The Sheepfold
by Madelein Wolfaardt
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John 10
In John 10:1-16 Jesus uses the comparison of a shepherd and sheep, He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep. The sheepfold refers to God’s kingdom and the sheep that are outside refer to people that have not yet been saved and have not yet entered the kingdom of God.
In the infographic you can see the lost sheep in the distance outside of the sheepfold, we also read about this in Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Thieves and robbers
John 10:1
In this verse, Jesus is saying that some sheep try to enter the sheepfold by other means than through the door. They try to climb over the wall and are therefore called thieves and robbers. This applies to people trying to enter God’s kingdom in other ways instead of the Only Way. Some examples of how people try to climb over the wall are through:
- Living good lives
- Doing charitable deeds
- Being active in church
- Living a moral life
- Attending Christian gatherings
- Reading their Bible
- Having ‘good’ or ‘spiritual’ friends
- Try to stop committing certain sins
- Start talking like a Christian
These things in themselves are good things to do BUT they will not save you. You cannot enter the kingdom of God by doing these things. You do not score points in life and then hopefully have enough points at the end to be let into heaven.
It is true that we ought to do good deeds after we are born again into the kingdom of God, but good deeds are an outflowing of salvation.
Entering In
John 10:9
Jesus is the Door to enter into the sheepfold. There’s only one way in and that is through Jesus. God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus to die for the sin of the world (John 3:16). He paid for our sins by dying on the cross, and for this reason, we can be saved – through His blood that was shed.
Entering the sheepfold can only be done by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior through repentance of your sin.
The sheep that have entered the sheepfold in this way have the mark of Jesus’ blood in his heart. His sin has been forgiven and he has been made new. 2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Surety of Salvation
Can you be sure that you are saved and that you will go to heaven? Let’s see what the Bible says: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,” 1 John 5:13.
Does this verse say that we can hope/ believe that we have eternal life? No! It clearly states that every person can have surety of salvation.
End
Do you have this surety? Are you a sheep that is trying to climb over the wall to get into the kingdom of God or have you entered in through the Door? Or are you one of those sheep that are still far away in the distance? God is calling you to Him for it is not His will that any man should perish but that all should repent. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
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