Daily Word
A word of encouragement for your day.
THE WAY TO FREEDOM
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
The gate that leads to freedom from the curse of self-realization is truly “narrow” and equally “constricted” is the way that leads there.
What kind of “life” does it lead to?
Life in the Spirit, the Christ-life.
This is a life of true freedom and the way there means that you undergo a continuous transformation from glory to glory unto full Christ-likeness.
But it costs you everything to get there – the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to LIFE – life in the Spirit, the Christ-life.
What is the gate?
An unconditional surrender to God of your entire being: spirit, soul and body.
What does this “unconditional” surrender mean?
An absolute “no” to (= denial of) self – the entire independent life, the self-life – and an unconditional “yes” to (= choice of) Christ, the Christ-life.
This means nothing less than the death blow to (the crucifixion of) the old, carnal man.
What then follows – the “way” that you continue to walk – is a total reorientation of your entire life
(all ways of thinking, values, life patterns, attitudes, habits, etc.). This is called the “renewal of the mind” to a life completely in accordance with God’s will, i.e. the putting on of the new man.
This means that you identify yourself with all that Christ is as your life and a daily renunciation, a stripping off of everything that belongs to the old man.
It is a process that is as dizzying, painful, difficult and slow, as the process that led us to the edge of despair and the death of self-realization.
Most of the time, Jesus Christ must first break down a person before He can build him up.
But freedom is worth its price!