Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs inside, is a thief and a robber;and he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.The doorkeeper opens for him, and the sheep obey his voice, and he calls his sheep by name and leads them out.And when he has brought out his sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.They don’t follow a stranger, but run from him, because they don’t know someone else’s voice.

Jesus spoke this parable to them; but they did not understand what He was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them: Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.All, no matter how many of them came before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them.I am the door: whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it more abundantly.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.But a hireling, not a shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and runs; and the wolf plunders the sheep and scatters them.But the hireling flees because he is a hireling, and does not care about the sheep.I am the good shepherd, and I know Mine, and Mine know Me.How the Father knows Me So and I know the Father, and my life I guess for the sheep.I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and these I must bring: and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.

This is why the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it again.No one takes it away from Me, but I myself give it. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to receive it again. I received this commandment from My Father.

From these words a quarrel again arose between the Jews.Many of them said: He is possessed by a demon and is going mad; Why are you listening to Him?Others said: these are not the words of a demoniac; Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

Then it came in Jerusalem holiday updates, and it was winter.And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him: How long will You keep us in bewilderment? if you are the Christ, tell us directly.

Jesus answered them: I told you, and you don’t believe; the works that I do in the name of My Father, they testify of Me.But you do not believe, for you are not of My sheep, as I told you.My sheep obey My voice, and I know them; and they follow Me.And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father.I and the Father are one.

Here again the Jews took up stones to stone Him.Jesus answered them: I have shown you many good works from My Father; For which of them do you want to stone Me?

The Jews answered Him: We do not want to stone You for a good deed, but for blasphemy and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.

Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law: “I said: you are gods”?If He called those to whom the word of God came gods, and the Scripture cannot be broken,Do you say to him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, “You blaspheme,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”?If I do not the works of My Father, do not believe Me;and if I do, then when you do not believe Me, believe My works, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.

Then they again sought to seize Him; but He escaped from their hands,and he went again across the Jordan to the place where John had previously baptized, and remained there.Many came to Him and said that John had not performed any miracle, but everything that John said about Him was true.And many there believed in Him.

I am the door: whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9).

Our Lord introduces Himself to us figuratively, using the language of a parable. The loftiest and most poetic images are not magnificent enough to describe His beauty and majesty; however, He chooses the simplest comparisons that the common people can understand. The Lord, in order to explain to us the simple meaning of the Gospel, descends to our level of understanding and uses as an example a door that people use every day.

Every day you enter and leave your home through the door. Every time you walk out the door, you encounter a new world and gain knowledge of what is happening around you.

A door is an ordinary object. Jesus wants us to think of Him often as the “door of salvation.” The sheepfold door is the most unpretentious door. Jesus condescendingly points us to the door of salvation because we by nature may stand near that door and not realize that we must enter it. And He thus brings us, like the sheep of His flock, into the sheepfold. What can we see and understand when looking at such an extraordinary thing as a door?

I. In this simple image we see:

1. The need to enter. Imagine; what if there were no door, how then could we enter God, find peace in our souls, truth, salvation, purity, heaven?! All this is inaccessible to those outside these doors. How often, when approaching a house, for one reason or another, have you discovered that the door is closed. You can knock and ring the bell for a very long time, but still they may not hear you. And this happens very often in people's lives.

For example, you urgently need medical help, but you don’t have a phone to call ambulance, and you run with all your might to your neighbor and start knocking on the door or trying in every possible way to attract attention so that you can be heard. But in response you hear only silence, no one answers you, and then horror seizes you and you realize that if the door had opened, you would have been given the opportunity to save your life from death. You can knock on the doors of people's hearts, waiting for compassion in your grief, but these doors will remain tightly locked.

Dear friends, are your hearts open? How can you open the door of your heart to Christ to let Him in? How can you enter through Christ if your lips remain mute and your hands are paralyzed by sin so that you cannot lift them up and knock on that door? Therefore, Christ said, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said to you.” (John 14:26) He will make you see so that you will see your need to enter the "door of salvation", He will make you understand that you are in extreme danger, so that if you do not run to this door, then the inevitable will overtake you death.

After all, seeing an impending threat, for example, a tidal wave, a “tsunami,” you will run with all your might, without looking back, realizing that in another half a second this wave can swallow you up. You run, feeling that the waters of the flood of God's wrath are already touching your feet, and you feel the sulfuric taste of the waters of the bottomless ocean of God's indignation. It is for this reason that Christ says that he who makes an effort to conquer or reach the Kingdom of Heaven must use effort, and this is the same effort that you must make in order to pass through this door. You must strive with all your might to enter through the door, hoping that Christ will open it for you, because there is no one in creation who can open that door.

2. We must also remember that this door is only one and that there is no other door. There is only one door; don't bother looking for another one. Salvation is by entering this door and no other (Acts 4:12). Only those who enter through Christ will find salvation. Christ is both the condition and the guarantee of salvation.

Among the many doors that the world has to offer, you will not find one that leads to salvation. All the doors with which the world tries to bring you into the Kingdom of Heaven open only so that you, having taken a step forward, fall into the bottomless abyss of hell. Only by entering by Christ can you stand on the rock that will never be shaken.

3. The door of salvation is the Lord Jesus Himself. “I am the door,” He says; not rites or doctrines, the priesthood or your good works, but the Lord Himself, our Sacrifice. You have probably heard a lot about various religions and cults that offer some means to achieve salvation. But these religions and cults offer a surrogate, a counterfeit, anything but Christ.

Remember what He said to Moses when He sent him to the people of Israel, He said, “To Moses: I am who I am. And he said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: Jehovah who is has sent me to you.” (Ex. 3:14) God thus shows His exclusiveness and that no one exists or has being in himself but He, and He is the only one, because there is no other. He alone has life in Himself, and He gives life to everything in the universe. And sinners are dead in their sins.

So here, Christ, saying “I am the door,” indicates that only He is the cause and way of salvation. There is no other way.

People have a tendency to do anything but do what they need to do. We fuss in every possible way and try to knock on various doors through which we think to enter the “blessed light,” but unfortunately we are all, as one, like Lot, who insisted on his own, and instead of following the path that God showed him, he ran to Zoar in pursuit of his personal gain. “But Lot said to them: No, Master! ... I cannot escape to the mountain, lest misfortune overtakes me and I die; Now, it’s closer to run to this city, it’s small; I’ll run there - it’s small; and my life will be preserved." (Gen.19:18-20)

Sinners always persist in trying to pass off their imaginations and preferences as something better and more useful than what God offers in His Word. Because of this blind zeal, people try in every possible way to improve what God has recognized as good and sufficient. Out of their natural stupidity, they are trying to do something better than the Lord, and therefore they will not go unpunished.

The Lord decreed before the creation of the world that Christ would be the Savior and no one else. If He said that “I am the door: whoever enters through Me will be saved,” then so it is. The Lord says in Scripture, “For there is no other name under heaven, given to people by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) Then how can people choose saviors for themselves? After all, only Christ is the “Door of Salvation” and no one else. All those who seek to enter the Kingdom of Heaven without the help of Christ are thieves and robbers. If you are told that by observing this or that ritual you will enter the gates of the heavenly city, then beware, because they are slipping you “a wide gate leading to destruction.”

To enter by Christ means to do exactly what He commanded, since everything that is beyond what was established by Christ is from the evil one. Christ said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) So, if the love of Christ abides in you, then you will strive to do what He commanded.

II. Who will use this door?

1. These are the ones who do not just stand and watch like others, but they knock and enter, for they are the ones who enter by faith. But you can object by saying, for example, wouldn’t all these efforts be our own deeds and merits? This can be answered very simply, you cannot do anything like this if it is not given to you from above. Remember that nothing unclean will enter the gates of the heavenly city. Unless you are cleansed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by His Spirit, you will not think of going in there, for all your attention will be directed to sin. And you, in an unregenerate state, will still think about sin.

2. Only those people who have the only qualification required will use the “Door of Salvation”: they “enter.” It can be any “who,” but the decisive condition is “enters.” The entrance, visibly marked as a DOOR, is obviously intended to be used. The wonderful definition of “I am the door” and the promises that follow are the most sincere invitation imaginable.

3. How many will use the “Door of Salvation”? Unfortunately, as we see from life experience, very few people go “behind the veil”, and all more people simply tramples the courts of the house of God. But, nevertheless, even having such a negative experience, we should not lose heart, but believe that the Lord will lead his people to still waters and green pastures. We must also remember that everything that the Lord has commanded will be accomplished, and that all those ordained to eternal life will be saved, and our concern should be that we serve Christ to preach His gospel and spread the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

III. What privileges do those who enter the “Door of Salvation” gain?

1. First of all, this is salvation itself. Christ says - “He will be saved.” – He who enters the “Door of Salvation” will be saved immediately, forever and completely. This is eternal and complete salvation. There is nothing to add to it. There is no duality here, as is the case with some people who think that they can run back and forth through the door of salvation, whenever, to whom and how they please. They think that a sinner entering the “Door of Salvation” is saved, and when leaving he again becomes one of the lost, but in this way they claim that God did not complete the salvation of the chosen people, but only partially until the moment of the sinner’s consent or disagreement. Such a view of the atonement purchased by Christ can and should be called blasphemy, because They take away the glory from God, considering Him dependent on the whims of the sinner. But we must remember that if a sinner is saved by Christ once, then he is saved by Christ forever. God does not make half-hearted decisions and He does not have “yes and no” but always “Yes and Amen.”

2. Everyone who enters gains freedom. He will "go in and out." This is not a prison door, but a door for God's flock, whose Shepherd provides freedom. Here it is necessary to understand that everyone who enters becomes free from sin and its slavery. The liberated one thus becomes free from sin, although on the other hand he becomes a slave to righteousness. The one who enters becomes able to follow the Great Shepherd.

3. The user has access. He will “come in” for intercession, shelter, fellowship, teaching, relief and joy. All that he was deprived of in a world of sin and misery is now his portion in Christ. He who has entered by Christ can now pray, as it was, for example, said of Saul of Tarsus, “he now prays.” (Acts 9:11)

He who has entered by Christ knows where he can hide “in the day of trouble.” The impregnable fortress that no one can overcome is Christ Himself. And thus the saved one remains in communion with Christ, who teaches His people and leads them in a new and living way.

4. He who enters by Christ can also come out, and at the same time he does not become again the same as he was before entering. But his output is aimed at serving Christ. Once saved, he will not leave when he comes out, as is meant by the Arminians, from whom salvation can be lost and gained as many times as a person sins and repents. He will “go out” to serve and promote the good news. The believer must pay attention to the fact that Christ commands to go and teach all nations. The believer enters to be saved and set free, and leaves to serve and do the will of God.

This idiomatic expression "will go in and go out" also means the possession of salvation and the benefits that Christ purchased in full. This kind of idiomatic expression can be found in many languages, where it means “to live to the fullest” or as an equivalent it can be translated from Galik, “to have the full right to own property.”

By the image of sheep entering and leaving the sheepfold, it is also meant that the sheep will have both shelter from rain and cold, and pastures on which they will quench their hunger and thirst. Applying this to believers, it can be noted that for the people of God, going in and going out means that the believer will exercise faith by entering the Church, worshiping Christ and glorifying His mercy revealed in the sacrifice of Calvary, as well as going out to testify before the world, that Christ benefits His people by bestowing His grace and preserving His sheep in this world.

5. He who enters by Christ can also find food. Christ says: “And he will find pasture.” That food, essentially gruel, which the world treated the sinner to, is no longer palatable to the taste of the believer. If for worldly people, food and drink are sin at all times, then the soul of a believer is satisfied with “pure milk of the word.” (1 Peter 2:2) This is the Word of God preached in the Church. Our spiritual food is obtained through Christ, in Christ and from Christ. There are not many ways by which one can escape from sin and disaster; there is no choice of paths in the potholes and wastelands of mortal life in order to reach heaven by any of them. Christ “is the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6). As He said: “I am the door; whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). Amen

When I began this chapter, those facts and messages that now suddenly filled the entire European press did not yet exist, so everything that I wrote in this chapter, still speculatively, has now been confirmed almost precisely. My “diary” will be published next month, on October 7th, and now only on September 29th, and my, so to speak, “prophecies”, which I decided on in this chapter, as if at risk, will turn out to be partly outdated and accomplished facts from which I copied my “prophecies.” But I dare to remind the readers of the Diary of my summer May-June issue. Almost everything that I wrote in it about the near future of Europe has now been confirmed or is beginning to be confirmed. And, however, I also heard opinions about that article at that time: it was called (admittedly by private people) “a frenzied demon,” a fantastic exaggeration. They simply laughed at the power and significance of the clerical conspiracy, and they did not recognize the conspiracy at all. However, just two weeks ago I heard an opinion from a “competent” person that the fact of the death and election of a new pope is completely insignificant and will pass without a trace in Europe. But even now it is already known what importance Bismarck attaches to him and what was discussed in Berlin with Crispi. I wrote in my May-June “Diary” that the genius of Prince Bismarck realized even from the Franco-Prussian war itself that the most terrible enemy of the newly united Germany is Roman Catholicism, which will first of all serve as a pretext for the great war of “retribution”, which will cover the whole Europe. They found it ridiculous, and so on. and so on. And this is all because I wrote about this at a time when no one, neither here nor in the European press, even thought about taking care of these things, despite the Eastern War, which was already thundering in the world and caring for everyone. It seemed to everyone then that this would end with the East alone. However, even now, perhaps, no one still believes almost in inevitability European war in the near future. On the contrary, recently serious attention was paid to the opinion of competent Englishmen (Nordscote’s speech) that it is possible to reconcile before winter. So, perhaps, it is in vain that I consider my present chapter to be outdated in advance: although the facts have already emerged, although their enormous significance is already coming to light, although something fatal, terrible and, most importantly, close is already hovering over all of Europe, but despite these I am sure that many people will find the facts that have emerged, and now my explanations of these facts are again false and ridiculous, fantastic and exaggerated, because everyone accepts what is happening now as incomparably less and minute than it actually is. Just then, for example, elections in France are approaching, and France will suddenly send the former Republican majority into the House, which could very well happen, and now, I’m almost sure, everyone will shout that everything ended well, that the sky has cleared, there will be no clashes no, that McMahon apologized, powerless the clerics shamefully faded into oblivion and there was peace and “legality” again in Europe. All fabrications mine in this chapter will again seem to be just a product of idle imagination. They will again say that I gave the facts, let’s say, those that happened, not an exact meaning, but, most importantly, such a meaning. they are not given credit anywhere. But let us wait again for events and then we will see where the more accurate and correct path was. And for the sake of memory, I will try, in conclusion, to once again identify the points and milestones of this road that is already opening up to everyone and which, willy-nilly, it seems, everyone is destined to enter. I do this for memory, so that I can check it later. However, this is only a simple and final list of the same chapter.

1) The road begins and goes from Rome, from the Vatican, where the dying old man, the head of the crowd of Jesuits surrounding him, outlined it long ago. When the Eastern Question flared up, the Jesuits realized that the most convenient time had come. Along their intended path, they broke into France, carried out a coup d'etat in it and put it in such a position that a close war with Germany was almost inevitable, even if it did not want to start it. Prince Bismarck understood and foresaw all this long before. At least, it seems, only he alone, and perhaps several years before the present moment, saw and comprehended his most important enemy and all the enormous importance for the whole world of that last battle for his existence, which will undoubtedly set the whole world papal Catholicism dying forever in the very near future.

2) This fatal struggle is currently ending, and the final battle is approaching with terrible speed. France has been chosen and destined for a terrible battle, and there will be a battle. Fight is inevitable, that's true. However, there is still a small chance that it will be postponed, but only for a very short time. But anyway, imminent and close.

3) As soon as the battle begins, it immediately turns into an all-European one. The Eastern question and the Eastern battle, by the force of fate, will also merge with the all-European battle. One of the most remarkable episodes of this battle will be the final decision of Austria: which side should it give its sword to? But the most essential and important part of this last and fatal struggle will consist, on the one hand, in the fact that it will resolve the thousand-year-old question of Roman Catholicism and that, by the will of Providence, a revived Eastern Christianity will take its place. Thus, our Russian Eastern question will expand into a world and universal one, with extraordinary intended significance, even if this destiny is accomplished before blind eyes that do not recognize it, until the last minute capable of not seeing the obvious and not understanding the meaning of what was intended. Finally -

4) (And let this be called the most fortune-telling and fantastic of all my predictions, I agree in advance.) I am confident that the battle will end in favor of the East, in favor of the Eastern Union, that Russia has nothing to fear if the Eastern war merges with the all-European one, and that even and it will be better if the business expands like this. Oh, undoubtedly, it will be a terrible thing if so much precious human blood is shed! But the consolation is at least in the consideration that this shed blood would undoubtedly save Europe from a tenfold greater outpouring of blood, if the matter were delayed and delayed once again. Moreover, this great struggle will undoubtedly end quickly. But on the other hand, so many questions will finally be resolved (Roman Catholic, together with the fate of France, German, Eastern, Mohammedan), so many matters will be settled that were completely insoluble in the previous course of events, the face of Europe will change so much, so many new and progressive things will begin in the relations of people that, Perhaps there is no point in suffering in spirit and being too frightened by this last convulsive movement of old Europe on the eve of its undoubted and great renewal...

Finally, I’ll add another consideration: if we take it as a rule that all world events, even the most enormously important at the most superficial glance, must certainly be judged according to the principle: “today is like yesterday, and tomorrow is like today,” then wouldn’t it be obvious that that this rule will decisively run counter to the history of nations and humanity. Meanwhile, this is precisely what is prescribed by so-called real and sober common sense, so that almost everyone is ridiculed and booed who would dare to think that tomorrow the matter will appear to all eyes, perhaps in a completely different form than in which everything dragged on the day before. Even now, for example, when the facts have already arrived, don’t it even seem to many that the clerical movement is the smallest trifle, that Gambetta will make a speech and everything will be restored as it was yesterday, that our war with Turkey will very, very possibly end? by winter, and then the stock exchange game, the railway business will begin again, the ruble will rise, we will go abroad, and so on and so forth. The unthinkability of continuing the old order of affairs was a clear truth in Europe, for its progressive minds, on the eve of the first European revolution, which began at the end of the last century in France. Meanwhile, who in the whole world, even on the eve of the convening of the States General, could have foreseen and predicted the form in which this matter would be embodied almost the very day after it began... And already when it was embodied, who could, for example, predict Napoleon I, who in essence was, as it were, the destined completionist of the first historical phase of the same thing that began in 1789? Moreover, during Napoleon I, perhaps, it seemed to everyone in Europe that his appearance was a decisive and completely external accident, in no way connected with the very world law according to which, from the end of the last century, the entire former face of the world was destined to change this...

Yes, and now someone is knocking, someone new person, with a new word - he wants to open the door and enter... But who will come in - that’s the question: a completely new person or again similar to all of us, old little people?

CHAPTER TWO

“I am the door; whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).

Our Lord introduces Himself to us figuratively, using the language of a parable. The loftiest and most poetic images are not magnificent enough to describe His beauty and majesty; however, He chooses the simplest comparisons that the common people can understand. The Lord, in order to explain to us the simple meaning of the Gospel, descends to our level of understanding and uses as an example a door that people use every day.

Every day you enter and leave your home through the door. Every time you walk out the door, you encounter a new world and gain knowledge of what is happening around you.

A door is an ordinary object. Jesus wants us to think of Him often as the “door of salvation.” The sheepfold door is the most unpretentious door. Jesus condescendingly points us to the door of salvation because we by nature may stand near that door and not realize that we must enter it. And He thus brings us, like the sheep of His flock, into the sheepfold. What can we see and understand when looking at such an extraordinary thing as a door?

I. In this simple image we see:
1. The need to enter. Imagine; what if there were no door, how then could we enter God, find peace in our souls, truth, salvation, purity, heaven?! All this is inaccessible to those outside these doors. How often, when approaching a house, for one reason or another, have you discovered that the door is closed. You can knock and ring the bell for a very long time, but still they may not hear you. And this happens very often in people's lives.

For example, you urgently need medical help, but you do not have a phone to call an ambulance, and you run as fast as you can to your neighbor and start knocking on the door or trying in every possible way to attract attention so that you can be heard. But in response you hear only silence, no one answers you, and then horror seizes you and you realize that if the door had opened, you would have been given the opportunity to save your life from death. You can knock on the doors of people's hearts, waiting for compassion in your grief, but these doors will remain tightly locked.

Dear friends, are your hearts open? How can you open the door of your heart to Christ to let Him in? How can you enter through Christ if your lips remain mute and your hands are paralyzed by sin so that you cannot lift them up and knock on that door? Therefore, Christ said, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said to you.” (John 14:26) He will make you see so that you will see your need to enter the "door of salvation", He will make you understand that you are in extreme danger, so that if you do not run to this door, then the inevitable will overtake you death.

After all, seeing an impending threat, for example, a tidal wave, a “tsunami,” you will run with all your might, without looking back, realizing that in another half a second this wave can swallow you up. You run, feeling that the waters of the flood of God's wrath are already touching your feet, and you feel the sulfuric taste of the waters of the bottomless ocean of God's indignation. It is for this reason that Christ says that he who makes an effort to conquer or reach the Kingdom of Heaven must use effort, and this is the same effort that you must make in order to pass through this door. You must strive with all your might to enter through the door, hoping that Christ will open it for you, because there is no one in creation who can open that door.

2. We must also remember that this door is only one and that there is no other door. There is only one door; don't bother looking for another one. Salvation is by entering this door and no other (Acts 4:12). Only those who enter through Christ will find salvation. Christ is both the condition and the guarantee of salvation.

Among the many doors that the world has to offer, you will not find one that leads to salvation. All the doors with which the world tries to bring you into the Kingdom of Heaven open only so that you, having taken a step forward, fall into the bottomless abyss of hell. Only by entering by Christ can you stand on the rock that will never be shaken.

3. The door of salvation is the Lord Jesus Himself. “I am the door,” He says; not rites or doctrines, the priesthood or your good works, but the Lord Himself, our Sacrifice. You have probably heard a lot about various religions and cults that offer some means to achieve salvation. But these religions and cults offer a surrogate, a counterfeit, anything but Christ.

Remember what He said to Moses when He sent him to the people of Israel, He said, “To Moses: I am who I am. And he said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: Jehovah who is has sent me to you.” (Ex. 3:14) God thus shows His exclusiveness and that no one exists or has being in himself but He, and He is the only one, because there is no other. He alone has life in Himself, and He gives life to everything in the universe. And sinners are dead in their sins.

So here, Christ, saying “I am the door,” indicates that only He is the cause and way of salvation. There is no other way.

People have a tendency to do anything but do what they need to do. We fuss in every possible way and try to knock on various doors through which we think to enter the “blessed light,” but unfortunately we are all, as one, like Lot, who insisted on his own, and instead of following the path that God showed him, he ran to Zoar in pursuit of his personal gain. “But Lot said to them: No, Master! ... I cannot escape to the mountain, lest misfortune overtakes me and I die; Now, it’s closer to run to this city, it’s small; I’ll run there - it’s small; and my life will be preserved." (Gen.19:18-20)

Sinners always persist in trying to pass off their imaginations and preferences as something better and more useful than what God offers in His Word. Because of this blind zeal, people try in every possible way to improve what God has recognized as good and sufficient. Out of their natural stupidity, they are trying to do something better than the Lord, and therefore they will not go unpunished.

The Lord decreed before the creation of the world that Christ would be the Savior and no one else. If He said that “I am the door: whoever enters through Me will be saved,” then so it is. The Lord in Scripture says, “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Then how can people choose saviors for themselves? After all, only Christ is the “Door of Salvation” and no one else. All those who seek to enter the Kingdom of Heaven without the help of Christ are thieves and robbers. If you are told that by observing this or that ritual you will enter the gates of the heavenly city, then beware, because they are slipping you “a wide gate leading to destruction.”
To enter by Christ means to do exactly what He commanded, since everything that is beyond what was established by Christ is from the evil one. Christ said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) So, if the love of Christ abides in you, then you will strive to do what He commanded.

II. Who will use this door?
1. These are the ones who do not just stand and watch like others, but they knock and enter, for they are the ones who enter by faith. But you can object by saying, for example, wouldn’t all these efforts be our own deeds and merits? This can be answered very simply, you cannot do anything like this if it is not given to you from above. Remember that nothing unclean will enter the gates of the heavenly city. Unless you are cleansed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by His Spirit, you will not think of going in there, for all your attention will be directed to sin. And you, in an unregenerate state, will still think about sin.

2. Only those people who have the only qualification required will use the “Door of Salvation”: they “enter.” It can be any “who,” but the decisive condition is “enters.” The entrance, visibly marked as a DOOR, is obviously intended to be used. The wonderful definition of “I am the door” and the promises that follow are the most sincere invitation imaginable.

3. How many will use the “Door of Salvation”? Unfortunately, as we see from life experience, very few people pass “behind the veil”, and more and more people simply trample the courts of the house of God. But, nevertheless, even having such a negative experience, we should not lose heart, but believe that the Lord will lead his people to still waters and green pastures. We must also remember that everything that the Lord has commanded will be accomplished, and that all those ordained to eternal life will be saved, and our concern should be that we serve Christ to preach His gospel and spread the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

III. What privileges do those who enter the “Door of Salvation” gain?
1. First of all, this is salvation itself. Christ says - “He will be saved.” – He who enters the “Door of Salvation” will be saved immediately, forever and completely. This is eternal and complete salvation. There is nothing to add to it. There is no duality here, as is the case with some people who think that they can run back and forth through the door of salvation, whenever, to whom and how they please. They think that a sinner entering the “Door of Salvation” is saved, and when leaving he again becomes one of the lost, but in this way they claim that God did not complete the salvation of the chosen people, but only partially until the moment of the sinner’s consent or disagreement. Such a view of the atonement purchased by Christ can and should be called blasphemy, because They take away the glory from God, considering Him dependent on the whims of the sinner. But we must remember that if a sinner is saved by Christ once, then he is saved by Christ forever. God does not make half-hearted decisions and He does not have “yes and no” but always “Yes and Amen.”

2. Everyone who enters gains freedom. He will "go in and out." This is not a prison door, but a door for God's flock, whose Shepherd provides freedom. Here it is necessary to understand that everyone who enters becomes free from sin and its slavery. The liberated one thus becomes free from sin, although on the other hand he becomes a slave to righteousness. The one who enters becomes able to follow the Great Shepherd.

3. The user has access. He will “come in” for intercession, shelter, fellowship, teaching, relief and joy. All that he was deprived of in a world of sin and misery is now his portion in Christ. He who has entered by Christ can now pray, as it was, for example, said of Saul of Tarsus, “he now prays.” (Acts 9:11)

He who has entered by Christ knows where he can hide “in the day of trouble.” The impregnable fortress that no one can overcome is Christ Himself. And thus the saved one remains in communion with Christ, who teaches His people and leads them in a new and living way.

4. He who enters by Christ can also come out, and at the same time he does not become again the same as he was before entering. But his output is aimed at serving Christ. Once saved, he will not leave when he comes out, as is meant by the Arminians, from whom salvation can be lost and gained as many times as a person sins and repents. He will “go out” to serve and promote the good news. The believer must pay attention to the fact that Christ commands to go and teach all nations. The believer enters to be saved and set free, and leaves to serve and do the will of God.

This idiomatic expression "will go in and go out" also means the possession of salvation and the benefits that Christ purchased in full. This kind of idiomatic expression can be found in many languages, where it means “to live to the fullest” or as an equivalent it can be translated from Galik, “to have the full right to own property.”

By the image of sheep entering and leaving the sheepfold, it is also meant that the sheep will have both shelter from rain and cold, and pastures on which they will quench their hunger and thirst. Applying this to believers, it can be noted that for the people of God, going in and going out means that the believer will exercise faith by entering the Church, worshiping Christ and glorifying His mercy revealed in the sacrifice of Calvary, as well as going out to testify before the world, that Christ benefits His people by bestowing His grace and preserving His sheep in this world.

5. He who enters by Christ can also find food. Christ says: “And he will find pasture.” That food, essentially gruel, which the world treated the sinner to, is no longer palatable to the taste of the believer. If for worldly people, food and drink are sin at all times, then the soul of a believer is satisfied with “pure milk of the word.” (1 Peter 2:2) This is the Word of God preached in the Church. Our spiritual food is obtained through Christ, in Christ and from Christ. There are not many ways by which one can escape from sin and disaster; there is no choice of paths in the potholes and wastelands of mortal life in order to reach heaven by any of them. Christ “is the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6). As He said: “I am the door; whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). Amen

. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in elsewhere, is a thief and a robber;

The Lord, saying that you are truly blind in soul due to the disease of unbelief, reproached the Pharisees for their unbelief. So that they cannot say that we turn away from You not because of our blindness, but in order to avoid deception, He talks about this at length. Which one? He displays the signs of both a true shepherd and a destroying wolf, and thus shows Himself that He is good, citing deeds as evidence.

First He sets forth the distinctive properties of the destroyer. "He says, - does not enter by the door, that is, by the Scriptures, for he is not attested either by the Scriptures or by the prophets.” The Scriptures are truly a door; for through them we draw closer to God. They do not allow wolves to enter, for they excommunicate heretics, placing us in safety and giving us knowledge of everything we desire.

So, a thief is one who does not enter through the Scriptures “into the sheepfold” to take care of the sheep, but ascends “otherwise,” that is, he makes a different and extraordinary road for himself, like, for example, Theudas and Judas. Before the coming of Christ, they deceived the people, destroyed them and died themselves (). Such will be the vile Antichrist. For their testimony is not from the Scriptures. It also hints at the scribes who did not fulfill a single word of the commandments of the law, but taught the commandments of men and traditions.

Decently said “rising.” It goes to the thief who jumps over the fence and does everything with danger. These are signs of a robber.

. And he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

. The doorkeeper opens for him, and the sheep obey his voice, and he calls his sheep by name and leads them out.

These are the signs of a shepherd. The Shepherd enters through the Scriptures, and “The doorkeeper opens to Him.” Under the doorkeeper, perhaps, understand Moses, for he was entrusted with the words of God. Moses opened the door to the Lord, no doubt, by speaking about Him. The Lord Himself said: “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me”(). Or the doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit. Since the Scriptures, understood through illumination from the Holy Spirit, point us to Christ, it is right that the Holy Spirit is the doorkeeper. Through them, as the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, the Scriptures are opened, through which the Lord enters into the care of us and through which He turns out to be the Shepherd. And the sheep obey the voice of the Shepherd.

The Pharisees often called the Lord a deceiver and proved this by their own unbelief, saying “Did any of the leaders believe in Him?”()? Therefore, the Lord shows that He should not be considered the destroyer because they do not believe, but they should be excluded from the number of sheep. “I,” he says, “enter through the door.” Obviously, I am truly a Shepherd. You did not follow Me and thereby showed yourself that you are not sheep.

. And when he has brought out his sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.

Where does He bring His sheep out from? From among the unbelievers, as, for example, he brought out from among the Jews a blind man, who both heard Him and recognized Him.

And he walks in front of the sheep, although with physical shepherds it is the other way around, for they walk behind the sheep. This shows that He will lead everyone to the truth. And students “like sheep, he sends wolves into the midst”(). Thus, truly, the pastoral ministry of Christ is extraordinary.

. They don’t follow a stranger, but run from him, because they don’t know someone else’s voice.

“They won’t follow someone else,” because they don’t know someone else’s voice. And here, without a doubt, he alludes to Theudas and Judas, whom the sheep did not follow, for few were deceived, and even those, after their death, fell behind. And for Christ, both during life and especially after death, "the whole world walked" ().

It also hints at the Antichrist, for he, too, will deceive a few, and after his death he will have no followers. The words “they do not come” show that after the death of the deceivers no one will listen or follow.

So the Scriptures are the door. Through this door the Lord leads the sheep out to pasture. What kind of pasture? Future pleasure and tranquility into which the Lord leads us. If in other places He calls Himself a door, there is no need to marvel at this. For when He wants to portray His care for us, He calls Himself a shepherd, and when He wants to show that He leads to the Father, then He calls Himself a door, just as He is both a Sheep and a Shepherd in different senses. Even under the door are the words of the Divine Scriptures; and the Lord Himself is and is called the Word; therefore, it can also be called the Door.

. Jesus spoke this parable to them; but they did not understand what He was saying to them.

Jesus spoke to them in these words as a parable or simile, and used obscure speech to make them more attentive.

. So again Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”

When he has achieved this, he resolves the ambiguity and says: “I am the Door.”

. All, no matter how many of them came before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them.

“Everything, no matter how many of them came.” This was not said about the prophets, as the Manichaeans are mad. They use this saying to prove that the Old Testament is not from God, and the prophets were not sent by God. “Behold,” they say, “the Lord said that no matter how many came, they were thieves and robbers.” But He said this not about the prophets, but about Theudas and Judas, and other troublemakers. And what he said about them is clear from what he added “The sheep did not listen to them.” For the sheep did not listen to these troublemakers, but they listened to the prophets, and no matter how many believed in Christ, all believed through them.

And otherwise: “The sheep did not listen to them.” He said this in praise. But nowhere is it seen that He praises those who did not listen to the prophets; on the contrary, He strongly condemns and reproaches them.

Then, pay attention to the accuracy of the expression "no matter how many came" and does not say “no matter how many (were) sent.” For the prophets came because they were sent, and the false prophets, like the above-mentioned rebels, began to corrupt those who were deceived when no one had sent them. This is what God says: “I didn’t send them, they ran on their own” ().

. I am the door: whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

Whoever, by Me, the door, enters and is brought to the Father, and becomes His sheep, will be saved, and not only will he be saved, but will also receive great fearlessness, like the Lord and Master. For this means in words “and he will go in and go out.” So the apostles boldly entered and went out before their rulers, and came out joyful and invincible ().

"And he will find pasture" that is, rich food. And otherwise: since our man is dual, according to the expression apostle paul, "internal and external"(; ), then we can say that the one who takes care of the inner man enters, and he goes out again, who are the members who are on earth, and “deeds of the flesh he puts to death” in Christ (). Such a one will find pasture in the next century, according to what was said: “The Lord shepherds me, and I will not lack anything” ().

. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

Since those who attached themselves to Theudas and Judas and other apostates were killed and perished, he added: "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy" calling them thieves and others like them. “And I,” he says, “ I came that they might have life.” They killed and destroyed their followers, but I came so that they could live and have something more, namely, the communion of the Holy Spirit, by which we must mean the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, in Christ all have life, for all will rise again and live; and the righteous will receive something more, namely: the Kingdom of Heaven.

. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Then he talks about suffering and says: “I am life (soul) I give mine for sheep"- expressing by this that He goes to suffer not under duress, but voluntarily. The word “believe” shows that no one will take it away from Me, but I Myself give it.

. But a hireling, not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and runs; and the wolf plunders the sheep and scatters them.

It also hints at the rebels, mentioned more than once. “They,” he says, “did not lay down their lives for the sheep, but left their followers, for they were mercenaries.” But the Lord Himself did the opposite. When they took Him, He said: “If you are looking for Me, then leave these alone, let them go, so that the word may be fulfilled, that none of them is lost.”() and moreover, when the Jews came against Him worse than wolves against sheep. “For they came,” it is said, “ with swords and staves to take Him." ().

By wolf here we can also understand a mental enemy, whom Scripture calls both a lion (), and a scorpion (), and a serpent (;). It is said that he “kidnaps” a sheep when he devours someone through a bad deed; “disperses” when it confuses the soul through evil thoughts. One can rightly call him a thief who “robs” through evil thoughts, “kills” through an agreement with them, and “destroys” through deeds. Sometimes an evil thought comes to someone, it will be theft. If a person agrees with the evil suggestion, then, one might say, the devil kills him. When a person actually commits evil, then he dies. Maybe this is what the words mean “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.”

. But the hireling flees because he is a hireling, and does not care about the sheep.

The Lord does things completely differently from this thief. He gives divine life, illuminates our thoughts with good suggestions, and our bodies with good deeds; It also gives something more abundant, namely, that we can bring benefit to others through the gift of teaching, as well as the Kingdom of Heaven, as if giving us some extra reward. He is truly the Good Shepherd, and not a mercenary, like the Jewish leaders, who do not care about the people, but only have in mind to receive payment from them. For they were not looking for benefit to the people, but for themselves to profit from the people.

. I am the good shepherd; and I know Mine, and Mine know Me.

And from here you can know the difference between a shepherd and a hired servant. The hireling does not know the sheep, which is because he does not constantly supervise them. For if he had constantly looked, he would have known them. But a shepherd, like the Lord, knows his sheep, and therefore takes care of them, and they know Him again, because they use His supervision and out of habit recognize their Patron.

Look. First He recognizes us, and then we recognize Him. And there is no other way to know God than by being known from Him (). For He first became assimilated to us in the flesh, becoming Man, and then we became assimilated to Him, having received the gift of deification. Wanting to show that those who did not believe are not worthy to be known by God and are not His sheep, He said: "I know Mine, and Mine know Me" as written: “The Lord knows those who are His” ().

. How the Father knows Me So and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

So that no one would think that He recognized as a man. He added: “As the Father knows Me, and I know the Father,” that is, I know Him as surely as I know Myself.

Repeats often “I lay down my life for the sheep” to show that He is not a deceiver. Because expressions "I am Light, I am Life" to the unthinking they seemed arrogant. But the words "I want to die" They do not express any self-praise, but, on the contrary, express great concern, since He wants to give Himself up for the people who threw stones at Him.

. I have other sheep that are not of this fold,

This speaks of the pagans. They are not of the court that is under the law. For the pagans are not protected by the law.

them also must I bring: and they will hear my voice,

For both these are scattered, and they have no shepherds. Both the prudent and the most capable of faith among the Jews were without shepherds, therefore, even more so, the pagans.

I “must” gather both the Gentiles and the Jews. The word “must” here does not mean coercion, but what will certainly follow.

and there will be one flock, and one Shepherd.

“In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile”(), and no difference. For everyone has one image, one seal of baptism, one Shepherd, the Word of God and God. Let the Manichaeans who reject the Old Testament be ashamed and hear that there is one flock and one Shepherd; for the God of the Old and New Testaments is one and the same.

. This is why the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it again.

Since He was called a stranger to the Father, a deceiver and destroyer, and not the Savior of souls, then in real words He declares: “I am not your destroyer, but am ready to endure everything for you, if for no other reason, then because God loved you so much.” that He loves Me too because I die for you. How can I deceive you when I know that God loves you? On the contrary, wouldn’t it be better for me to decide to die for you, if not for anything else, then so that My Father would love Me even more for this?”

He says this so humiliatingly out of condescension, because the listeners did not accept when He spoke sublimely about Himself. To give any other meaning to this saying would be absurd. For did the Father really not love Him before, but began to love Him only now, and the reason for this was His death for us? No; and, as I have already said, He expressed himself this way out of condescension.

Another may say the following. God and the Father was known to us. And God and the Father saw that His Son showed the same kindness to us, for He wanted to die for us, and exactly preserves the properties of the Father’s goodness. Therefore, the Father justly loved the Son, he loved not as a gift to the Son and as a reward for His death is for us, but because he saw in the Son the affinity of the Being with Himself, and therefore he was prompted to love the Son as if by an irresistible law of nature. For is it still not the case? great love did the Son appear to us when he accepted a shameful death for us, and not only death, but also accepted life again in order to put death to death and through His Resurrection to make us immortal? So, when he says that the Father loves Me because I die for you, this expresses that the Father seems to be having fun and rejoicing that the Son is like Him and has the same love for people as He does.

. No one takes it away from Me, but I myself give it.

“No one will take My life from Me.” He says this for those who intended to kill Him. “You,” he says, “thirst for My blood; but know for sure that without My will no one can shed it.”

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to receive it again.

So that someone does not think that He is dying as a slave and servant, at the order of another and as a result of submission to this, he says: “I Myself am sovereign in My death, as the Lord of death. I have the power to lay down My life.“Although each of you has the power to give his life, for anyone who wishes can kill himself, the Lord does not speak about this method of death, but about the fact that without His will no one could do this. This doesn't happen to people. For even without our will others can kill us. And Christ would never have suffered without His will. Therefore, submitting to death only by his own will, He has a greater right - “embrace life again.”

I received this commandment from My Father.

“This commandment is to die for the world.” I received from the Father."“I,” he says, “are not an opponent of God, and, moreover, to such an extent that this very death is commanded to Me by the Father.” First He spoke highly of Himself: "I have power to take My life" which shows in Him the Lord of death and the Author of life. Now he adds the humble: “I have received this commandment from My Father.” So wonderfully He unites both, so that they would not consider Him less than the Father and His servant, so that He would not be considered an adversary to God, but equal to Him and of one will.

. From these words a quarrel again arose between the Jews.

This speech of His really benefited many of his listeners. There was a division between them.

. Many of them said: He is possessed by a demon and is going mad; Why are you listening to Him?

Some, for whom these words of His seemed mysterious, thought that He was without understanding.

Why didn’t Christ answer anything to those who said that He was mad? Because both their opponents and His defenders could not force them to remain silent and be more reliable for them. Since they were divided and rebelled against each other, why else would He have to contradict the blasphemers, when, moreover, He would not have any trust from them?

. Others said: these are not the words of a demoniac; Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

Others, understanding somewhat, said: “These are the words of someone who is not possessed.” Since the Lord could not stop their mouths with words (for even the prudent themselves neither fully understood His words nor would they have convinced their opponents), they try to defend Christ with deeds and say that these are not the words of a demoniac.

Where can this be seen? Out of business. Can a demon really open the eyes of the blind? And if this deed is divine, so are the words.

. Then it came in Jerusalem holiday updates, and it was winter.

What renewal took place in Jerusalem? Some say that the renewal was celebrated on the day on which the temple of Solomon was built. Others say not so, but that the evangelist means here the renovation of the temple created after the return from captivity. This holiday was bright and crowded. Since the city, after a long captivity, received, as it were, its own decoration in the temple, the day of the renovation of the temple was considered a day of joy.

It was winter, and after this winter for the first time spring month The Lord suffered. Therefore, the evangelist noticed this time, in order to show that the time of suffering was close, and therefore the Lord arrived in Jerusalem.

. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.

Jesus also came to this holiday. Now He walked often in Judea, because suffering was at the door (near).

As long as winter lasts, that is real life who is always troubled by the spirits of evil, try to celebrate the renewal of your spiritual temple, constantly renewing and believing "ascent in your heart"(). Then Jesus will come to you and help you celebrate the feast of this renewal in Solomon’s porch, protecting you with His protection and giving you peace from passions. For He Himself will be Solomon, which means “peaceful.” So, whoever, in the words of the prophet, “is housed ... in the shelter” () of Christ, the Peaceful One, with that Christ Himself celebrates the renewal of his soul, while winter continues, that is, real life. For future century like spring; then everything will come to life and receive a new being; then no one can renew the soul; all such matters will end with the present century.

. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him: How long will You keep us in bewilderment? If You are the Christ, tell us directly.

The Jews surrounded Him and, apparently, out of some zeal for Him and a desire to know the truth, they asked him to tell them “Is He the Christ?” but in fact their question was idle and malicious. For while His works prove that He is the Christ, they require words for conviction. This is more typical of naughty people and scoffers. However, their question, full of ingratitude and pretense, reveals their corruption.

They say: "Tell us straight." Meanwhile, He spoke directly many times when He came to the holidays, and did not say anything secretly, called Himself the Son of God and the Light, and the Way, and the Door, and referred to the testimony of Moses.

. Jesus answered them: I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in the name of My Father, they testify of Me.

Therefore, convicting them of asking with evil intentions, the Lord answers them: “I’ve told you many times and you don’t believe me.”

And otherwise: “Why are you pretending that you will obey one simple word? You don't accept the things that I do not as an adversary to God, but in the name of My Father. How can you believe one a simple word? For there is no doubt that actions are much more convincing than words. The most moderate of them also expressed this: “A sinful man cannot perform such miracles” ().

. But you do not believe, for you are not of My sheep, as I told you.

“You,” he says, “ You do not believe Me because you are not from My sheep.” I, like a good shepherd, on My part, fulfilled everything that I had to do; If you do not follow Me, then it is not I who am unworthy of the title of shepherd, but you who are unworthy of the title of sheep.

. My sheep obey My voice, and I know them; and they follow Me.

Having told them that they are not of His sheep, he now inclines them to become His sheep. For this he adds: “My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me.”

. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

Then, inciting them, he also says what those who follow Him will receive. “I,” he says, “ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” And so on. Of course, with such words He excites them and inspires them with jealousy and a desire to follow Him, since He gives such gifts.

How does he say “My sheep will follow Me, and they will not perish”? Meanwhile, we see that Judas died. But he died because he did not follow Jesus and did not remain a sheep until the end. And the Lord says about His true followers and sheep that they will not perish. If anyone falls behind the flock of sheep and stops following the Shepherd, he will soon perish.

What happened to Judas can also be used against the Manichaeans. Judas was a saint and a sheep of God, but fell behind: he fell away precisely by his own choice and autocracy. This means that evil or good does not exist by nature, but appears and ceases from free will.

. My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father.

Why won't they die? Because no one can “Pluck them out of My hand; For My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of His hand.” and therefore from My hand.

But another will ask: “How did the Lord say that no one will snatch them out of the hand of My Father, while we see that many are perishing?” To this we can answer that no one can snatch from the Father’s hand, but many can deceive. For no one can forcefully and autocratically distract them from the Father, God; but by deception we stumble every day.

I and the Father are one.

For Mine and the Father’s hand are one, I and the Father are one, that is, in power and strength. “Hand” refers to power and strength. So, I and the Father are one in Nature and in Essence, and in power. So the Jews also understood that with these words He declared Himself to be Consubstantial with God, and because He made Himself the Son of God, they grabbed stones to stone Him.

. Here again the Jews took up stones to stone Him.

Since the Lord said that I and the Father are one, of course, in power and strength, and showed that the hand of Him and the Father is one, the Jews considered this to be blasphemy and wanted to stone Him for making Himself equal to God.

. Jesus answered them: I have shown you many good works from My Father; For which of them do you want to stone Me?

The Lord, denouncing them and showing that they have no blessed reason for being furious against Him, but are angry in vain, reminds them of the miracles that He performed and says: “I have shown you many good deeds; For which of them do you want to stone Me?

. The Jews answered Him: We do not want to stone You for a good deed, but for blasphemy and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.

They answer: “We want to stone You for blasphemy, for making Yourself God.” He does not deny this, does not say that I do not make Myself God, I am not equal to the Father, but he further affirms their opinion. And that He is God is proven by what is written in the law.

. Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods?”

. If He called those to whom the word of God came gods, and the Scripture cannot be broken,

. Do you say to him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world: You are blaspheming, because I said: I am the Son of God?

He also calls the book of David, as well as all Scripture, law. His words have this meaning: if those who have received deification by grace are gods (), and this is not blamed on them, then what justice is it when you condemn Me, Who by nature is God, Whom the Father sanctified, that is, designated to be slaughtered for the world ? For that which is set apart for God is called holy. Obviously, when the Father sanctified Me and appointed Me for the salvation of the world, I am not equal to other gods, but I am true God. If those to whom the Word of God came, that is, I, for I am the Word of God, and I, having dwelt in them, gave them sonship, if they are gods, then how much more can I call Myself God without any guilt, I Who by His Nature is God, and to others I grant deification.

Let the Arians and Nestorians be ashamed of these words. For Christ is the Son of God and God in Essence and Nature, and not a creature, and gives deification to others to whom the Word of God came, and is not deified Himself by grace. Obviously, in these words He distinguishes Himself from those adored by grace and shows that He granted them deification, being the Word of God and indwelling them. For this is indicated by the words "to whom the Word of God came" with which it was, in which it dwelt.

How can I blaspheme when I call Myself the Son of God? For although I bear flesh and come from the descendants of David, you do not know the secret that human carnal nature could only accept a conversation with God unless He appeared to him in the flesh, as if under a veil.

. If I do not the works of My Father, do not believe Me;

. And if I do, then when you do not believe Me, believe My works, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.

“Do you want,” he says, “to know My equality with the Father?” You cannot know equality in essence, because it is impossible to know the Being of God; but take the equality and identity of deeds as proof of the identity of power; for works will be a testimony to you of My Divinity. And you will know and believe that I am none other than the Father. For, being the Son and differing in Face, I have one and the same Being; just as the Father, being the Father and distinguished by Person, is nothing other than the Son, of course, in Essence and Nature. Although We differ in Persons, the Persons are inseparable and inseparable, and the Father and the Son are one in the other, unfused.

With us, the father exists separately from the son, although one by nature. But in the Divine Persons it is not like ours; and They dwell one in the other unfused. Therefore, it is said about us “three people,” for we are separate Persons, and do not actually constitute one; and about the Holy Trinity it is said that there is “one” God, and not three, because the Persons co-exist one with the other. Add to this the identity of will and desire.

. Then they again sought to seize Him; but He escaped from their hands,

They seek to seize the Lord, not enduring His high testimony about Himself, for they did not tolerate His excellent theology. But He withdraws, yielding to their anger and arranging it so that through His withdrawal the passion of their anger would subside. He is removed against their will, in order to show (as we have said many times) that He would not have been taken to the cross if He had not given Himself up voluntarily.

. And he went again across the Jordan, to the place where John had previously baptized, and remained there.

Where does it go? Beyond the Jordan, to the place where John baptized. It was not without a purpose that He retired here, but in order to remind many of what happened there and what John said about Him.

. Many came to Him and said that John had not performed any miracle, but everything that John said about Him was true.

That His stay here brought benefit to many is evident from what the Evangelist adds: "Many came to Him and remembering this place, They said that John did not perform any miracle.” Their words have this meaning: if we believed that (John), although he did not perform any miracle, then we should believe much more this (Jesus), since He performed so many miracles.

Since John had already testified about Christ, but did not perform any miracle and therefore could be considered unreliable, the evangelist adds: “Whatever John said about Him was true.”

. And many there believed in Him.

They give faith not to Jesus according to the testimony of John, but to John according to the works that Jesus did. “Therefore,” he says, “ many believed there". The word “there” shows that this place brought them a lot of benefit. That is why Jesus often leads the people into desert places and removes them from the company of evil people, so that there may be more fruit. So, it seems, He did in Old Testament: He brought them out of Egypt and formed and organized a people in the desert, giving them the Law.

Note that the removal of Christ is also accomplished in a spiritual sense. He leaves Jerusalem, that is, from the Jewish people, and goes to a place that has sources, that is, one of the pagans, which has sources of baptism. And many come to Him, passing through baptism. For “beyond the Jordan” means this, that is, the transition through baptism. For no one comes to Jesus and becomes truly faithful except by going through baptism, which is signified by the Jordan.