Symbolism & Salvation – Jesus is the gate; beware of deception 

By Daniel Bobinski 

Jesus represented many things during his time on Earth. Last year in this space I wrote about how He was the Passover Lamb, because by believing in the new covenant in His blood, God will pass over us and not sentence us to the second death. By way of review, the first Passover occurred in Egypt. Jacob’s family had become a nation of slaves there, and God was bringing a plague of death through the land. But if God’s angel saw the blood of a lamb painted on the doorposts of a house, the angel “passed over” and did not kill any firstborn in that house. 

Jesus was also the sin offering that took away the sins of the world. In Leviticus 4:32 the law states that if one committed a transgression, a lamb without blemish was to be sacrificed as a sin offering. Those sacrificial offerings covered sin, but John the Baptist told us that Jesus was the Lamb of God who took away sins. There’s a difference. 

I’ve also used this space before to write about how Jesus told us He was the vine and we are the branches, meaning that we need to stay connected to Him if we’re going to produce any fruit in our lives. 

Of course, there’s more. Today I want to tell you that Jesus told us He was “the gate.” Some Bible translations use the word, “door.”  To be specific, in John 10:7, Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” 

He continues that analogy two verses later, saying, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”   

The Greek word here is θύρα, or thyra. It means door, or gate, or vestibule, an entrance, or a passageway into some place. So when Jesus tells us He’s the thyra, He’s telling us that He alone is the entrance to eternal life with God. 

He didn’t say he was “a” thyra. Or “one of” the thyras. No, Jesus said He is “THE” thyra. Only one thyra for entrance into heaven exists, and Jesus is it. 

With that in mind, you now have a biblical response whenever someone tells you there are many ways to heaven. Jesus was crystal clear. The only way for people to enter into a relationship with God and find salvation is “through” Jesus. He is the door. He is the gate. He is the entrance. He is the passageway. 

Entering by other means 

It’s not biblical, but for the sake of illustration, imagine heaven as an enormously huge, beautiful property with a wrought iron fence around it. The only way to have legal access to the property and to receive all the fulfillment the owner has to offer is to enter through the gate. 

This aligns with John 10:9, which says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.” 

But what if someone jumps the fence, ignoring the gate altogether? What if the person wanted the privileges and benefits, but just jumped over the fence? Jesus addresses this in John 10:1, saying, “Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.” 

This may sound odd, but messengers of Satan work hard on the youth, dangling fanciful powers and abilities, lying and deceiving, and caring not about anyone’s soul. They want only to do what Jesus says in verse 10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” 

Such is the world of drugs and sinful pleasures and the temptation of supernatural powers. Drugs, in particular, are a gateway for people who feel abandoned; a deceptive path for people to think they’re being accepted. Tragically, drug use leads to other practices, all of which lead our youth down a road away from God. 

Unfortunately, I know this road. Feeling abandoned in my teens, I made bad choices in my attempts to be accepted, but further and further down a dark path I went, until one day I found myself in intensive care on life support. I was in the hospital for weeks. One observation I made at that time was my “friends” were nowhere to be found. 

The promises dangled by the dark side start off being attractive. One of the biggest problems in the church today is not telling our youth that sin starts off being really fun. That path was attractive for me 40+ years ago, and that path is still attractive to lonely teens today. But I can say with 100% confidence that the temptations dangled by the enemy provide only a false sense of belonging and false sense of fulfillment. Why? Because they are acquired by climbing over the fence – by avoiding the gate. 

Jesus is the gate. He is the only gate. He is the only way to obtain eternal life and the true abundant blessings that accompany the life God offers. 

If you have kids or grandkids, learn to die to self and listen to them. Practice patience. Provide as much emotional safety as you can. Study the daylights out of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Those verses are not for weddings, they’re for learning how to be an active, thriving member of the Body of Christ. 

If we, as adults, cannot provide a listening ear and a safe emotional environment for the young people around us, they may easily choose to listen to the lies of those whose actual goal is to destroy them. 

They almost destroyed me. I still bear the scars to remind me. Don’t let false fellowship and attractive but fake benefits destroy the young people around you. Show them the true gate, and explain that every aspect of love, as well as every aspect of loving acceptance, comes from the Person who is the gate. 

Daniel Bobinski, Th.D., is an award-winning and best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. Reach him at [email protected] or (208) 375-7606.