Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Looking into the Word
Jan 5th, 2011
CommentaryArt Sadlier
Categories: Warning;Exhortation

The Broad Road or the Narrow Road

In Matthew 7, our Lord is teaching about the true and the false.  He uses the illustration of a good tree that produces fruit versus a bad tree that produces no fruit.  He tells us about the solid foundation versus the foundation built on the sand.

In verse 20-23 he relates this teaching to the matter of Salvation.  He tells us in these verses that there are multitudes who think they are saved and yet are really not.  They are on the broad road, not the narrow road.  The clear indication is that the ones He is referring to are deceived and do not understand that they are on the road to destruction.

In verses 13-14, He tells us about the wide gate and about the narrow gate.  "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Notice, "Which leadeth unto life," it does not say the narrow gate leads to spiritual maturity, it does not say it leads to victorious living and it does not say it leads to rewards.  It says, "Which leadeth unto life" (eternal life).  The issue here is salvation not spiritual maturity, not victorious living, and not rewards.  The narrow way is the way of salvation.  The broad way leads to destruction.  Then our Lord adds this monumental statement, "and few there be that find it."

In the parallel passage in Luke 13:3, the question that precedes this assertion by Christ is formed by the Disciples, "Lord, are there few that be saved?"  Christ's answer is, "Few there be that find it."  There are multitudes on the broad road, multitudes that believe they are saved but who are deceived.

The issue is always between this life and the life to come, it is always between the present world and world to come.  Jesus made this clear in Luke 17:33, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."  You can't live for both worlds; you must choose one or the other.  To seek both is to lose the world to come; partial commitment to Christ is not acceptable. 

Listen to what Jesus has to say about those who are on the broad road, "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:32).  Those on the narrow road have forsaken all to follow Christ.  That was true of the twelve apostles, "And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him" (Luke 5:11).

The one who is on the narrow road has forsaken the world.  That was true of Moses 3500 years ago; the principles of discipleship never change.  We read in Hebrews 11:27, "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."  Egypt is always a picture of the world in the scriptures.  Moses had to choose between the world and the Lord; he chose to forsake the world.  John affirmed this principle in 1 John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

In Luke 14:27, we have further emphasis of the total commitment involved in genuine salvation, Jesus said, "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."  A man who is going to the cross is not coming back; he has turned his back on the things of this world.  The moment he takes up the cross he is dead to the world and the world is dead to him. 

The commitment our Lord calls for is a total commitment, not a partial commitment; a partial commitment is unacceptable to the Lord.  We have the principle found throughout the scriptures.  We see it in the life of Saul.  The Lord instructed Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 Samuel 15:3).  Saul partially obeyed the command of the Lord, yet he spared the Agag the King of Amalek, and he spared the best of the sheep.  Saul made a partial commitment to the Lord but the Lord totally rejected it.  We see that rejection in verse 28, "And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, that is better than thou."  A partial commitment to the Lord is totally unacceptable.

We live in an hour in which many evangelicals are partially committed to the Lord and that commitment is totally unacceptable to Him.  The man on the narrow road is totally committed to Christ, nothing held back.

The man on the narrow road is totally in love with Christ.  Matthew 22:37, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all they soul, and with all thy mind."  This is a command and it is not optional, this love flows out of a regenerate heart (Romans 5:5).  This principle is found in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament.  The man whose love for Christ is lukewarm is not on the narrow road.  The Lord has a serious warning for the man who does not love Christ with all of his heart and soul.  That warning is addressed to the Church of the last days, the hour in which we are now living.  It is addressed to Laodicea, "I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth"  (Revelation 3:15-16). 

It seems to me that there are multitudes today that are deceived into believing that they are saved and they are not.  It seems to me that today there are multitudes of half committed, lukewarm Evangelicals who are on the broad road to destruction.  Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied (preached) in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."  These are those who were only partially committed to Christ.

I fully understand that for the true believer there is the process of present tense sanctification.  There is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ in this life.  There is the transition from being a babe in Christ to full maturity.  I also know that the believer still has a flesh nature that can defeat him if he fails to be obedient to his Lord and walk in the Spirit.  We also know that a believer can stumble and fall. We are also assured that the Lord will pick him up and sustain him when he does fall.  David said, "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand"  (Psalm 37:24).

Salvation is not of human merit or effort but is by the grace and mercy and goodness of God.  It is genuine repentance and faith that moves the hand of God to redeem and regenerate in a onetime act that is irreversible.

None of these things change the essence of what a believer is to be.  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Genuine salvation will produce a genuine love and commitment to Christ, and a changed life.

Are you a part of the remnant of the truly born again or are you a part of counterfeit evangelicalism?

Paul said to the believers of his day, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.  Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"  (2 Corinthians 13:5). 

May I humbly ask you, are you on the broad road of partial commitment or are you on the narrow road of total commitment to Christ?  Do you love Christ with all of your heart and soul, or are you lukewarm in your love to Him and captivated by the world and the things of the world?