Daily Word

"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 in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

(Matthew 7:13-14)

What is the "narrow gate" that Jesus is talking about in these scriptures?

It is the gateway into "life": the rich and abundant life of the Spirit, the life of Christ.

And how do you enter through it?

Through total collapse!

You cannot "try" to get in – you must "strive to enter"!

What kind of struggle is that?

It is a life and death struggle with everything that you are in yourself – and not until you "lose your life for Christ's sake" do you really enter.

So you have to die to enter.

No one enters alive!

That is why the gate is so "narrow" – you are crushed to death on the way through it.

And why is it such a violent struggle?

Because we desperately cling to our own lives and refuse to let go of our grip on ourselves – we must be forced to do so.

And thank God that He will not let go of us until we have let go of our grip!

He has decided from eternity that His beloved Son must be our only thing and our everything – our fundamental and all-visible life, who characterizes everything we are and do.

And He never gives up until He has reached His goal.

We may jump off the horrible "slaughter bench" hundreds of times, but He lovingly picks us up again and again and binds us to the altar until we lie there still like Isaac, awaiting the death blow.

He escaped, but we do not.

We must come to the point where we can truly say with Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

That is the gateway to the spiritual life!