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Two Gates, Two Ways, Two Destinies (Matthew 7:13–14) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the deep Dive. This is our segment we call
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Reformed Thinking, where we take a close look at some of the most
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defining passages in Scripture and theology.
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And today we are doing an intensive look at a very short
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but, well, an absolutely defining passage from Jesus
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teaching. It's Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14
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is the final part of the Sermon on the Mount.
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And honestly, our stack of sources for this one treats the
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passage less like poetry and more like a a stark, unavoidable
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reality check. We're looking at the ultimate
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crossroads. That framing is I, I think,
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exactly right. The context here is everything.
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Jesus has just spent chapters laying out what the life of a
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Kingdom citizen looks like. You have the beatitudes, true
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righteousness, sincere devotion. It's a whole picture of a life
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that's pleasing to God. The description, yes,
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description. But now as he's wrapping up, the
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tone shifts, It's dramatic. He moves from describing the
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life to issuing A solemn summons, a call to action.
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So the sermon isn't just for us to sit back and admire.
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It's not something for intellectual approval.
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Not at all. It has to be acted on.
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If you're going to be a Kingdom citizen, you have to choose the
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kingdom's way, and Jesus makes it so clear that you don't just
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drift into the Kingdom. Right.
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It's a conscious decision, A. Binary one.
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And that's where we find ourselves standing at this
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crossroads. He presents 2 gates, 2 paths,
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and two final totally mutually exclusive destinies, destruction
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and life. What really stands out to me,
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looking through the source material is how emphatically he
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just removes any possibility of a middle ground.
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There's no third path. No third path, no standing on
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the sidelines as a neutral observer.
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That option is just gone. This is the ultimate life choice
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that confronts every single person who hears these words.
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And this really sets up the main argument that all our sources
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develop Entrance into God's Kingdom comes only through the
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person and work of Jesus Christ. And while that entrance is free,
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the life that comes after what we call genuine discipleship is
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costly. It's difficult.
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But it leads to eternal life. It guarantees it true fellowship
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with God. So the choice is well, it
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defines everything, your present life and the destiny of your
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soul. OK, so let's start by unpacking
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that first option. The sources call it the default
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path, the one chosen by the majority.
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What is it about the Wide gate that makes it so, so appealing
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to the natural human heart? Well, when Jesus describes this
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wide gate, the Greek word he uses is platus.
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Platus. Yeah, and if you look at the
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definition, it speaks to breath, to spaciousness.
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You should be thinking of a huge accommodating archway, not some
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little turnstile you have to squeeze through.
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And that imagery isn't just random, is it?
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Not at all. It suggests there's room for a
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lot of people, but maybe more to the point, there's room for a
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lot of stuff. Room for baggage luggage, as the
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sources put it. So what is that metaphorical
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luggage then? It's the whole weight of the
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unrepented self. Yeah, this gate is so
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accommodating precisely because there's a total lack of
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restriction when you enter. What does that mean practically?
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The sources say there's no strip search of the conscience,
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there's no call to repent, no demand that you let go of your
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favorite sins or your false comfort.
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You can just walk right in. You can walk right in, carrying
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your pride, your sense of entitlement, your idols, whether
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that's money or career or reputation, and your false
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religion, all of it completely untouched.
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The wide gate doesn't ask you to change.
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It affirms you just as you are. And that really is the main
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selling point, isn't it? The wide gate is perfectly
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calibrated to fit, as the sources say, the natural
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preferences of the fallen mind. Yes, it's designed to let you
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feel spiritual or maybe even virtuous, but without needing
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that deep, painful spiritual surgery of repentance.
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Right. If the gate were narrow, it
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would immediately expose the gap between what we want and what
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God requires. But since it's wide, it makes
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plenty of room for compromise. No sharp edges?
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No. Sharp edges, no clear line
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between truth and falsehood, and certainly no narrow claims about
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Christ being the only Savior. It lets the self ruled life just
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continue on uninterrupted. So if we bring that into modern
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terms, how do our sources connect this accommodation of
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the self to, you know, current cultural trends?
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They're very clear on this. The wide gate is basically
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equated with religious pluralism.
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The idea that all sincere paths lead to God.
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That's it. It's the cultural preference for
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a kind of tolerance that avoids saying anything is definitively
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true. This gate makes room for all
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kinds of beliefs, lifestyles, gods.
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It says sincerity is the highest good.
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But there's a catch. There's a huge catch.
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By making room for everything, it successfully shuts out the
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one thing that restricts human pride, Christ's unique and
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exclusive authority. Because if Jesus claims to be
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the way. Then the wide gate has to reject
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that claim. That kind of exclusivity would,
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by definition, narrow the entrance.
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And that's a great irony here. The gate that seems to include
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everything is actually defined by the one thing it refuses to
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accept the sovereignty of Christ alone.
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OK, so the gate is defined by spaciousness.
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No restrictions. Let's move past the entrance.
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The path itself is called the easy way from the Greek word
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eurocorros. That sounds physically pleasant,
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but it's about more than that, right?
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It's about the moral nature of the path.
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It is the Eurocorros Rd. is all about with space and comfort.
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The sources describe it as a path without fences.
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Meaning no boundaries. No boundaries set by divine law
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or God's revelation. Instead, your own personal
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desire sets the rules for the journey.
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What does that look like on a day-to-day basis for someone on
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this road? It's smooth.
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It's frictionless. It's often filled with noise and
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ease and laughter. There's this constant sense of
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affirmation from everyone else on the road with you.
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Because there are so many people.
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So many, and because the road is so wide, you can cling to
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everything you love. Your reputation, your money,
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your lust, your resentments, and at the bottom of it all, your
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own self will. There's no call to give up
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control. I think a lot of people
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listening might picture the wide Rd. as just, you know, open
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criminality or obvious moral decay.
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But the sources stress something else.
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They say the wide Rd. can accommodate both open rebellion
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and respectable hypocrisy, and that's a key distinction.
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It is a very key distinction. You do not have to be some
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notorious Sinner to be on the Broad Rd.
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You could be a very moral person.
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You could be outwardly compliant, highly moral, even
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religiously active. You could be highly respected in
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your community and still be walking the wide Rd.
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If what? If your basic trust yourself
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justification rests on your own performance or your own
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sincerity and not on Christ alone, this is the danger of
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that self satisfied outward righteousness that Jesus was
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always warning the Pharisees about.
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And this brings us to that terrifying observation Jesus
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makes about the crowd factor. He says the travelers are many.
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The Greek is polloi. This just completely overturns
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that common human instinct that popularity equals safety.
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Absolutely. Our natural instinct is to feel
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secure when we're surrounded by other people.
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If the majority of thinkers, politicians or neighbors, if
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they're all doing something, we just assume there must be some
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collective security in that choice.
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Safety in numbers. But Jesus warns explicitly that
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the mainstream of human life flows toward destruction.
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That's a challenging thought. It is.
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Think about what that means for how we measure our lives.
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If you measure your life by societal success or cultural
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relevance or getting applause from the majority, you are very
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likely using the metrics of the wide Rd.
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The path that feels natural. The path that doesn't create any
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friction with the culture around you, that's the very one Jesus
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says leads to ruin. That insight is maybe one of the
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toughest things for a listener today, especially in a world
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saturated with media where relevance is treated like a
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virtue. If you are living in step with
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the age following what the Bible calls the course of this world,
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without a decisive, repenting turn to Christ, you are simply
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moving with the crowd toward judgement.
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The wide way is just the default setting for fallen humanity.
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It takes no effort. It's the path of least
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resistance. There's an analogy the sources
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use that's pretty vivid. The river analogy, Yeah, that's
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a good one. The wide way is like a great
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river, flowing easily and quickly.
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It carries everyone, the moralist and the rebel alike.
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But it's frictionless natural course guarantees that every
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single traveler will be carried downstream.
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Naturally and inevitably. Toward the fatal waterfall of
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destruction, they don't have to row, they just have to relax and
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let the current do the work. And that takes us to the end of
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this crowded, comfortable path. Ruin under judgement.
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When Jesus uses this word destruction appalaya, what are
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we really talking about? Here.
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This is where we have to be careful not to soften the
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language. The sources are definitive on
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this. Appalaya does not mean simple
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extinction. It's not a loss of consciousness
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or some peaceful fading away. So it's not just nothingness,
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no. It points specifically to a
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conscious catastrophic ruin under the judgement of God.
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That implies an experience of loss and regret, not just
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ceasing to exist. Precisely.
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And this lines up with the strongest language Jesus uses
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everywhere else, like eternal punishment in Matthew 25, or
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what the apostle Paul called the punishment of eternal
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destruction in Two Thessalonians.
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Which involves what? Being shut out from the presence
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of the Lord, the destruction is the loss of all that is good,
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all that is glorious, and the final experience of God's
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righteous wrath. The end is described in the
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sources as a dreadful meeting with the living God as judge.
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It's not an accident, it's not a technical failure.
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It's the direct consequence of a lifetime of choosing self rule
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over God's authority. And that meeting exposes the
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ultimate foolishness of the choice made.
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Back at the gate, the sources summit up perfectly.
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It shows the folly of trading eternal joy for a little present
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comfort. All that ease, all that
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popularity, the. Path that felt so easy, so
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normal. The path of the majority.
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It ends in the irreplaceable loss of the soul.
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That immediate comfort cost them everything.
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The picture Jesus paints is just one of absolute contrast.
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If the first path is wide, easy, popular and leads to ruin, let's
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turn to the alternative, the path leading to life.
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And this one demands A dramatic turning and a costly commitment.
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Let's unpack the second option. So the entrance to life is the
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narrow gate. The Greek word is stenos, yes,
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and it means confined, tight, pressed in.
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It is the absolute uncompromising opposite of the
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spacious platist. So the first question has to be
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what is this gate? Or maybe who is this gate?
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And the sources identify the gate explicitly as Jesus Christ
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himself. This isn't a suggestion, it's a
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theological necessity. Based on his own words.
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Based on his own words, you have to look at claims he made like I
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am the door in John 10 and of course I'm the way and the truth
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and the life. No one comes to the Father
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except through me. So the gate is narrow because
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it's a specific person. It's a living Lord who stands
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before sinners and calls them to come to Him alone.
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Yes, his exclusivity is what creates the restriction.
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If you could get to God through your own moral effort or through
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another religious figure, the gate would instantly become
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wide. But it's not.
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It's not because the gate is defined by the unique
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substitutionary work of Christ. It has to exclude all other ways
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of salvation. That definition really
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highlights the spiritual requirement, doesn't it?
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The physical description of a tight space reflects a spiritual
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condition. It does.
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To get through you have to stoop and go through a lone stripped
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of self righteousness and self rule.
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I like that image. It's a great image.
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Imagine a big crowd man trying to squeeze through a tiny
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opening. He has to Crouch.
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He has to leave his fancy coat and all his possessions outside.
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And spiritually. Spiritually, this gate is too
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tight for self righteousness, sacramentalism, or moralism.
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Human pride just cannot fit through.
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You can't bring your list of merits, you have to come empty
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handed. So how is that entry secured
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then? It sounds daunting if you have
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to be completely stripped down. The entry is secured only by the
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gospel of grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
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It requires the Sinner to make a complete repentant turn.
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It's an active. Thing A very active thing.
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You have to lay down your imagined goodness, confess your
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actual guilt, and trust completely in Christ's finished
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work on the cross. The narrowness is demanding
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because it prohibits you from bringing any contribution of
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your own. And Jesus gives a direct command
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here. He says enter by the narrow
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gate. The Greek is isilsate.
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This isn't just passive advice. No, it's a solemn summons to
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decisive action. A crossing of a threshold.
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Exactly. It demands an active crossing
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into God's Kingdom. No one just accidentally drifts
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to the narrow gate. It requires repentance, which is
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an act of turning away from the wide road, and faith, which is
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an act of trust in Christ. The choice has to be made.
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OK, so we've entered the gate. Now we're on the path itself,
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which is the hard way. The Greek word here is fleebo.
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What does that term signal for the traveler?
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Fleebo is a powerful word. It speaks of being pressed,
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crushed, subjected to trouble, pressure, affliction.
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It's an explicit warning from Jesus.
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This road is not smooth. It is not frictionless or
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comfortable. That makes it so hard.
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It's lined with spiritual trials, with temptations, and,
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critically, with the hostility of a world that hates Christ.
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And because the world hates Christ, it will hate those who
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belong to him. This is the reality of genuine
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discipleship. The path of ease is spiritual
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death, so the path of life involves resistance.
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That's a great way to put it. The moment you step onto the
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narrow way, you stop flowing with the river of the world.
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You start swimming against the current and that takes energy,
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it causes friction and it guarantees trouble.
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And this path requires, the sources say, costly obedience.
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What kind of cost are we talking about here in practical terms?
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The cost is comprehensive. Jesus calls his followers to
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deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him.
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Daily. Daily.
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This isn't a one time decision, it's a daily denial of your own
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self will in favor of Christ's will.
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And that cost shows up in sacrificing personal ambition,
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in enduring ridicule for not conforming to cultural norms, in
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choosing gospel truth over personal comfort, and in
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fighting that inward battle against your own remaining sin.
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This demand just immediately refutes any kind of shallow
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message of a painless Christianity.
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It does. Any gospel that promises health,
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wealth and ease as the necessary outcome of faith is preaching
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the wide Rd. not the narrow 1. The narrow way means feeling the
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pressure of the world, and that pressure is actually a sign of
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authenticity. There's a fascinating point the
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sources make here. Christ isn't only the entrance,
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he's the path itself. How should we understand that
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idea? The narrow way is the ongoing
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life of abiding in Christ. It's not just a set of external
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rules you start following after you get through the gate.
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So it's a relationship. It's a life sustained by grace,
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walked in union with Him like a branch abiding in the vine.
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The narrow path is characterized by bearing fruit that fits with
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repentance and faith, and it's all enabled by Christ's
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continuous provision. It is walked by grace, but that
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grace produces self denial and costly obedience.
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And the final crucial characteristic of this narrow
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way, those who find it are few. The Greek is oligoi.
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And this is, for many, the most sobering part of the whole
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passage. Those who find it are the small
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number, the little flock, as Jesus calls them elsewhere.
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Their hopes, their convictions, their moral standards.
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All of it runs against the current of the age.
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And that fact should immediately warn you against ever measuring
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spiritual safety or truth by majority opinion.
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Right, if what you believe is widely popular and doesn't
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offend anyone. You have to seriously question
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whether you've truly found the narrow gate.
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So why is this demanding, unpopular, afflicted path worth
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it? The destination is Life Zoo.
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And this destination is so much more than just bare biological
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existence in the biblical sense. Zeus speaks of true relational
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eternal life in fellowship with God.
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How does Jesus himself define it?
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In John 17, he defines eternal life as knowing the only true
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God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
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It is the complete, satisfying, unending state of joy and glory
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in the presence of Christ. The sources reinforce this by
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making a comparison. They do.
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Yes, the path is hard, but it's the Apostle Paul wrote.
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The hardships and afflictions of the path are not worth comparing
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with the glory that is to be revealed at the destination.
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It puts it all in perspective. It does the short lived ease.
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The momentary comfort of the wide path is meaningless
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compared to the eternal glory you get through costly obedience
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on the narrow path. The risk of the hard way is
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temporary. The reward is unending.
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OK, now we get to the theological core of our sources.
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The connection between the fact that this path is only found by
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the few oligoi and the doctrines that are central to our
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perspective here. Well, it's unavoidable.
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So let's look at why finding this gate is fundamentally a
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supernatural event which fits squarely in that reformed
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framework. If Jesus says the majority are
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on the wide road, and only if you find the narrow one, that
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tells us something foundational about human nature.
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The wide Rd. is the natural Rd. for fallen humanity.
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And this is where the sources bring in total depravity.
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Right by nature, all people start on the broad path.
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We're under the condemnation of Adam.
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Our minds and wills are bent away from God.
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We are not born on neutral ground.
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The sources point to Romans 3 to back this up.
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No one understands, no one seeks for God.
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So if we are naturally unable and unwilling to choose the
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narrow gate. Then the narrow Rd. is by
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definition a supernatural Rd. It has to be.
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It has to be. If the gate demands self denial
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and repentance, and our natural inclination is self rule and
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accommodation, then for anyone to find that gate requires an
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intervention that is beyond human capability, and that
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necessity explains why the number is so small.
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Which leads us directly to the doctrine of unconditional
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election it. Does if no one seeks God, then
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the only reason the few do find the narrow gate is because God
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first chose them in Christ before the foundation of the
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world. And that choice isn't based on
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anything in them. It's based solely on his free
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sovereign love. It's not based on foreseen faith
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or good works they might do. God's choice is the cause, not
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the effect of their faith. And that explains the small
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number. And as the sources point out, it
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should produce deep humility. The believer doesn't boast about
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how wise they were to choose the hard Rd.
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They thank God for choosing them and for giving them the desire
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to enter in the 1st place. God doesn't wait to see who's
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smart enough to pick the right door.
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He freely sets his love on some and then brings them to Christ.
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But that still leaves the question of how a person
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actually gets through that door. This moves us to a factual
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calling. Right.
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The external command enter is heard by many.
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Most of them just shrug and keep walking on the wide Rd.
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But for the few, the Holy Spirit works inwardly to make that call
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effective. The Father draws them, as Jesus
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says in John. Yes, this is the miracle of
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regeneration. God opens blind eyes, He softens
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hard hearts. He bends stubborn wills.
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The sources make it clear that these chosen individuals gladly
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pass through the narrow gate because they have been
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supernaturally changed to desire Christ.
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More than anything else, God's sovereign call creates a real,
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willing response. So the path is hard.
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It's filled with pressure and affliction.
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That word flibbo. What guarantees that the few who
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enter will actually make it to the destination of eternal life?
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The guarantee is found in two doctrines working together,
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definite atonement and the perseverance of the Saints.
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Let's break those down. Christ's death was not some
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vague gesture hoping someone might benefit from it.
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It was a definite ransom for his sheep.
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It actually secured their salvation, guaranteeing their
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passage from wrath to life. If Christ died specifically to
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save His people, then their arrival at the destination is
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certain. And this leads directly to
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perseverance. Though the way is steep and
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difficult, the God who justifies also keeps his people.
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Those who enter through Christ will certainly reach life.
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And the reason isn't because they are such strong walkers.
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It's because of the one holding them.
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Entirely the Shepherd guards them by his power.
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Their perseverance is really God's preservation of them and
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this prevents 2 dangers. It guards against presumption
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because the path demands holiness and you have to keep
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walking. And the other danger?
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Despair because you're sure that God will not abandon His people
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until they are standing safely at the gates of life.
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The sources use a lifeboat analogy here that I think ties
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these concepts together really well.
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It's a helpful picture. Think of the Wide Rd. as a
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sinking ship. It's carrying the majority of
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humanity toward a terrible storm.
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That ship is the world defined by self rule and the destination
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is destruction. And God is the sovereign
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captain, Yes. He looks at this perishing crowd
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and he doesn't just toss out a general invitation.
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He actively chooses whom to pull aboard his lifeboat.
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That's election. So being pulled into the
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lifeboat the narrow way is a total act of unmerited rescue.
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Absolutely. And once you're on board, that
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rescue is secured by the captain's finished work.
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That's the definite atonement. He guarantees your safety
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because he paid the cost. But the journey itself, the hard
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path, is turbulence. It is the waves crash, you get
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soaked, you feel the pressure. That turbulence is the
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affliction, the flibu of this world.
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And the perseverance of the Saints is where you don't worry
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about being washed overboard. Exactly.
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You to reach the safe shore life not because you were strong
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enough to cling to the side of the boat through the storm, but
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because the captain himself holds the boat and holds you,
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guaranteeing you'll make it. The journey is walked by faith.
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The destination is secured by grace.
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That's a powerful analogy. It really captures how this
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whole thing is supernatural from start to finish.
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Now let's spend a bit of time on how the narrowness of the gate
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acts as a kind of theological filter, how it cuts across every
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attempt to soften the gospel and exposes all the other systems
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that really belong on the wide Rd.
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This. Is where the Sermon on the Mount
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gets intensely practical. Jesus basically lays out four
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major types of systems that belong on the wide Rd., even if
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they look spiritual. Let's start with the first one.
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Moralism or legalism. Why can't the out really good
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person fit through the narrow gate?
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Moralism basically treats the gate as try harder or keep
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enough rules. It believes human effort or
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outward compliance can unfavor with God.
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But this totally ignores the gate is Christ alone.
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It's. Bringing your own merits.
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It is and the sources explain that because of the failure of
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human righteousness even our very best attemts, the gate is
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just too tight for human merit. You have to come stripped of it.
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If you show U with a Ledger of your good works, you're trying
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to widen the door with your own efforts and it just won't fit.
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The Pharisees are the prime example.
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Prime example. All that visible righteousness,
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and yet they missed the narrow gate entirely.
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OK, what about those who claim faith but try to avoid the cost?
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The system we call easy Believism.
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Easy believism reduces the gospel to a quick intellectual
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decision. There's no demand for real
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repentance or the reality of costly discipleship.
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It suggests you can have Christ as Savior but not as Lord.
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Right. And Jesus specifically warned
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against this. He said many will say, Lord,
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Lord, on the day of judgement, and then they'll hear those
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terrifying words. I never knew you depart from me.
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So what's the distinguishing mark?
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Repentance. The narrow gate requires
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repentance from self rule. If you've supposedly entered the
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gate but your life is completely unchanged, you still cling to
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yourself. Will you never actually went
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through the gate? You just put a Christian label
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on your old life on the wide Rd. Then there's the movement that
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promises comfort and material reward, the prosperity teaching.
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This seems like the very definition of the wide Rd.
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dressed up as salvation. It's the ultimate Trojan horse
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of the wide way Prosperity teaching presents a wide and
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pleasant path. It says health, wealth and ease
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are the evidence of God's blessing.
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But Matthew 714 completely exposes that it.
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Does Jesus explicitly calls the way to life hard?
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It involves trouble, flee, will, Boo, and carrying a cross.
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Any false gospel that wants a crown without a cross, that
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avoids affliction, that makes material ease a sign of
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faithfulness, it just cannot be squared with the words of
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Christ. So if your religion has made
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your life materially easier and more acclaimed by the world.
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You have to ask which Rd. you're actually on.
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And finally, the widest system of all, the one that dominates
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our culture Pluralism. Pluralism is that modern idea
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that all paths are valid as long as you're sincere.
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This view just fundamentally misunderstands God's truth and
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His Son. The narrow gate directly refutes
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it. It has to.
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The gate is narrow because Christ is the only door.
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The wide gate embraces that cultural tolerance for all
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paths. But Jesus says that wide Rd.
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leads to ruin. No matter how sincere the
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traveler is. The choice is binary.
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You can't have it both ways. You can't affirm Christ is the
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only way and at the same time affirm that always lead to God.
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By its very nature, the narrow gate stands in fierce
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contradiction to the cultural demand for inclusivity when it
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comes to eternal truth. And the moment you try to soften
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that exclusivity, you've just widen the door and you're right
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back on the Plattus Rd. carrying all your comfortable luggage.
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That's it. And the narrowness of the gate
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is a mercy, really, because it forces the center to look away
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from themself and toward the sufficiency of Christ alone.
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Hashtag, hashtag out. As we wrap up this deep dive,
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let's just summarize the snark choice Jesus presents here at
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the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
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The narrow gate is Christ offered through grace, demanding
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humility and repentance. The hard way is the inevitable
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result of being united with Him, a life of self denial and costly
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obedience. And the wide way is the path of
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self will of popularity, and it ends in ruin.
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The sources show us that this teaching really demands personal
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assessment. This choice is unavoidable.
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You can't sit on the fence. You have to examine yourself,
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ask if you have truly entered this gate, coming as a guilty
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Sinner to Christ alone for mercy.
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And is your life marked, however imperfectly, by the costly
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obedience that goes with the narrow path?
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A wildlife and a narrow gate are contradictory.
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And for those of you who are walking that hard way right now,
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and you're struggling under the pressure, the fleebo, you should
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take great comfort in this. The friction, the inward
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battles, the strained relationships with the world,
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the ridicule. Those difficulties are not a
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sign that you're off the path. They are powerful proof that you
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are on the exact path Jesus described.
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The way to life is hard, but it's end is certain because a
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shepherd is guarding you all the way to the final destination.
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Remember the 2 ends. The folly of the Broadway is
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treating eternal joy for a little bit of present comfort.
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The glorious destination of the narrow way is unending life in
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fellowship with God. So what does this all mean for
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you, the listener, as you go about your day?
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If Jesus states as a matter of fact that the mainstream of
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human life flows toward destruction, how does that
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reality affect your personal measure of what is truly safe,
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what is truly wise, or what is truly successful in this present
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world? Think about that tension between
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popularity and destiny as you consider your path today.