“THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP”

17. According to John 10:7-10 to what other feature of a sheepfold did Jesus liken himself?’

¹⁷ At this point Jesus changed figures of speech to illustrate another vital feature of the matter. “Therefore Jesus said again: ‘Most truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All those that have come in place of me are thieves and plunderers; but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasturage. The thief does not come unless it is to steal and slay and destroy. I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance.’”​—John 10:7-10.

18. (a) Who on earth tries to act as a doorkeeper to Jesus as the symbolic “door”? (b) Of what class did Jesus speak as a feature of the “conclusion of the system of things,” and does this class serve as a doorkeeper to Jesus as the “door”?

¹⁸ Let us note that Jesus does not speak of a “doorkeeper” in connection with himself as being a “door.” He does not speak of a so-called “vicar of Christ,” some head of a religious sect who claims to have infallibility. Jesus said: “I am the door of the sheep.” And some months later he added the claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

19. How great a “flock” do those in the sheepfold of the Abrahamic Covenant arrangement make up, and through what way of entry is their salvation?

¹⁹ Jesus is the figurative “door” to those sheeplike followers of his who are made part with him of the ‘seed of Abraham.’ So they are in the “sheepfold” of the Abrahamic Covenant arrangement. All together, they make up only a “little flock,” comparatively speaking, just 144,000 under him their Shepherd. They make up, as it were, the 12 tribes of spiritual Israel, and they stand upon the spiritual Mount Zion with Jesus Christ, “the Lamb” of God. (Luke 12:32; Rev. 7:1-8; 14:1-5) They owe their salvation to a heavenly inheritance, not to some vicegerent of Christ, but to the one who is “the door of the sheep.” For Jesus said: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasturage.” (John 10:9) Speaking for the “little flock” with the heavenly hope, the apostle Paul refers to “our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have gained our approach by faith into this undeserved kindness in which we now stand; and let us exult, based on hope of the glory of God.”​—Rom. 5:1, 2; Eph. 2:18; 3:12.