Skip to main content

The Wide Gate

Other than being wide, Jesus does not describe the gate. In my past, I thought of a narrow gate as a garden gate and a wide gate as a cattle gate. This dream had a gate much wider. If we were describing the gate we would say “very, very” or “extremely” wide. In my dream I did not see any gate posts. They were beyond my horizon. Nor did I see a swinging gate. It was always open, of course wide open, and crowded with people entering it. It would seem that this should be a toll gate, but there was no evidence of any ticket dispenser. The absence of these allowed a conclusion that this was a free way. This was apparently a planned deception, for the broadway was a toll road and payment was made at the destination. Few, if any, of the people on the road know that there is payment at the end.

Some people on the road suspect that there is payment required, but they are not worried because they think their credit is good. That is a minor error. The major deception is that they believe that these many, almost parallel, broad roads are leading to Heaven and they have good credit for Heaven. These roads are going to destruction and everyone has earned his way.

Jesus said many people go in the wide gate. A gate does not have to be wide for many people to go in it. They can go in one at a time in single file. However, the gate has to be wide for many people to enter at the same time. That is the case here. Hundreds of thousands are entering the wide gate daily.

The road is described as broad, but it is not described as short or long.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...
6 comments
Read more

Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today.     A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg.    Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it.    Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lifted Up

In the first thirteen verses of John 3, Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was talking about. It was nonsense to him. When Jesus said verse fourteen to him, Nicodemus finally understood Jesus. Here it is: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…” (John 3:14). The reason it made sense to Nicodemus was because he knew of the event that Jesus spoke of. People who had been bitten by a serpent could look at the bronze snake and did not die. Nicodemus knew the Bible story.   Here it is: “Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then ...
Post a Comment
Read more