TWO ROADS

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it"    (Matt. 7:13-14).

     Dante's Inferno tells of Virgil leading Dante to the entrance to Inferno. There is a sign saying, "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here." There is a sign over the entrance to the Kingdom of God also and it reads: "Abandon all pride, all ye who enter here."

All who would enter this narrow road must abandon all pride. They must recognize that they do not deserve to enter this way. They must know that they have forfeited all right to escape the just damnation of their former evil ways. God is under no obligation whatever to rescue them from their Hellbound way. He has every right to permit them to go on to their destruction.

The narrow road is a road of free grace, of condescending mercy. No one ever deserves to find or enter this way. Only God's grace can show and open it. They must enter it in abject penitence, with nothing in their hands, with only a plea of mercy on their lips and in their hearts. "If any man ," said Christ, "will come after me, let him deny himself." Let him pull himself up by the roots. Let him turn away from himself and rely entirely on Christ. This road is for sinners only. If a man has any righteousness of his own, an iota of merit or goodness to which he can lay claim, the other road is for him. That is where the supposedly virtuous make their self righteous way to perdition.

The road of Life is for sinners only - sinners whose hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

___ John Gerstner