The Narrow Gate

Matthew 7: 13-14

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

This is interesting. Why is it that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9), but only a few find this narrow gate. Why would this be? Why doesn't God just save everybody, since He loves everybody? 

What I have learned about God's character is that He loves us too much to not let us choose for ourselves whether we want to respond to Him. 

It must break His heart to see His loved human beings doing so much to hurt, harm, and destroy themselves and each other. 

What impressed me the most when God showed me Jesus on the Cross so many decades ago, is how much God loved me, to let Jesus take the death I deserved. I had been living my life totally against what I knew were His standards. He loved me anyway, and I knew I had been breaking His heart with my rebellion. 

It still amazes me that God loves even the most depraved mass murderer (like Hitler) that He would even save him, had he turned to Him instead of suicide. 

"The ground is level at the foot of the Cross," which means that God has counted all of us as under sin, deserving death, so that His offer of rescue is available to every single person, regardless of the depth of their sin. Jesus paid it all when God made Him Who had no sin to be sin for us (II Corinthians 5:21), which means Jesus actually took upon Himself our very sin-nature; He didn't die for certain sins, He took the whole basket, and everything in it. For each one of us. 

All the sins we commit, from entertaining that random thought all the way to mass murder, it all comes from that corrupted DNA the Bible calls the human sin-nature. We are all born with that propensity to stray in our own way.

But if the gate is small and the road narrow, how do we find it while we're among the crowd on Broadway? 

We must want to find it. We must realize how much we need God, that we can't do it on our own. That's why only a few find it. A few compared to the masses on the broad road that everyone else is on. 

Most people think that, I'm Okay, You're Okay, so I just need to deal with it or deny it or forget about it, and I'll be all right. They don't want to face the "bad news" that they are headed for destruction, so that they can turn to the "Good News" that Jesus paid their debt to God. If they don't think they have a debt, they won't look to see how to pay it. So they'll end up paying it for all eternity. Ignorance isn't bliss, it's deadly. 

So if "only a few" of the billions are saved, I see in Revelation that they amount to an uncountable number! (5:9-11, read on through verse 14) They sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the Book, and to open the seals of it; for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your Blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and Nation; and have made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the Earth. And I looked and heard the voice of many around the throne and the Beasts and the Elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. This is the largest number available to John, and it wasn't near enough.

Those who have been redeemed by Jesus' Blood are the only ones qualified to sing this "New Song," because Jesus became human to save humans. No angels or cherubim or aliens can sing this song, because they are not human. 

You and I are human, so this great Salvation and Redemption is free for each one of us human beings, if only we would want it. It all starts in our will. If we will open our options to let God in, that's the beginning of our finding that small door that leads along that narrow path. 

This narrow path is hemmed in; the word refers to a road lined by walls or hedges or some such, so that you cannot wander off of it, but follow it to its end. 

O my Father, I trust Your wisdom and goodness. I do not understand why You would create so many billions of Mankind, and yet save only a few! 

And yet the "few" turn out to be myriads and myriads, a number beyond counting! 

I thank You, Father, that You set my feet on that narrow road, hemmed in on both sides. I want never to turn to the right hand nor to the left, never to run ahead nor lag behind You, never to wander off nor pull away. 

Thank You that I can trust You to never let go of my hand, that Your Light brightens my path, so I can avoid all the stumbling stones and pitfalls. 

Thank You for Your Spirit living in my spirit, to lead and guide me, to give me knowledge and understanding, to guard me from the wiles of the devil, the draws of the World, and the weaknesses of my own flesh. 

Dear Father, continue to draw me ever closer to Yourself, every moment of every day, that I may be seen as in You; that those who look at me would see You, in Your sweetness and gentleness and graciousness and kindness; and not me in my frail flesh. 

May my tiny thread in Your great Tapestry of Time shine brightly with Your Light against the black velvet of evil all around me. 

And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the Earth, and under the Earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, Blessing and Honor and and Glory and Power be unto Him Who is sitting on the Throne, unto the Lamb forever and ever. 
And the four Beasts said, Amen! And the twenty-four Elders fell down and worshipped Him Who lives forever and ever.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!