Author’s note: If you are new to my blog and are interested in reading the 23.xx series, please first read the 23.01 through 23.09 in order to best get the idea of what I am attempting to communicate. They are built like chapters in a book, one building on the previous one. Consider the points made in each article to help you understand where I am coming from in hopes I can make a connection with you on your spiritual journey.
***
As we the people bask in the afterglow of the celebration of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ known as “Easter”, here I am, in all my blog posting since 23.01, hammering the silent alarm associated with Christ’s premonition of the “narrow gate” mentioned in Matthew 7:13-14:
“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 by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.”
You might think, “If the gate is narrow, maybe it would be easy to find, maybe even easy to focus on.” I’m afraid human nature and history prove otherwise.
Whether you believe yourself a Christian or are one just seeking the “truth” I am taking the time and effort to reach you. Since the way is “broad” that leads to destruction, what I write in this article will only cover a bit of that broadness. We have to start some place, right?
I used to read difficult passages like Matthew 7:13 when my life was full of distractions and lusts for the world and I hadn’t come to terms with what the Lord Christ was taking pains to explain. From my personal standpoint, after about 60 years of living, my own arrival to a vital understanding of what that means has driven me to this series of witnessing posts.
The incarnate Jesus’ contemporaries were the Pharisees who believed in their righteous lifestyle of works all done with such exacting standards. They believed themselves worthy and better than all of society. Yet time after time, Jesus had to declare that the religious leaders’ behavior was very far from God’s holy and righteous standards. In their striving for power, adulation, riches, and prestige in a worldly society, the Pharisees departed from the spirit of God’s commandments.
The Israelites were meant to be a model society that exhibited God’s holy and divine nature through a relationship with His chosen people, so that the whole world could recognize the character of God. What the ancient Israelites achieved was to show us how human nature is prone to evil and irredeemable if let alone to its own devices. Conversely, what God achieved was the establishment of His Laws, proof of His trustworthiness and faithfulness in His promises from judgment to restoration, including, most importantly, His supernatural solution for victory over death.
Just because sects like the pious and fastidious Pharisees fall short of God’s standard doesn’t mean the rest of us should ignore Jesus Christ’s clear warnings in the context of living, salvation and eternal life.
The Pharisees of today are alive and well in the form of elite and aloof religious or spiritual orders who are established by their self-determinations. Like the Pharisees, they have already received their worldly rewards. They are followed by, in some cases, masses of people who believe that just by following a world, religious or spiritual leader who seems to have most of their marbles in one bag, and attending a religious service or having their name in a religious congregation directory makes them right with “God”. The question is, which god?
There is only one God and He is Holy and Righteous, leaving an unmistakable and prophetically supported history preserved in the Bible.
In the Bible it is very clearly explained. We are saved by faith through repenting from sin, by accepting God’s Grace provided by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, which means to trust the risen Christ as Lord and Savior. Christ died on the Cross bearing each of our sins and on the 3rd Day He was Resurrected from the dead. That’s why we celebrate Easter: Through His Resurrection, we may live life now, free from the bondage of sin and with security of eternal life free from sin and in the presence of God and His Love, a love of which we only now see a glimmer of at best.
Contemporary liberalized denominations preach what is in effect a Jesus of only Love and Peace. That’s a form of breaking the 2nd Commandment, by making Jesus Christ into someone other than who he professed Himself to be. While God is in fact Love and Peace, He is also Holy and Righteous exhibiting His unchanging nature throughout the Scriptures.
God’s Word does emphasize His Love and Kindness indicating that mercy and compassion are vital and important, as 1 Corinthians 13 states, “[if I] have not love, I have become a noisy brass or a clanging cymbal…”; conversely, external shows of “faith” like lip-service or religious piousness for human recognition and when the inner man remains steeped in corruption like a “whitewashed tomb” are things God hates especially among religious and community leaders those who have a great influence people, yet in their hearts are willfully mired in violations of the commandments.
God the Creator has given His laws. The Righteous Lord Jesus taught:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ” (Matthew 5:17-19)
Referring to the Ten Commandments, we have failed to keep them and to think you have held such a standard convicts you as a self-deceived hypocrite. Moreover, according to the Scripture, if you have twisted God’s Laws to fit your own acceptable world-wise criteria, you are an idolater and have placed your personal belief system ahead of the One and only righteous and morally perfect Judge.
***
I want to leave you with Psalm 90:12:
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Because we often take for granted how much time we have and often procrastinate to make important decisions while in a deceptively comfortable state.
CKY
***
Copyright © 2023 ChallenYee.com All Rights Reserved