The narrow gate and narrow road. Bible Qs and As
Q.
About Matt. 7:13-17: "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 which leads to
life, and only a few find it". Many people seem to interpret this to
mean we have to add our own effort to the salvation equation by "walking
the straight and narrow" as they say.
A. I'm convinced that
the narrow way to salvation is by faith alone. Every other way requires
the maintenance of some kind of behavioral standard in addition to
belief. In other words faith plus human effort.
It's true that the Holy Spirit will manifest changes in the life of all
believers, but our salvation is not held hostage to this happening.
Paul said we were included in Christ when we heard the gospel of our
salvation and believed it (Ephesians 1:13-14). At that time God Himself
set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our hearts as a
deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (2 Cor. 1:21-22).
Those
who believe they have to maintain some arbitrary performance levels in
order to earn or keep something that the Lord gave His life to make free
have denied the sufficiency of God's grace and joined the throngs on
the broad road who are trying to earn their way to salvation through
human effort.
To me walking the straight and narrow means
recognizing that we have nothing God needs and can do nothing to make
ourselves worthy to stand before Him. We can only believe and receive
what He has done for us, and dedicate our lives to finding a way of
expressing our gratitude for it.
For it is by grace you have
been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
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