Is Your Path Narrow Enough?

The men referenced in Matthew 7:21-24 had selected too wide a path to enter the Kingdom.  The path is narrow to enter; too wide a path leads to destruction (v13).  They seemed to think that their chosen path was narrow enough, but Jesus said, “I never knew you, depart from me you evil doers.” (v23) What a terrifying thought.  To make a choice so important as what it means to follow God, to expect to be approved by the Judge Jesus Christ, to expect an eternity in Heaven and then be rejected by God.  To their horror, they had misconstrued the expectation, misjudged the target or worse, they willfully followed Him on their own terms, resulting in payment of an unimaginable, devastating  price. He termed their path as one of “lawlessness” (v23).  According to the apostle John in 1 John 3:4, lawlessness is defined as sin or work of iniquity.  It is the defection from God’s law, His standard and command on how we are to do things. God’s law means He gets to choose the path-what it looks like, how narrow or wide we walk in it and what is the expectation for obedience. At the least, it seems that despite the fact that God had seemingly used these men for His purposes, and had even performed miracles through them, they wanted to relate to God on their own terms, not His. Those men misjudged His Word or willfully disobeyed and drew a path too wide, to their demise. So, how narrow of a path is needed?  We need not figure that out.  The pressure is off because...

There is no partiality with God

There are obvious examples of God’s partiality to Israel in the Old Testament.  Surely God was partial when he led Israel through the Red Sea unharmed but then destroyed the Egyptian chariots that tried to follow.  Surely God was partial when he dropped food (manna) upon Israel in the wilderness, something no other people had ever experienced.  Surely God is partial with us when we learn about “Election” in Romans 9, through the teaching that He loved Jacob but hated Esau. Yet the statement that there is no partiality with God is surprisingly spread throughout the Bible, mostly contained in warnings.  I found such warnings in Deuteronomy, II Chronicles, Job, Psalms. Proverbs and Malachi in the Old Testament and Acts, Romans. Galatians. Ephesians, Colossians. I Timothy, and James in the New Testament. We all, like Israel before us, have a tendency to relax in our vigilance against sin.  This is so because we enjoy a special relationship with God as a result of the love shown by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But this is one of the biggest mistakes that we (and Israel before us) make in our assumptions about God’s love.  The Bible warns us that there is one thing that God is not partial with, and that is His attitude toward sin. In the case of sin and rebellion, God’s Holiness trumps everything, including His own love.  If we take any lesson from the Old Testament, we should see that it is a trap to think that the relationship we enjoy with God through the work of Jesus negates God’s Justice against sin.  It...