Is The Road Really Narrow?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Many Christians and non-Christians alike have heard this famous poem by Robert Frost. This beautiful poem illustrates the two distinct paths, one that leads to light (salvation) and the other that leads to death (condemnation). Many Christians also love to recite Matthew 7:13–14 which exclaims, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” But who controls the size of this gate?
Recently I was hit with an interesting take on this narrow gate in Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism. If God loves all, died for all, and yearns for all to be saved why is the gate so narrow? If God’s message is so universal, isn’t it the job of the messengers to decide how large of a reach the gate will have? Now I understand that Christians cannot force another individual to walk through the gate, but we can certainly help the gate to be more accessible. Think of all of the individuals in your life that you have not shared the gospel with. By not sharing the gospel to those around us we are essentially narrowing the gate.
Now speaking of the gate, what’s going to get us through? Machen discusses that salvation is solely based off of the blood of Christ atoning for our sins. Within the last week I was confronted in another article with the vast theories that surround atonement. One theory claims that Jesus came down and died on the cross to free us from slavery to Satan. Another says that Christ’s death shows the extent of God’s love for us and out of that example we choose to follow him. Both of these theories try to make sense of the Gospel in ways that the Bible does not exactly describe. The theory that I believe is the most biblical is the Penal Substitution theory. In this theory, Christ died as a substitute in payment for the penalty of death we owed for our sin. This is the Gospel, that Christ came down and died for our sins, the death that we deserved. The Bible does paint many pictures to help our finite human minds comprehend more of God, such as His love, His justice, His compassion, His mercy, His anger; however, if there is any theory that does not have Christ coming down, dying for our sins, and rising back again then it is not the Gospel.
Often in our lives we are told that guilt is not from God. But without guilt we cannot understand how desperate we are for God. Without guilt our sins are left unrepentant. Without guilt it is easy to believe that our salvation could be earned by us. But that is not where it ends, we do not have to live in this guilt. Romans 8:1 tells us, “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” We have access to live in Christ Jesus although our natural tendency is to live out of our flesh. Let’s choose this next week to not only live in Christ but to broaden “the gate” a little for those around us.
