for His sheep. He first had to die that He might minister Himself as life to the sheep.
We have seen that Christ is the shepherd who calls His people out of the fold. He walks before His sheep, and His sheep follow Him. As the shepherd, He takes the sheep out of the fold through Himself as the door and to Himself as the pasture.