Legitimate Entry
Wendi opened her jewelry drawer to grab her necklace like she usually did as she got dressed one morning. Not seeing it, her first reaction was to ask me, “Where’s my necklace?” She barely got those words out of her mouth when she realized that nearly all her jewelry was gone! So were my watches and other items. We concluded the obvious: “We’ve been robbed!”
The thieves had entered our home uninvited, took advantage of our absence, and helped themselves to our property. You know how violated you feel if you’ve experienced theft or burglary. It’s an overwhelming mix of anger, vulnerability, and loss. Thankfully the thieves, who had burglarized many other homes, were caught and faced justice. Unfortunately, however, we never retrieved our stuff. So for us, it was a loss, but it could have been worse.
How did the pilfering pair get in? They entered by using the front door and a key, illegitimately. It was no different than crawling through a window or forcing open a door. The bottom line is that they had no right to be in our home or to take our things.
Why do people do such things? Some do it for the thrill. So it may be a sickness that compels them for psychological pleasure or fulfillment. But, most commonly, people illegally attain other people’s goods to have what others have and live how others live, illicitly. Unwilling or unable to do it the right way, they do it the corrupt way.
Think about it. Misleading people about access to God’s promises has always been Satan’s ploy. For example, when he offered Adam and Eve an alternative to what God had given them in the Garden, the serpent proposed an illegitimate entry into God’s best. Since then, the Devil has presented many false means of entering into what only Christ can provide. But the Lord teaches us that He is the only way. He creates explicit imagery instructing us about the valid means of access to His salvation and eternal rewards.
When Jesus described Himself as “the door of the sheep” (John 10:7), His audience would have pictured stacked rocks, creating small, round sheep pens in the countryside with no built-in doors. The shepherd protected the sheep by staying in the opening of the pen. He was the door. His was the legitimate pen, and He was the only entrance through which one will “be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). He is the valid access to life, while the others offer counterfeit entry to sham salvations.
Some might counter, “But there could be many doors and many pens full of different sheep!” That could be true, but you’d risk calling Jesus a liar. Look closely at what He said and did not say. He said, “I am the door,” not “a door.” He referred to “the sheep,” not “some sheep,” and “the gate,” not “a gate.”
To illustrate, Alan Shlemon of Stand to Reason observes that since the universe is God’s and He is the sovereign King when it comes to salvation, He has made one offer, through His one Son, in one way. He goes on to say:
It’s like getting arrested by the FBI. You’re guilty of committing a crime on United States soil, which is under U.S. jurisdiction. Only the U.S. government has the authority to offer you a pardon. You can accept the terms of the pardon and go free or pay for the crime. There are no multiple paths to freedom. No other country can offer you a pardon. It’s the U.S. way or there’s no way. (Alan Shlemon, STR, https://bit.ly/3RmNrOm, accessed 7/7/22)
So the Bonnie and Clyde who slinked into our home (Yes, it was a girl and guy) weren’t tried under Canadian law; they faced the music here. Those who proclaim other gods can’t rely on their prophets and deities on their way to eternity. Since this is God’s realm, we’ll all face Him. In his grace, He has revealed that there is one Gate, one flock, one Shepherd, and one Hope. Rely on that God.
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ─Romans 5:1