(Matt. 7:13-15.)
Our Lord in Matt. 7:13-15 is speaking of the entrance to Life, in contrast with that to destruction. It is a gospel message. His words are, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it." God's way of salvation is exact; it is circumscribed; it admits of no substitutes. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life:no one cometh to the Father but by ME" (John 14:6)
False prophets in sheep's clothing are ever ready to present a "wide gate" and a "broad way" of approach unto God, but He warns against them in no uncertain terms:"Beware of false prophets."
But that the Christian's pathway of life is strait and narrow is not the truth. For it is wide, wide as the whole earth, and broad as the confines of human need. Yea, it is high as God's throne of grace, and deep as the love of Christ; while the sinner's course, in his sins, is narrow exceedingly;, for self is" its limits.
Those who are "born of God," and value their birthright, do not crave nor relish the fleeting pleasures and passing glory of "this present evil age," they give up but little when they abstain from them; for their inheritance is without limitation. "Therefore let no one glory in men; for all are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; ALL ARE YOURS; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:21-23).
What a "perfect law of liberty!" What a limitless field of usefulness! What freedom to go where the eternal Spirit may lead, and to do whatsoever He plans for us! This is freedom indeed; with mind, hands and feet unshackled by things of earth "to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven."
The pathway often may be rough and steep, with quagmires and pitfalls to hinder; but what earthly soldier cares for any such difficulties when he presses on with victory in sight? But we Christians are not to use carnal weapons for "the pulling down of strongholds." Yet what of that when we are "mighty through God" to accomplish these exploits? (2 Cor. 10:4).
What if we are to "hold aloof from every form of wickedness?" That is not bondage; that does not tie our hands any more than it does to avoid pestilence or poisonous reptiles! Neither does God's holy Word lead us into a narrow, monastic pathway of life in order to flee away from all that dishonors Him; for such a cramped position tends only to dwarf and blight the fruit-bearing branches. Our "life in Christ Jesus" is a growing, fruitful life; it expands; "its branches shoot over the wall."
Not only are the children of God free as to our pathway of life, but we are free from the penalty and the power of sin through the shed blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; free, as the children of Israel were from Egypt's bondage as they stood triumphant on the East shore of the Red Sea. Thus we are enabled to fulfil Gal. 5:1-"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage."
All these blessings are our present possession, as we wait for "the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). And so we may be care-free also, "with a song in our mouth."
"I sing because I'm happy,
I sing because I'm free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me."
There is the possibility, of course, that our liberty in Christ may be abused in one way or another, and so we have Paul's warning in Gal. 5:13, with many other Scriptures to mark the trail-"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one another."
And this service of love to one another may not be wholly in material things; but as in Col. 2:18, 19 – "Holding fast the Head, from whom all the Body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God." H. Cowell