The Door (Gate)
In the person of Jesus, we find the one and only way to be saved from sin, the one and only way to heaven – to God our Father, and to the eternal rest He has prepared for those who put their trust in Him.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:7-9
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14 (Luke 13:24)
Jesus is not speaking idly, but drawing on a thread all the way back to Genesis and claiming this title as a description of Himself. In the following passage Jacob is on the run from his brother. He leaves his fathers’ tents and is headed back to the land of the Chaldeans, likely to be tempted by the spirit of Babylon, which built a great tower to heaven to make name for themselves. Before Jacob gets there, God reveals himself to Jacob in a different kind of flight of steps/ladder.
And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder [flight of steps] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord [YHVH], the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Genesis 28:10-19
Contrast God’s plan of redemption above vs. the human plan in this next passage:
...in the land of Shinar… they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower [ziggurat] with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down… dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth… its name was called Babel [Assyrian meaning “gate of god”] Genesis 11:1-9
They tried to glorify created things by building their own gate to God. But God has stood at the top of His own gate to God and proclaimed His own name, not created things.
In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar or your private parts may be exposed. Exodus 20:24-25
“You shall not go up by steps to my altar…” makes sense in a physical reality so that our private parts would not be exposed, and makes even more sense in the spiritual context where the family of Abraham was called out of the land of the Chaldeans. They are not to be like the Chaldeans, building great towers to heaven, but humble and lowly altars of raw stone, and unprofaned by the stain of sin that lives in every human heart. And what private, spiritual, sin do the towers of the Chaldeans and the spirit of Babylon most reveal? Their pride. The sin of Satan. Lord God, please cut pride off from us and give us humility instead.
Jesus is God
And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. John 1:51
Jesus directly references Genesis 28:12, and claims it as a reference to himself. Why? Nathanael was sitting away under the fig tree, and Jesus was demonstrating to Nathanael that He knew him supernaturally. Nathanael finds it convincing and says that Jesus is the Son of God and the king of Israel, and then Jesus claims the title of the gate/door/ladder/stairway to God – the Way – the very thing that Jacob saw in his dream. This is why Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” not “I’ll show you the way”. He is the very thing that is ‘the Way’.
This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; Psalm 118:17-22
In the next passage Jesus sternly rebukes the Pharisees because they don’t understand the way to the Father, the character of the Messiah they supposedly were waiting for, but are more concerned with earthly things (see context).
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Matthew 23:13
Jesus said “I am the door”. Let us never close it!