The Holy One calls to me this morning. Choices abound and we must make them. The election is soon to be over and the direction of our Country, the "One Nation Under God" Country, ordained and founded upon the principles of Biblical righteousness, Country, will be in the hands of people elected by the vote (choice) of those governed.
Just as in all the issues of life here, our Eternal destination brings a choice. I think about the choices I see people making and shudder. The Holy One says, "Enter through the narrow gate. Narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few will find it." Matt 7:13-14. These are haunting words spoken by the God of all Creation and the One who inhabits Eternity. His words make me ponder.
If I look at the statement as a challenge to my sin nature to get straight, live by the rules, don't make any mistakes, hopelessness ensues. How many times in how many ways have I missed the mark. All the rules and regulations "required" to live a Holy life are overwhelming, simply impossible to follow longer than a few minutes How exhausted and weary we all become in that place of human effort.
Does that mean we are on that broad road to destruction?
The question really becomes, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" The answer to that question tells us whether we are on that broad road to destruction or on the narrow road that leads to life. For you see, JESUS IS the narrow gate. JESUS IS the narrow road that leads to life. The narrow gate and the narrow road is not about sin or lack thereof. It is about God's only provision for a restored relationship with Himself.
For all the religions that have shuffled out over the course of the history of man seeking God. There is only one way to God. God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, bridged the gap and became the gateway, the very narrow gate between man and His Creator.
Choices abound and if we insist on finding any other way into the Presence of Holiness, other than the one way that He Himself provided, then we are on that broad road to our own destruction.
Jesus was not born into the depraved world of men to offer a new plan for sin management. He did not come to present a new improved set of rules that would fuel self-righteousness, and legalistic mumbo-jumbo of relative comparison to others whose sin is worse than ours. Jesus did not come to merely cleanse us of past sin with the expectation that without a supernatural change of DNA, we would somehow never sin again.
The Holy Lamb of God was sent into the world to bear the sin nature that all have been born with since the fall of man. The Holy Son of God came to pay the ultimate price that any and all sin deserves: the wrath of a Holy God against all that is unlike Him. He came to crucify the "old sin nature" and to offer each one of us the chance to be "born again" with the new nature of Holiness dwelling within. By the Power of the Holy One within, the cycle of sin and separation from God can be broken once and for all.
Of all the religions conjured up in the minds of fallen humanity, there is none who can boast of a Resurrected Savior. None that offers a substitute to pay the price for original sin. None that provides a hope for walking the highway of Holiness with God Himself.
The One who paid that price and bore the sin nature of humanity became the narrow gate. It is by His Name alone, the Name above all Names, Jesus Christ, that we have access to Heaven, and to the Throne of the God of all Creation.
So the question is still the same, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" If not that narrow gate, if not that narrow road leading to the God of all Eternity who is Life, then you have chosen the broad road that leads to destruction. Are you one of the few who has or will find it?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Just as in all the issues of life here, our Eternal destination brings a choice. I think about the choices I see people making and shudder. The Holy One says, "Enter through the narrow gate. Narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few will find it." Matt 7:13-14. These are haunting words spoken by the God of all Creation and the One who inhabits Eternity. His words make me ponder.
If I look at the statement as a challenge to my sin nature to get straight, live by the rules, don't make any mistakes, hopelessness ensues. How many times in how many ways have I missed the mark. All the rules and regulations "required" to live a Holy life are overwhelming, simply impossible to follow longer than a few minutes How exhausted and weary we all become in that place of human effort.
Does that mean we are on that broad road to destruction?
The question really becomes, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" The answer to that question tells us whether we are on that broad road to destruction or on the narrow road that leads to life. For you see, JESUS IS the narrow gate. JESUS IS the narrow road that leads to life. The narrow gate and the narrow road is not about sin or lack thereof. It is about God's only provision for a restored relationship with Himself.
For all the religions that have shuffled out over the course of the history of man seeking God. There is only one way to God. God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, bridged the gap and became the gateway, the very narrow gate between man and His Creator.
Choices abound and if we insist on finding any other way into the Presence of Holiness, other than the one way that He Himself provided, then we are on that broad road to our own destruction.
Jesus was not born into the depraved world of men to offer a new plan for sin management. He did not come to present a new improved set of rules that would fuel self-righteousness, and legalistic mumbo-jumbo of relative comparison to others whose sin is worse than ours. Jesus did not come to merely cleanse us of past sin with the expectation that without a supernatural change of DNA, we would somehow never sin again.
The Holy Lamb of God was sent into the world to bear the sin nature that all have been born with since the fall of man. The Holy Son of God came to pay the ultimate price that any and all sin deserves: the wrath of a Holy God against all that is unlike Him. He came to crucify the "old sin nature" and to offer each one of us the chance to be "born again" with the new nature of Holiness dwelling within. By the Power of the Holy One within, the cycle of sin and separation from God can be broken once and for all.
Of all the religions conjured up in the minds of fallen humanity, there is none who can boast of a Resurrected Savior. None that offers a substitute to pay the price for original sin. None that provides a hope for walking the highway of Holiness with God Himself.
The One who paid that price and bore the sin nature of humanity became the narrow gate. It is by His Name alone, the Name above all Names, Jesus Christ, that we have access to Heaven, and to the Throne of the God of all Creation.
So the question is still the same, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" If not that narrow gate, if not that narrow road leading to the God of all Eternity who is Life, then you have chosen the broad road that leads to destruction. Are you one of the few who has or will find it?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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