The Narrow Way To Life Wide Open

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13,14

A number of years ago, I came across someone teaching on this passage and I’ll never forget it. I say this even as I fail to remember who it was! I don’t remember them, but their teaching has stayed with me.

The narrow way, of course, is the gospel. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father accept through me.” Many people find that to be just too exclusive. They get upset that Buddha, Confucius, Mohammad and a host of others are excluded. But ALL others are excluded, because only Jesus was the Son of God, and only Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, and only Jesus has risen from the dead. He is the Way and the way is as narrow as One. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But that is a way too narrow for a lot of people.

Most will try to enter by virtue of their good works, or more so by trying to avoid bad ones … “I’m not that bad a guy”… I’m thinking that most of the people reading this post right now already know this. And I sure hope that anyone who might be reading and hasn’t put their hope in Christ won’t wait another minute. If that’s you, then stop reading right now and take 15 minutes that could change your life forever. Click here

For the rest, here’s the rest of the story that most people don’t understand. We must enter through the narrow way, but once we enter through the narrow way, life opens up from horizon to horizon! Because the narrow way leads to LIFE! Life is not narrow. The road to life is narrow, but the narrow road leads to wide open spaces in God’s great grace and unbelievable freedom in Christ.

In the case of the wide way, the result is exactly the opposite, as one should expect. The way to destruction is broad and spacious, but should you choose to travel that road you will find it getting narrower and narrower as your options become fewer and fewer until the day you have none. The wide road is a dead-end road and ultimately the road to nowhere but destruction. The wide road is the easy road with long term consequences that couldn’t be harder. But for those who are willing to trust and take the road less traveled, it’s life wide open, or as Jesus puts it - ‘Life to the full’.  

“Therefore Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’” John 10:7-10

Lines & Circles

I have often wondered about how it is that we learn the same lessons over and over. I’m not talking about the need to learn from our mistakes so that we don’t repeat them. I’m talking more about the ‘layers’ of life. Think of any principle of life for example. It could be balance or focus or asking for help or … anything really. Now think about this - how many times have you ‘come to the place’ where you have reached a kind of epiphany of sorts (call it a revelation or a breakthrough or whatever) and you understand and you determine to make those needed changes, and maybe you do, but inevitably at some point ‘down the road’ you find yourself almost ‘back at the same place’ again in a kind of sort of way. As you look around you the surroundings are not quite the same, but it’s a kind of eerie feeling almost like you’ve 'been here' before. And it’s like you are relearning the lesson almost. I say almost because, while it seems the same, kind of, it is not quite the same because it seems like it is now at a different level somehow. Understanding seems to work that way. We can understand something but then we can understand it more. And this is a repeating cycle.

We talk about life as a journey and so we tend to think of it in linear terms. But life is not just simply linear. If we look at nature, everything from the forming of galaxies to storm patterns, or even our own bodies from the crown of our heads to the tips of our toes, we see swirling patterns. And so it seems with the journey of life, we have the sense that we are moving forward yet at the same time the sense quite regularly that we have ‘been here before’. The journey of life is multidimensional.

I came across this quote a while back by William Butler Yeats which expresses some of what had often intrigued me about all of this:

“Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward.” William Butler Yeats

I was thinking about all of this when I was reading through the travels of Israel in the wilderness. They kind of traveled in circles for forty years but those circles were not without meaning. It wasn’t just a matter of God punishing the people but God teaching the people. There is a world of difference between ‘punishment’ and ‘discipline’. Take a closer look at the passage from Deuteronomy that we looked at two weeks ago. Note how it says that God ‘led’ them ‘all the way’ and that His goal the whole time was to ‘teach’ them.

“Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8:2-5

As you continue to press forward on your journey, and you have those times when you get that unsettling feeling that ‘I’ve been here before’, don’t get discouraged. True, the surroundings may be very familiar, but YOU are not the same.

A Full Day

Some people will tell you that bad things happen in threes. Other people will tell you that good things happen in threes. I guess it depends on whether you tend to be an optimist or a pessimist. The belief that things happen in threes is normally categorized as superstition or ‘luck’. But that might not be the whole story all of the time. As we consider the world we live in, it is amazing how significant the number three is.

We live in a three dimensional world. There are three primary colours. Three propositions are necessary to complete the simplest form of argument - the major premise, the minor premise and the conclusion (this is called a syllogism and is the old - all men are mortal, I am a man, I am going to die some day – form of logic). Or, if you are into probability theory, the simplest proposition requires three things to complete it - the subject, the predicate, and the copula. “In probability theory and statistics, a copula can be used to describe the dependence between random variables.” Thank you Wikipedia!

Also, from the world of writing comes ‘The Rule of Three’. That is the principle suggesting “that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The reader/audience of this form of text is also more likely to consume information if it is written in groups of threes.” Thank you again Wikipedia. Can you imagine the story of the two little pigs! How about two blind mice? I hardly think so. And do you think for one moment that either the two stooges or the four stooges would have been nearly as funny as the three? (I hear they’re doing a remake. That will be funny.)

There is an old Latin phrase ‘omne trium perfectum’ which means that everything that comes in threes is perfect. To quote Wikipedia one more time, because to just quote the source twice would not have nearly the same effect… “A series of three is often used to create a progression in which the tension is created, then built up, and finally released. Similarly, adjectives are often grouped together in threes in order to emphasize an idea.”

Of course there is the most significant fact that God exists in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It should not be surprising then that the number three takes on great significance in the Scriptures where it has the idea of completeness or perfection. It is pretty hard to miss this or to deny the intentionality of it. There are literally hundreds of examples but here are some of the more striking ones:

Abraham obeyed the Lord and prepared to offer his only son Isaac on the third day of his journey to Moriah. (Gen 22:4)

The Ark of the Covenant contained three sacred objects. (Heb. 9:4)

Israelite men were required to appear before the Lord three times in a year. (Deut 16:16)

David “bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground.” (1 Sam 20:41)

Elijah had the sacrifice doused with water three times on Mount Carmel to demonstrate that there was no human chance that the sacrifice could be consumed. (1Kgs 18:38) and he also stretched himself over the dead body of the widow’s son three times while praying for his life to return. (1Kgs 17:21)

“A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” (Eccles 4:12)

Daniel regularly prayed three times a day giving thanks to God. (Dan 6:10, 13)

Esther asked the people to fast and pray for 3 days before she went in to see the king. (Esther 4:15,16)

Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptation by citing three scriptural passages. (Matt 4:1-11)

Peter received the same vision three times to eat animals previously declared to be unclean. (Acts 10:9-16)

Paul experienced three shipwrecks (2Cor 11:28) and prayed three times to the Lord for the removal of his “thorn in the flesh.” (2Cor 12:7-8)..

Peter denied Jesus three times. (Luke 22:54-62)

Jesus restored Peter using a three-fold restoration. (John 21:15-17)

Jesus rose from the dead on the third day; something He actually stressed over and over whenever He spoke of His coming resurrection.

The list really does go on… very interesting … very significant… very profound … And as I said earlier, it is pretty hard to miss this or to deny the intentionality of it all.

Last Tuesday, we put our screen door on (definitely one of my favourite days of the year!). And Geoff and Lynsay’s Maddy learned to ride her bike without trainer wheels! And wouldn’t you know it, that same evening the girl guides showed up at our door selling cookies. It was a good day. It was a full day. I’m not trying to be trite. Good things often do come in threes.

Cruising

Last week’s post was about how we tend to fixate on our circumstances, and particularly the difficult ones (trials) in our journey of life, making them the focus of our efforts for change. Yet, God is focused on our hearts which are exposed by our responses to the circumstances which reveal where the real significant change is needed – in us.

To come to an understanding of the real issues of life in this way is an epiphany. Not only does it cause us to look at the trials of our lives totally differently, it also casts a totally different light on what we consider to be all of the ‘good things’ that we experience as well. How so? How we respond to the ‘good things’ in our lives is just as indicative of the quality of our heart attitudes, as how we respond to adversity. And the former may represent a much greater degree of danger for us. This should be made obvious to us by the fact that few men have ever really been destroyed by trials. But how many have shipwrecked by succumbing to the temptations of prosperity? When seen in this way, blessings also become a type of trial, and unless we are very careful, the ‘good things’ in life can become a snare to us and actually lead to our demise.

This is also addressed in God’s dealings with His OT people as they were preparing to enter the promised land. Have a look at the Scripture which follows immediately after the passage we considered in last week’s post:

“For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery … You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.”
Deuteronomy 8:7-20

You would do well to read that passage through again more slowly and carefully. Why? Because we (and I’m thinking Canada 2012) are the most privileged of people. Never has any people anywhere had what we have in terms of freedom and prosperity and blessing. I know we love to complain about what we don’t have, but that is just part of the ‘sickness’ of our hearts. The truth is that we are ‘filthy’ rich. And, yes, this is a test.

This is also a problem for believers in particular because God loves to bless His people. We follow after God and His teachings and the blessings follow as a natural consequence. Our lives get better and we find ourselves enjoying the ‘fruit of the land’. Then what?

Are We There Yet?

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Think about it. For the believer, our destination is heaven. But what about between here and there? What is the meaning of life in this world with all of it’s joys and sorrows? God would use the journey. We have a hard time remembering this. We tend to be so destination oriented. It’s like when we jump in our car and head off somewhere and we are so intent on getting where we’re going that we miss what we are supposed to see (or get to) along the way. How often do we find ourselves doing that?

The Bible presents life as a journey and we do well to take note of the purpose of the journey, and not just the destination. If we don’t, then we will miss out on what the journey itself is all about. G. K. Chesterton said, “An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” That’s just one thing that can happen to us when we confuse the journey with the destination.

When the people of Israel were wandering around in the wilderness of Sinai, all they could think about was how everything seemed to be going wrong. Everything seemed to be against them and preventing them from getting to where they were supposed to be going. And yet, the truth of the matter is that God had a purpose in every one of those trials.

You can read through the book of Numbers, especially chapters 11, 14 & 20, and see how the people complained and blamed and quarreled and …

But take a look at what God says through Moses when they came to the end of their journey:

“Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8:2-5

It should be pointed out that God already knew what was in the hearts of the people. But they needed to know. And so do we. Life is a journey, not a destination. And God wants to use the journey to make us. We tend to focus on our circumstances while God’s focus is more on us. We focus on the trials. God is concerned about our response to the trials. We tend to think that our difficulties force us to behave a certain way but God would teach us that all adversity really does is expose the true conditions of our hearts. And all the while, His desire is that we should look to Him for His provision for our needs, especially the needs of our hearts which are by far the greatest.

We need to be committed to self-examination and personal heart change, but most of all we need to understand that everything we need we find in Him. For God does not leave us to ourselves, thankfully. He is ‘an ever present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46:1)


*Please note that the preceding thoughts were contributed to in large part by my reading in ‘How People Change’ by Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp. I highly recommend it to you.