"Make every effort to enter through the narrow gate, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Luke 13:24
Entering the Narrow Gate signifies the heart's acceptance of Christ's holy teaching. Ah, my friend, to really and actually enter this "Narrow Gate" is no easy matter! These words do not picture salvation as a thing of simple and easy attainment. That Jesus should utter such a statement, clearly implies that there are formidable difficulties and obstacles to be overcome, and that slothful nominal professors will surely not enter in.
Why is such striving necessary to "enter" the narrow gate?
First, because Satan is striving to destroy your soul. "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour!" 1 Peter 5:8
Second, because natural appetites of the Flesh are striving to destroy you: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims--abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1 Peter 2:11
Third, because the whole World is arrayed against you. It will seek to draw you by its alluring promises, its Delilah-like deceits, and fatal enticements. Unless you overcome the world, the world will overcome you to the eternal destruction of your soul.
From what has been before us, we may plainly discover why it is that the vast majority of our fellow-men, yes, and of professing Christians also, will fail to reach Heaven--it is because they prefer . . .
sin, to holiness;
indulging the lusts of the flesh, to walking according to the Scriptures;
self, to Christ;
the world, to God.
Men refuse to . . .
deny self,
abandon their idols, and
submit to Christ as Lord
--and without this, none can take the first step toward Heaven and enter through the narrow gate!
Arthur Pink
Take some time today to examine your life and your walk with Christ and be sure not only that you have entered by the narrow gate, but also that you are on the narrow path. Look to Jesus, the Author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
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4 comments:
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.
Chris
Excellent post. So few people realise that God's wrath is as powerful as His Love and as His mercy and how when we choose to turn away from God by following our own agenda rather than His, we are living life on a knife edge.
In this week of Christian Unity we are thinking about how to become more united with each other as children of God and more intimately united with Christ. John 17: 21 "Father, may they be one in Us, as You are in Me and I am in You, so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me;"
God Himself has given us the way to do this. See onedate.org
i love this post….!!!
its is so awesum…….i ws lost in a trance while i ws readin it……
gr8 wrk !!!!
source: Urdu Poetry
Great post. People today keep wanting to widen the gate further and further. However they neglect to realise that it is God who has defined the gate. Therefore no matter what professing Christians say is acceptable and right to do so that we can be more accepted by the world is irrelevant. We have God's Holy Word to define the gate for us and what is required. Those who truly have a saving faith in Christ will embrace the narrow gate and cling to it's path instead of wanting to make it broader and still claim the name of Christ.
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