We shall consider,
I. The metaphor by which Jesus represents his own character —
He had been delivering " the parable" of " the Good Shepherd";" in elucidating which, he speaks of himself as " the door of the sheepfold."
The Church of God is here compared to a sheep- fold—
[All men in their natural state are wandering at a distance from Godc: they neither acknowledge him as their Shepherd, nor feed in his pastures ; they are strangers to that flock which is under his immediate carea. But in every age God has had " a chosen and peculiar people :" in the days of Moses he brought them into a visible fold ; till the time of Christ all his sheep were kept within the pale of the Jewish Church. But our Lord announced his purpose to introduce the Gentiles also into his fold e. Now all who name the name of Christ are called his sheep. All however who are nominally his, are not really so f. It is to be feared that his sincere followers still form but " a little flock;" but the truly upright, of whatever denomina- tion they be, belong to him : they are indeed often ready to cast out each other as aliens ; nevertheless they are equally the objects of his superintending care.]
Of this fold Christ is "■ the door"—
[Parts of Judaea were probably still infested with wolves : the sheepfolds therefore were better secured than ours : per- haps the entrance into them was guarded by a door. Now, what that door was to the fold, that is Christ to the Church : every sheep must enter into it by faith in himg. We are expressly said to have access unto God through himh ; nor indeed has there ever been any other way into the fold1. It was the blood of the sacrifice which procured admission for the high-priest within the vailk. Through that, all believers, from the very beginning, were brought nigh to God1 ; and, through that, we also have boldness to enter into the holiest™. Some, it is true, have " climbed up into the fold some other way11 :" they profess to be his without having ever believed in him ; but they are regarded by him only as thieves and robbers ; nor will they ever be admitted into the fold above.]
b ver. 6, 11. c Isai. liii. 6. d Eph. ii. 12.
e ver. 16. f Rom. ii. 28. and ix. 6.
s Gal. iii. 26. h Eph. ii. 18. « John xiv. 6.
k Heb. ix. 7, 25. ' Rev. xiii. 8. with Eph. ii. 13.
m Heb. x. 19, 20. " ver. 1.