WHERE CAN TRUE LIFE BE FOUND?

By Robb Brunansky, Op-ed contributor Saturday, February 10, 2024

The Christian Post/Leonardo Blair

This is a question that has been asked for centuries by philosophers, scholars, theologians and ordinary people who want to know what it means to be truly alive. Many people say, "for the first time, I felt what it was like to be truly alive!"after a scary or thrilling experience.

People want to live. Men and women will try different things to find what they consider to be a full, meaningful, and purposeful life. People who seek to live their lives by meeting their physical needs for food, drink, alcohol, or drugs, believe that meeting their physical needs with food, drink, or physical activity will make them truly alive. Others argue that embracing and expressing one's sexual identity is the only thing that really matters in modern culture, and sexual relationships are the only thing that keeps one alive. Individuals find their life purpose in their work, building their identity and life value from their wealth or work. Some people find meaning in their lives in the achievements of their children; they feel their lives are meaningful because of their achievements.

In the right context, many of these things are God-given: food and drink, sexual intimacy in marriage, work, and family. God wants us to enjoy these things. The tragedy, however, is that people take these pleasures too far and often seek life in these things in and of themselves. Unbelievers also profess false religions. They believe that if they want to live a good and meaningful life, they should ask for help from God or gods. None of these answers can give anyone a truly good life, and all of them will eventually end in death.

In John 10: 7-10, Jesus answers the question of how to find true life, saying that he is the door of the sheep and leads us to the eternal door, which is himself.

The Jews who lived around Jesus would understand the true meaning of his statement that he was the door of the sheepfold. The door of the sheepfold is where the sheep go out in search of food and seek shelter when they return for the night.

Jesus showed himself as the door of the sheep. He also distinguished himself from thieves and robbers. Shepherds and sheep owners, along with natural predators such as Wolves, will build structures to deal with thieves and robbers, who pose a great threat to the flock. The contrast here would refer to the Pharisees, who excommunicated the man who had been healed of his blindness. However, we can go further than the Pharisees because Jesus did not just apply these words to the religious leaders present when he spoke them.

Christ said that a thief and a robber is anyone who seeks to turn a person from God into a false religion. These are the anti-evangelists that Jesus described in Matthew 23: 15 as religious fanatics who seek converts and trap their followers into eternal punishment. All those who profess false religion now portray these thieves and robbers, played by the Pharisees in the story of Jesus. Whether it's people who are overtly religious, like Mormon missionaries, traders of words of Faith who sell the prosperity gospel, or LGBTQ religious fanatics who are less obviously religious but try to intimidate and force others to follow their heretical beliefs. Sexual identity: people who want to keep people away from Christ are thieves and robbers.

Jesus not only showed that false teachers are thieves and robbers, but he also showed that his sheep are different from them. After they heard Jesus 'voice and realized that he was the true Shepherd, Jesus' true sheep did not listen to them. The healed blind man was not persuaded by the threats of the Pharisees because he did not hear the voices of those who spoke the truth. Instead, he heard The Voice of Jesus, and others were not interested in him. Therefore, it applies to everyone who knows Christ.

Jesus repeatedly says that he is the door of the sheep in the book of John. The emphasis on the Messiah shows that Jesus is the way to eternal life. Jesus declared that only through him can people be saved. It is a clear statement that only through Jesus Christ can we obtain salvation. There is no other way to be saved, no way to eternal life, no other Savior, and no other hope for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ is the entrance to Heaven.

However, we must realize that every door in this world indicates "heaven", and no door indicates "eternal destruction". Even people who celebrate that they are going to hell do not consider hell to be a pleasant place; on the contrary, they consider hell to be an eternal place with God. Jesus Christ is the truly open door to eternal life with God, not eternity under God's wrath.

Jesus called this salvation the ability of sheep to enter and leave the fold. When Jesus says that we will be saved if we believe in his name, he means that he will be our protector from enemies who try to destroy us. We will be saved, not because we have the strength to keep it until we die, but because our Savior, Christ, allows us into his sheepfold. Christ protects us from our enemies so that we do not perish.

In addition to having Christ's protection as his sheep, we also have his provision for our needs. By leading us out of the sheepfold, Christ demonstrates his loving care for us to ensure that we can get the spiritual food we need through him. This great provision and protection, as described in Psalm 23: 2, comes only to those who enter through him.

Jesus concluded his brief statement by emphasizing the purpose of the thieves and robbers. Jesus said that these false teachers came to steal, kill, and destroy. False teachers and messiahs are not misguided well-intentioned people; they are people who come up with lies to kill others. Since everything evil is contrary to Christ and the life he came to bring his sheep, Satan uses them to destroy souls who will go to hell for eternity.

Here, there is a clear distinction between Jesus and thieves and robbers. Jesus, who is considered the door of the sheep and the entrance to eternal life, did not come to bring corruption, death, or loss. He came to give us a prosperous life. John explains in John 17: 3 that true life is eternal life. Through the blood of his cross, Jesus came to bring us to God and reconcile us to him, so that he can know us and give us a life that is true, real, lasting, satisfying, and eternal. To live a worthy life, you must know Christ.

Dr. Robb Brunansky is the pastor-teacher of Desert Hills Bible Church in Glendale, Arizona. Follow him on Twitter at @ RobbBrunansky.

News Sources : https://www.christianpost.com/voices/where-is-true-life-to-be-found.html