The Narrow Way

Matt.7:14 - Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.

It seems we have forgotten an important statement from the Creator’s lips that when taken seriously and without modern interpretive dilution should be startling and bone chilling. It stands as the doctrinal plumb line by which all gospel presentations should be measured. We continue to play fast and loose with the very Words that alone can put in eternal context the gravity and exclusivity of the gospel message.

Oh many have taken it upon themselves to widen and broaden the scope and meaning of what Jesus said, but they are lying spirits that are sent to damn many to an eternity in the fires of God’s judgment. That sounds like someone from the 1600’s but it is in fact coming from the lips of a living follower of Jesus Christ who was saved under Billy Graham but who has been awakened to the crumbling demise of the truth and the gathering storm of God’s violent return. This is no game and the implications of the current status of gospel presentations echo in the halls of God’s throne room and reverberate in the caverns of the tormented souls who thought they had been assured of their eternal safety.

Jesus once said that many would come to Him claiming to know Him and even presenting arguments of good works as their evidence and He will send them away as workers of iniquity informing them that He never knew them. They said they knew Him but He never knew them. Do you not think that such a statement would deserve more than a passing reference maybe once every five years from the average pulpiteer? Can you not feel God’s heart grieved over how His Son’s sacrifice has been presented and offered as an earthly panacea to our hedonistic problems. And to implement a short and perfunctory prayer as the glorious door into the born again experience is nothing short of manipulative blasphemy.

Becoming a believing follower of the Lord Jesus is completely by faith, given by the Spirit of God, and completed by that same Spirit. And it is all by God’s grace. But the object of that faith must be on the Lord Jesus, not His abilities to fix your problems, but His finished work on Calvary for your sins. And you must be willing to submit to His eternal leadership and Lordship in your life. Can you fully understand all the implications of what that entails? Of course not, but you cannot become a believer without becoming a follower and you cannot become a follower without becoming a believer. And surely this is a magnificent mystery that is carried out in the spirit realm by the will and direction of the Father.

But again God says the way is narrow and few there be that find it. Why few? Is it because we don’t have enough stadiums in which to hold meetings? Is it because we don’t try hard enough? No, it because of the hardness of people’s hearts, their love of sin, and the deception of the devil. People are not an eclectic group of well meaning but stumbling sinners who are attempting to find God. On the contrary, the whole world is filled with monsters of iniquity who love their sin and are quite content with being their own gods. God would be completely just if Christ had never come to earth and He condemned the entire human race to an eternity in hell, his justice would be forever unquestioned.

And so Jesus, the Author and Finisher of salvation, teaches His followers that the gospel road is very narrow, it has no shoulders and no alternative routes. And millions upon millions of people who have been assured of their salvation continue their unbiblical journeys with little or no warning concerning the exhortation to examine yourselves to see whether you are actually in the faith.

In the end, the gospel is being presented and defined today with broad and wide ranging parameters that not only are not Biblical, but are much more open and “generous” than most of the previous generations. We have leveraged the eternal souls of millions upon a new and tantalizing gospel of an earthly self help variety rather than a “take up your cross” version which, of course, is what the Author of salvation said.

A super massive black hole is when matter equivalent to a billion of our sun’s mass is compressed down to a speck of dust. So all the incredible matter is contained within that one speck and the gravitational pull from that speck is so powerful that the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. In laymen’s terms, even light cannot escape from the power contained in that one speck.

So the next time you hear a man present the gospel as a wide and generous way that can easily be found without any real sacrifice and self denial, remember this: All the philosophies, all the self helps, all the psychology, all the strength, all the good works, all the religions, and all the knowledge of every man who has ever been born can be distilled down to one exclusive, simple, all powerful, and eternally narrow truth. And in that one simple and august truth lies all the power of the Lord God Almighty from which nothing escapes.

Matt.7:14 - Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.