Day 3: Let us in! 

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
John 10:9

As I write this I started thinking about a door and it’s importance. A lot happens at a door: we greet friends, we say goodbye (which depending on if you are on a date-or a Midwesterner-can take a LONG time!) we receive packages there, take out what isn’t needed. It keeps things out that we don’t want in and it keeps things in that we don’t what out. (We have a pure white cat. Letting her out is NOT what we want to do!) In the midwest we have the front door and ‘backdoor friends’. But the tabernacle…it only had 1 door and that was for a reason. Purity and protection. It keeps what is inside pure and it protects that purity and anyone who enters.

Only one way and through a specific door. Have we heard this before? We certainly have! There IS a way to get in and remain pure. Because we cannot reach God any other way. He told us and told us and told us-‘Be Holy for I am Holy’. (I Peter 1:16) And purity and holiness go hand in hand. So, we have to enter the gate. An ‘antitype’ of Christ. Because there really IS only one way to God, and there is a gate. Christ Himself refers to both but tells us how we can gain access. In the book of John, chapter 10 vs. 9 Jesus said that ‘I am the gate; whoever enters through me shall be saved’. Not only that, but He also said later (John 14:6) ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.’ Interesting choice of words: ‘…through Me.’ Through the gate of Christ.

That seems pretty clear. Christ Himself said that there is only ONE way, and that HE is that way. He is the gate, through Him we gain access to the Father.

So, we enter the gate because we see Christ showing us in. And now what? We still can’t just run right into the court. Christ might be pure and holy, but we aren’t. We are still filthy with sin, and we know that no matter what we personally think about ourselves, we are sinners. And the wages of sin aren’t fellowship with God, they are death. (Romans 6:23). And the first thing we see when Christ opens the gate-an alter. To the right of it a bloody table and instruments of dismemberment. Someone has to pay. Someone has to die. And Christ already did. 

So now we stand inside the gate, in the open-air ‘court’. We shall take a closer look at the alter and Christ’s sacrifices the next time.  It sounds scary and pretty gruesome, but Christ is standing right there with us. He must be, for He is the gate and He is the only one who can let us in. So for now, let us cast aside all fear and doubt for a moment. We are entering HIS court through HIS gate-and let us enter with thanksgiving and joy! Because we can see now it IS possible!

Scripture reading for today:

Psalm 100:4
Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.