THE NARROW AND BROAD ROADS ~ EXPOSING HYPOCRISY ~ ~ Part 3

 

Years ago, a friend and I were at lunch talking about the Lord. A heavy burden on her heart, she began to tell me of her concern for her daughter’s soul. After a little while, her daughter walked into the restaurant and sat down at our table. In her early 20’s and single, she had been raised Catholic, believed she was a Christian, and that her mother had taken things to the extreme. Her attitude was that while it was okay for her mother if she wanted to do so, it was not necessary for her. While we shared Christ with her, she listened politely and intently to everything we had to say. Then she said something I will never forget: “I’ll follow Christ harder when I get older. Right now, I just want to live my life and have fun.” There are three things wrong with that statement. Right now, my life, and have fun.

 

Sadly, there are many who think this way. They do the least they have to do (what they feel is their duty)—go to church, give a little bit here and there, be kind—and that, they feel, is good enough. But is it? How good is good enough? What would Jesus say? A lot of people in this world say they follow Christ. Jesus is not a hypocrite. He is God! He is who He says He is. He expects His followers to be who they say they are as well. He is truth and light. He has revealed Himself to us in His Word. We don’t need to ask the question, “Will the real Jesus please stand up?” We need to ask the question, “Will the follower of the real Jesus please stand up?” Jesus said the one who is following Him (Jesus of the Bible) has entered through the narrow gate. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) Where you end up always depends upon which road you take. Sometimes there are several different roads that will take us to one destination­—in this life. Regarding eternal destinations, Jesus said there are only two gates leading to two roads. There is a wide gate leading to a wide road, and many are walking there. There is a narrow gate leading to a narrow road, and few are walking there. Jesus didn’t say there are many gates. He clearly did not teach universalism. There are only two gates; one is right, and one is wrong.

 

Logically, if someone believes that God is only a God of love, then the road where we find the most people would be the road to God, for the broad road would accommodate or tolerate everyone. We would assume that a narrow road would be for people who hold to their narrow convictions, whom the world deems not loving but judgmental. Jesus, however, points to the narrow road as the one road we need to be on if our destination is heaven. The real question is, “Who is this Jesus?” Then, “Who do you believe?”

 

I have no doubts the young woman in my story above sincerely believed she was on the right road heading to heaven. Her “religion” had led her to that false assurance. Few of those many who profess to follow Christ sincerely believe they are headed toward everlasting damnation in hell. No, those who are on the broad road are there because they read the sign marker that was deceitfully marked, “This way to heaven.” The broad road is the easy road. The message that leads to this road says, “Follow my ‘Jesus’ who is only a God of love, and you will go to heaven. He accepts everyone just as they are. He just wants you to be happy! It is easy to be a Christian on this road. Everyone is welcome and everyone gets THE trophy of all trophies just for showing up here. You don’t have to get into all that doctrine stuff. Just believe that God loves everyone and you’re in!” The broad road message (false gospel) says> “Bring all your certificates and awards proving all the good works you have done. It’s all about you and what you have accomplished. Above all, love yourself because you are worth it! God is focused on you!!! This life is all about you!”

 

The narrow road is entered by believing the gospel that Jesus preached—the only gospel that saves pointing to the only road that leads to eternal life. When we enter this narrow road, we follow our Lord and Master. It is a walk to the death of self (deny thyself) that leads to eternal life. It’s not easy. It is exclusive in that you must believe it is the only way to heaven. You will appear to the world to be narrow-minded. You must be stripped of everything you might try to offer God to let you into His Kingdom. This way puts the focus on God’s holiness, not your supposed goodness that is nothing more than filthy rags in His sight. The one on the narrow road believes that this life is not about her—it is not her desire to live for her own glory but for the glory of God alone. Instead of the attitude, “Look at me!” her attitude is, “Look at Him!” The crucified life is one that will grate against everything in our natural flesh necessitating a deliberate focus on walking in the Spirit.

 

One message is easy to believe, and one is hard. One allows you to live the way you want to live and says you can have your best life now; the other calls you to deny yourself, to crucify your flesh daily, and understand that your best life is to come. One message says that God only cares about your happiness, the other message says God wants you to be holy—and you can’t do anything yourself to achieve that holiness. One says salvation came by something you did. The other says you must throw yourself on the mercy of God and beg for His forgiveness, because He alone can save you. One says rest the hope of your eternal security on yourself as a “good person” because of what you have done, the other says to put your whole weight upon Christ and what He has done. Instead of boasting about the fact that one “accepted Jesus” the true believer is more concerned with whether the way she lives her life is a sweet, fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to Him. Philippians 4:18

 Romans 12:1

Throughout my Christian walk, undoubtedly, it has been the Lord who has kept me on the straight and narrow path walking in the right direction. That is not to say that I have not tried to veer off the path at times to do things my way (I know my heart is prone to wander, and it grieves me). But God is always faithful, as a good and loving Father, to lead me and guide me back to where I need to be.

 

With that said, over the years, I have found a principle to help me discern whether something is of God or not, and it has rarely failed me. When ‘everyone’ else in ‘Christianity’ is doing something, my guard goes up and I am leery of following too readily. Almost always, it is a fad that turns out to be built upon sinking sand. Why is that true? It is human nature to love our flesh and to love the things that cater to it. It stands to reason that crowds will be following hard after those things. If we are to find the narrow road, we must go against the crowds; and that is not going to be easy.

 

Which gate did you go through? Which road are you on? 2 Corinthians 13:5 says: Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test? So, how does one go about testing the genuineness of her faith? Begin by asking yourself some hard questions: Do you love the things that God loves? Do you love righteousness and holiness? Do you live to glorify God, or is your life all about you? Is your main goal and purpose in life to glorify you?

 

When Jesus said to enter through the narrow gate, He is using a tense of the verb for the word enter that conveys a sense of urgency. It means to do something now. Do not wait! Do not put off what you need to do today. Do not go to church, hear a sermon, read your Bible, read a book, give a nod of approval to the gospel message, and then walk away without allowing the truths to sink deep into your heart and transform it. Jesus is calling us not only to hear His Word but to obey it. None of us knows if the next moment in time will be our last here on earth. We will all die on the day that was ordained for our death Psalm 139:16. You can do nothing to postpone that day or control it in any way. Nobody who dies suddenly wakes up that morning knowing the exact moment death will occur. Do not keep going with the flow oblivious and blind to what eternity holds for you. Settle the issue today. It is because we don’t know what the next moment holds for us that there is an extreme sense of urgency to know if we are true believers or false professors. And we can know for certain right now which road we are on. We can also know this: Upon death, we will all wake up either in heaven or in hell. For those who decided to put off following Jesus ‘harder’ until they got older because they just wanted to have fun while they were young, they will live with eternal regrets having rejected the real Jesus—the way, the truth, and the life.

 

(Much of this blog post is taken from Chapter 8 ~ Give It to Me Straight ~ How Bad Is It? ~ Living Beneath the Tapestry and Within the Veil, my newly released book on Amazon.)