The eloquent English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) once preached on the simple thought, “…and the door was shut,” (Matt. 25:10). A skeptic in the audience objected to Whitfield. He was overheard saying to another rather loudly, “So what? Another door will open.” Whitfield heard this man’s mocking tone from the pulpit and directly addressed his detractor. The barrel-chested preacher said, “There may be someone here who is careless and self-satisfied, and who thinks, ‘What does it matter if the door is shut? Another will open.’ Yes, it will—the door to the bottomless pit, the door to hell!” Whitfield then pivoted his message to fire and brimstone. History is unclear what became of the jeering man.[1]
Days from death and thinking about his eternity, Charles Spurgeon, wrote, “Soon shall I see an open door into heaven: the pearl gate will be my way of entrance, and then I shall go in unto my LORD and King and be with God eternally shut in.”[2]
Wow! Talk about a study in contrasts. Two doors representing two different destinies—heaven or hell. These anecdotes got my mind thinking about an interesting rabbit trail that meanders through the Bible—doors. In John 10:9 Jesus made one of His seven bold, “I AM” statements, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”
In Bible times the shepherd of the flock and the door were one in the same. Sheep enclosures had no gate or door covering the opening. So here’s what would happen each night: as the sheep bedded down for the night inside the pen, the shepherd would lay down across the single opening. With his own body he would create the “door” to protect the sheep. The shepherd blocked intruders and predators from getting in and kept sheep from getting out.
What this means for us is that there’s only one way into God’s sheepfold and that’s through the doorway of Jesus Christ. This was a statement of exclusivity on par with what Jesus would say later in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father, but by me.” Then in Acts 4:12 Peter preached a similar message, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Of course, this idea was nothing new. If you go back through the OT, you’ll see God’s “one door” policy. Noah’s Ark had only one door (Gen. 6:16), yet all who lived in that age were given the chance to enter by faith and escape the coming flood of God’s judgment.
During the Israelites’ exodus from Egyptian slavery, God instructed all the people to cover the posts of their doors in the blood of the spotless lamb (Ex. 12:13). The Lord’s judgment was coming, but all whose doors were covered by the lamb’s blood would be spared from the plague on the firstborn.
Likewise in the tabernacle and Temple period, there was only one entrance into the Holy of Holies where the blood of an atoning sacrifice could be offered. That door represented man’s separation from holy God and the need for a mediating high priest. In all of the OT pictures, Jesus was the fulfillment. He is our Ark of safety. He is the Lamb. He is our High Priest.
Finally, we think about the door of Jesus’ tomb. Upon His resurrection, an angel rolled back the stone that acted as the door to Jesus’ grave, showing that He had power over death (Matt. 28:2). This is the hope of every believer who enters the door of salvation by Christ alone. Because He lives, we shall live also. Death is merely a threshold from abundant life into eternal life. Jesus has opened the way.
C.S. Lewis mused over the inner ache for heaven, “At present we are on the outside of eternity’s door. At last to be summoned inside would be both glory and honor beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache. We want something else which we can hardly put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into our ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in!”[3]
Skeptics today may bemoan the fact that the Bible declares there is only one door of salvation, but I’m just thankful that there is one! -DM
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