The Word of Life

Only the person and work of Christ the God-Man can and has turned away the wrath of God from all those who have put their trust in Him. For by the blood of His cross, Christ paid the full penalty for their sins and satisfied the wrath of God on their behalf. Therefore they will escape death (eternity in hell) and inherit the Kingdom of God. But those who reject Christ will be cut off from the land of the living. For there is no life for those who have not eaten the Bread of Life.

“I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst”, declares the Lord in John 6:35.

“Man is an eternally dissatisfied being”, they say. For he always wants to obtain more than what he already has – more pleasures, more money, more stuff; he always yearns for more comfort. No matter how much he already possesses or how pleasant the circumstances of his life are, man always desires to obtain more temporal blessings and pleasures and aspires to the ideal in all things. Truly, the natural man is never satisfied. Why? Because of his moral corruption and separation from God. But the Lord promises complete and eternal satisfaction to anyone who comes to Him. The question now is: How can man, who is known to have an insatiable hunger for all kinds of things, become so satisfied to the point where he no longer hungers nor thirsts when he comes to Christ?

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal” (John 6:27). “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe” (John 6:35-36).

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). This offer is to everyone who thirsts... Will you deny your soul such a precious drink? Why do you condemn your soul to drought while there is a free gift of wine and milk prepared for you? Do not harden your heart any longer, for the King Himself, Lord of heaven and earth, is calling you today, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). Run to Him, and He will purify you from all your impurities and idols and give you the water of life.

There is none like the LORD God; there is no other God besides Him. The LORD is the well of salvation, the wellspring of living water, the river of the water of life that brings healing to the soul. Anyone He sprinkles with clean water thirsts no more and stops chasing after broken cisterns, for the water He gives them is living; it satisfies their soul. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”, declares the Lord Jesus in John 4:14.

Since the Fall of man and his expulsion from the Paradise of God, he is no longer the well-watered garden of Paradise, he is no longer the golden and undefiled vessel that once perfectly reflected the glory of the holy God. Rather, man is like a parched land, with a reprobate mind and a sensual heart. He is no longer pure but a filthy vessel that needs cleansing. For his soul is no longer watered by the Fountain of Living Waters – man no longer drinks the pure, sweet water of God. Instead, he drinks poison from the river of darkness, a river soiled with iniquities, pride and immorality, to the peril of his soul. 

After considering the uniqueness of God's essence and His singularity as the Self-existent Maker and the Self-sufficient Sustainer in the first part of this series, the focus in the second and last part is on the unchangeableness and the trustworthiness of God, as it transpires from His personal name "I AM". The conclusion, which speaks of God's self-revelation, will serve as a bridge to our upcoming series in which I will survey the metaphorical statements that the LORD uses throughout the Bible to speak of Himself, namely the "I AM" statements.

When the LORD sent Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, "Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations" (Exodus 3:13-15).

What does God's name communicate to His people? This two-part series, titled Picture of the Great I AM: A Look into God's Transcendent Beauty, gives you a clear answer to this question.

Until the flesh is subdued, man can never be set free from the dominion of Satan. And since by nature man is of the flesh, the fight against the flesh cannot therefore be initiated by man. The initiative must come from outside of him, the battle against the flesh must be initiated and fought by an opposite power. For the flesh cannot fight against itself. The heart of man is by nature inclined toward the deeds of the flesh. Therefore he has neither the will nor the ability to initiate the battle against the flesh, nor can he win such a battle by means of the flesh. As the Lord Jesus says in John 3:6a, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” This statement from our Lord points out the sin-prone condition of man and his natural ability to achieve only that which is consistent with his inherently sinful nature.

As we read from James 1:14-15, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Therefore we are without excuse whenever we disobey the commandments of the Lord, even when we are being tempted by Satan. For we willfully choose to reject God’s rules and defy His authority because of our unbelief and lack of trust in God – an attitude that is rooted in pride; we choose the things of the flesh over God and the things of God because we do not treasure God in our hearts, although He ought to be to object of our worship and the object of our joy. Therefore, Satan’s activity does not excuse our sinful deeds and disobedience to God.

 The devil has such a fiery craving for worship that when the Son of God was baptized and let into the wilderness by the Spirit of God, “the devil took [the Son of God] to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to [the Son of God], “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8-9). 1 Peter 5:8 warns us that the devil always “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” For he knows that every time a man defects to his lies and deceptions, it is he, the devil, and not God, who gets the glory, he is the one who is worshiped, not God.

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the Garden?’ (Genesis 3:1). Satan’s question insinuated Eve's misunderstanding of God's will and incited her to question God’s goodness.  However, the first part of Eve’s answer, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden” (v.2), not only reveals God’s will for her and her husband and His abundant provision for their sustenance, but also expresses something they had been doing from day one: they enjoyed God’s provision every day. God had given them the liberty to enjoy the fruit of all the trees in the garden, with only one exception.

No one can reverse God's curse or cancel its effects on the sons of men. As Job 12:14 puts it, “If [God] tears down, none can rebuild; if He shuts a man in, none can open.” From the womb we are held captive by death because of sin. But we cannot deliver ourselves from this bondage. As Psalms 49:7-9 points out, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” No human exertion, no amount of good work can save a person from the guilt and penalty of his sins, for it is against an infinitely holy God that they have sinned. And every sin deserves an everlasting punishment in the hell of fire. Therefore, in order to escape the pit, sinners must rely solely on the grace of the One they have offended. For He alone can open the prison door of death where He has cast them and restore them to freedom.

Because the sinful nature of Adam has been inherited by all men, all are subjected to the curse that befell him, for all fall short of the glory of God. As it is written, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The implication is that no one is innocent. So lest we be mistaken about our own corrupt condition, we must not conclude that the miseries and troubles in our lives are all the result of the one sin of Adam. Romans 3:23 reads, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 53:6a, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way.”

The effect of the fall of man is apparent in the degradation of men’s relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation. For every faculty of their being has been utterly altered: their minds have become depraved and dull, their volition perverted, their hearts hardened, their eyes blinded, their ears stopped and their tongues inflamed – “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes”(Romans 3:10-18).

The serpent said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He denied the truthfulness  of God's threat and distorted the meaning of God’s prohibition in order to tarnish the beauty of the Lord. This led to man having a distorted view of God, a misunderstanding of God, which created in his heart the desire to live independently of God, outside of God's rules and authority; for the God of love was now seen by man as an oppressor. Hence his desire gave birth to sin, and as a result, peace was lost and death entered the realm of man. He severed himself from God and His blessings. 

When God made Adam and Eve, they were holy, just as the Lord is holy. They lived in the presence of God, enjoying His blessings, and were pleased to live, to the glory of the Lord, under His authority and according to the rules established by Him. They had no hostility toward God in their hearts, no conceit, but love, reverence and submission. They gloried in the LORD God and obeyed Him.

Visit https://www.faithintheoneaboveall.com/post/the-tragedy-of-the-fall-of-man for the full series.

Man is the crowning jewel of God’s creation, a volitional being equipped with a mind and a heart, to whom the Lord God gave the earth as his dwelling place. Moreover, he was chosen by God to reflect His holiness on earth, to act as God’s deputy regent on earth, caring for the rest of God’s creation as God Himself would. Man was designated by God to rule the earth, to fill it and to keep it. This was his original vocation. Of all His creatures, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

As God’s deputy regent, man is to faithfully represent His Maker on earth, so that the glory of God may shine in him.

By His spoken Word, God brought into existence all creatures and assigned to each one usefulness, and to all a purpose: to glorify their Maker – each according to the ability He has given them – and to rejoice in Him alone. In other words, as creatures of God, the purpose of our lives is to glorify God and glory in Him – He is the object of our worship and the object of our joy. We are here on earth to exalt God, to display His beauty, and to delight in His person and works. The key verses that substantiate the affirmation that we exist for the glory of God are from Isaiah 43:6b-7, where God says: “Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” 

The attack on the soul by the evil world system today stands as the culmination of a long-standing battle. Nowadays, more than ever before, the world has managed to make its abominable practices more appealing by decriminalizing them. Drug use, homosexuality, transgenderism, prostitution, bestiality, the killing of babies in the womb, and many other dark practices condemned by the Lord are legalised in many countries today, in defiance of the decree of the Creator God. Thus says the Lord in Leviticus 20:10-21, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them...

 The baptism of the Holy Spirit is what defines the identity of God’s elect. It is the baptism of regeneration, the mark of Christ's ownership over those whom God, before the foundation of the world, predestined for adoption as sons. Without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we remain spiritually dead, alienated from God and hostile toward Him.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is what seals our union with Christ; it is in fact what makes us Christians – as the Scripture says, “Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9b). The Spirit quickens us and enables us for all good works and perseverance in the faith. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us is what distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, that is...

Unlike water baptism, which can be accessed by almost everyone, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is exclusively for God’s elect. It is administered by God to those whom He chose in eternity passed as an inheritance to His Son, according to the riches of His grace.

 The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the act by which the Holy Spirit, at salvation's birth, unites God’s elect to the body of Christ by taking residence in them and empowers them for spiritual growth and perseverance in the faith. By this sovereign and supernatural act of God, the Holy Spirit brings us from spiritual deadness to life in the Spirit and produces in us repentance and faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Christ instituted water baptism so that those whom the Father had predestined for adoption in eternity past, and for whom the Son died and who would be raised from spiritual death by the Holy Spirit, might identify with the Son in His death, burial, and resurrection. That is to say, water baptism must be administered to everyone who is brought from death to life by the Holy Spirit of grace and is led to repentance and faith in Christ, being justified “by the blood of His cross” (cf. Colossians 1:20).

   The authority to baptize new converts has been given by Christ to the ministers of the Gospel. As the Head of the Church, Christ has instructed them to make disciples and to baptise them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The sacrament of baptism was instituted by the Lord Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry as a sign of the new covenant, a symbol of the internal reality of rebirth brought about supernaturally by His Spirit. And it symbolises one’s death to sin and newness of life in Christ.

Water baptism is the means by which we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. It is a public affirmation of one’s faith in Christ, a testimony of one’s union to Christ. Water baptism symbolizes the death of the old self and the new life that we live in and for Christ. It follows spiritual baptism and serves to affirm the internal work of regeneration initially accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

Regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who, through the agency of God’s Word, according to His sovereign will and grace, convicts people of their sinfulness, of the coming judgement, and of their need for Christ at His appointed time, and implants in their hearts love for and faith in the Son of God.

Water baptism does not cleanse us inwardly nor does it save us. It is a testimony of our new birth and new life in Christ, which is wholly and exclusively accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is the means by which we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.

What picture can you get if not a distorted reflection if you look at yourself in a cracked mirror? For “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10). V. 23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A defiled and ruined vessel can become aware of its uncleanness and despicableness only by looking at that which is holy and unbroken. Mark 10:18 says, “No one is good except God alone.” And He who made us all has said, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16).

There is no life without Christ. For He is the Word of life who inhabits eternity, the Light of those who sit in darkness, in the shadow of death. He alone guides our feet into the way of peace. “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:2-4). Christ is the second person of the Trinity, God the Creator, for “He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). Rom. 11:36 says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Col. 1:16-17, “By Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Author of biological life, but He is also the Author of spiritual life. Col. 1:19-20, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” In our natural state, we are all dead in trespasses and sin, alienated from God. And the truth of the matter is, no man can free himself from spiritual deadness by his own efforts, no one can be justified before God by his good works and merits. There is only one way to be justified before God, one way to pass from death to life: the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, declares the Lord in John 14:6. Life is found in Christ alone. No one can be made alive, no one can be raised from spiritual death except by the Lord Jesus, the Author of life.

Set before every human being on this planet are two ends: life and death. The end of each person depends on whether they choose to love the Lord, obey his voice and be faithful to Him until the end or not. All those who reject the Lord Jesus in this life will one day wake up to their surprise in hell. As the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Thess. 1:8-9, the Lord will inflict “vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Their souls will be delivered to everlasting and conscious torment. Only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who die to sin and live in Christ will inherit the Kingdom of God. The Lord says in Rev. 21:6-8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death”

Under the law death reigned because of sin, but in Christ grace abounds much more. Grace reigns “through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21. He destroyed sin and defeated death by his atoning sacrifice on the cross. As the author of the Book of Hebrews writes, “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). Thus the Lord was able to redeem the souls of his elect, He was able to raise us who believe on Him from spiritual deadness and to bring us into life eternal according to the riches of his grace. As Heb. 10:14 says, “By a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Christ “offered Himself without blemish to God, [to] purify our conscience from dead works [so that we may] serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). He conquered death for us who are in Him, so that we might live with Him in the presence of our God forever. And so Paul writes in Rom. 6:8-11, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

In this broken world, it is impossible for a faithful Christian to escape hatred. The Lord Himself says to his disciples, “You will be hated by all for my name's sake” (Mat. 10:22). No one who identifies with Christ and follows Him faithfully can escape the hostility of the enemies of truth. Being a Christian does not put an end to our suffering in this world, it instead brings us more affliction. “For to [us] it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for his sake” as Paul writes in Phil. 1:29. We have been granted by God to share in the sufferings of our Lord, so that by suffering in the flesh we might be trained and equipped to live the rest of our days in our earthly tent no longer for the vicious passions of the flesh but for the will of God and the glory of Christ our Lord. Peter writes in 1 Pet. 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”

1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” There is a clear opposition between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of darkness. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the world with its evil practices and turned away from its lies and deceptions. You cannot embrace truth and falsehood at the same time. You cannot reconcile the Kingdom of light with the kingdom of darkness. You cannot worship the deities of Hinduism and have fellowship with the One True God. “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols”, says the Lord Almighty in Is. 42:8. You cannot exalt Mary, or Buddha, or Mohammed, or any false god and call yourself a child of God. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). You cannot offer sacrifices and prayers to the dead or to any other idol and still be pleasing to God; for the things which you sacrifice, you “sacrifice to demons and not to God” (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20). As Paul writes in 1 Cor. 10:21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s Table and of the table of demons.”

Unless one is born of God, he remains under the dominion of Satan, he remains a slave to the system of evil ruled by Satan. Our love for the world separates us from God until the moment of our conversion. For there is no unity between darkness and light; between the world and the Kingdom of Heaven there is no fellowship. There is no coherence between the holy and the profane. Between moral purity and depravity there is no harmony; there is no friendship between the world and God. People who love the world are alienated from God’s glorious presence. For, as already mentioned, “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Anyone who upholds any ideology that is against Christ is an enemy of God, and he cannot inherit Christ’s Kingdom. Unless a person renounces to the abominations that are in the world because of lust, and turns to Christ in repentance and faith, Satan will continue to rule over him, and he will remain a candidate for the second death.

Any heart that indulges in a life of sin will be sent to the fire of hell. But anyone who despises his life of sin, anyone who rejects the flesh with its desires and throws himself on the mercies of Christ is granted everlasting life in the Kingdom of God, where sin is completely powerless and death is conquered. Therefore, until a man has, by the power of the Holy Spirit, crucified the flesh, he cannot have life. There is no hope for those who love their body of sin. Unless someone dies to sin, he will remain its slave, he will be held captive forever by the sting of death, man’s last enemy. This is the wages of sin. But he who is dead to sin has died with Christ: he has shared in Christ’s death, he has been baptised into his death. And since Christ lives, he also lives in Christ, being born again, regenerated by the Spirit of grace. As Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Our works can never deliver our souls from the grip of sin and death, nor save us from the judgment of the Lord. They are like filthy rags in the sight of the holy God. We can only be justified before God by the righteousness that comes from God Himself, and which is graciously imputed to us on the basis of our faith in his Son Jesus Christ. As Romans 3:20 points it out, “For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

No one can curse what God has blessed (cf. Num. 23:8). Conversely, no one can reverse the curse pronounced by God. What God plucks up and breaks down, what God overthrows and destroys, He alone has the power to reconstruct and restore (cf. Jer. 31:28). As a result of human rebellion, God subdued the creation to futility. To borrow the words of the Apostle Paul from Rom. 8:20, “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.” Human rebellion against God brought about divine curse. Hence, there are pains, sufferings, wars, crimes, natural disasters, diseases, viruses, infirmities, sorrows, crying, groaning, trials, and afflictions, all because of sin. And the climax of the curse pronounced by God is the death of man. However, it is only by God’s design that man can be delivered from the sting of death and restored to life. But to inherit this life, one must die not only to self but also to the world, and embrace Christ as Lord and Saviour. This must be done, not in a superficial manner however, but with the willingness to share in Christ’s sufferings, to suffer persecution, loss and even death for his sake. For we can share in our Saviour’s glory only if we suffer with Him (cf. Rom. 8:17).

Knowing the gate we are on gives us a clear picture of where it is taking us and a better understanding of what awaits us at the other end. This is crucial, for the two gates or paths are diametrically opposed in every aspect; they do not lead to the same destination: one is the path of life and the other leads to perdition. This means we are all journeying, each to a specific destination: life or death, depending on the gate we are on. The Lord says in Mat. 7:13-14, “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.”

This truth stands in stark contrast to what many worldly-minded people and opponents of the doctrines of grace claim – there is only one way to life: the narrow gate, and that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Besides Him there is no other way for men to be justified before God. Here is the testimony of John the Baptist concerning the exclusivity of Christ, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:35-36).

Although the broad gate that leads to perdition is not labelled, ‘way to destruction, or gate to hell, or way to death, that’s where it leads. As Prov. 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” This reminds us to be watchful, to mind where our heart takes us, lest we follow the wrong path and wake up tomorrow in hell.

To inherit eternal life, one must enter through the narrow gate. But what does it mean to enter through the narrow gate? And why enter through the narrow gate?

If you were asked the question, ‘Are you alive or dead’, what would your answer be? Not only would you find the question weird, but your answer would certainly be, ‘I am alive. As you can see, I can breathe, I can talk, I can eat, I can do all the basic things that a living person does.’ But does the fact that a person can do these things mean the person is alive? Not necessary. In this world there is a whole lot of dead bones moving here and there, yet unaware of their deadness; for they think that to have life simply means to be able to breathe. You may be able to breathe still, but you are nothing but dead bones; there is no life in you. Someone may ask, how can that be? Well, whoever does not know God is a dead man, he or she is spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sin. Just a footnote, I am not talking about some superficial facts one may know about God, but rather a deep relationship with God.

The fact is, we all come into this world dead, spiritually speaking, because we are all conceived in sin. And once we are born, our sinfulness is evidenced by our hatred towards God, our immoral actions, our lustful thoughts and the abusive and deceitful words that come out of our mouth. “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-18).

So what defines a person who is dead in trespasses and sin is his utter depravity. Such a person does not love God, but rather is at enmity with God; he loves the deeds of wickedness, his thoughts are evil. He rejects God and his Truth, and walks according to the flesh, which deeds are: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-21).

Today is the day of salvation, the season of salvation, when Hope can be found. In the beginning of his earthly ministry, the Lord declares in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” I exhort you to seek the Lord when He is near, to turn to Christ the Lord and Saviour before judgement comes. For the day is coming, i.e. the Day of God’s wrath, the season of damnation, when the Lord will punish all those who in their pride have trampled underfoot the precious blood of his Son, treating it like a worthless thing. Those who reject the blood of Christ have no hope for salvation, as Heb. 10:26-29clearly specifies it, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”

This is the season of salvation! The Lord has stretched out his hand of mercy to welcome anyone who is burdened by his sins, anyone who wants to have peace with God and escape hell. Thus declares the Lord in Mat. 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” In Isaiah 45:22-23 the Lord God declares, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”

Isaiah 55:1-3, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” V.6-7, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Do not harden your heart, for “Behold (says the Lord in Rev. 3:20), I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”

Prov. 10:4, “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”

Slackness is not a virtue but a vice that produces devastating and often irreversible repercussions on our lives, whereas diligence, by the grace of God, nourishes its man. For he who has a slack hand acts treacherously or deceitfully, he shirks his duty, i.e. he does his work negligently, he avoids carrying out his duty or responsibility, he acts foolishly and consequently brings upon himself poverty and shame. By contrast, the person who is diligent carefully considers his actions, he works heartily, he is honest, industrious and mindful of his responsibilities; his diligence, by the grace of God, yields a bountiful harvest. This is true both in physical matters and in spiritual realm. Although the context of this verse in Scripture points us to physical matters, I am going to focus on its spiritual application, its implications in our life in relationship to Christ our Lord and Saviour. 

We were created to work for God’s glory. “For we are his workmanship (as Paul writes), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). The Lord has called us and prepared us for good works, He has entrusted to us varied gifts, and we are to be good stewards of those gifts; we must use them conscientiously, so as to glorify the Lord; we must be useful, not useless servants. 1 Pet. 4:10-11 says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

If we have a slack hand in managing our gifts, this will result in the loss of our heavenly rewards. But our diligence will contribute, by the grace of God, to the laying up of treasures for ourselves in heaven. Those who fail to be good stewards of their gifts, to diligently manage what they have been charged with, become unprofitable and bear the consequences of their slackness, as we learn from the Parable of the Talents in Mat. 25.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”, declares the Lord in Mat. 5:6. That is to say, He who supplies the seed to the sower, and bread for food also attends to our spiritual needs by lavishing his grace upon us, in order that we may be well equipped to live a godly life. The Lord calls us in righteousness, holds us by the hand and watches over us. Anyone who delights in that which the Lord delights in is satisfied, the Lord attends to their spiritual needs. This is clearly affirmed by the Lord in John 15:7 when He declares, “If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Ps. 37:4 reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Were it not for the grace of our God, no human being would be alive today, for we are all sinners. Despite our depravity, the Lord “gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). These, as we have already mentioned, are not a payback for what we first gave Him. For if He were to reward us for what we have done, our payback would be justice. And God’s justice demands that every sinner be condemned to eternal disgrace, eternity in hell. But in order to demonstrate his righteousness, the Lord vindicated us, by offering his only begotten Son as an atonement for our sins, and to us He has given grace. No one under the sun can deny that God is gracious to them, nor can one claim that the breath of life and everything they possess are a recompense for what they have done or given to the Lord. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). The Apostle Paul draws our attention to the fact that it is God who gives, by asking us this question in Rom. 11:35, “Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” Obviously, the answer is no one, “for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36)!

Therefore, we are to respond to God’s grace with gratitude, thanksgiving, praise, reverence, honour, humility, obedience, faithfulness, worship and service unto the Lord. In other words, we must offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. The Apostle Paul draws our attention on the necessity to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship” (cf. Rom. 12:1). As people with a sinful nature, we are inclined to live to satisfy the desires of the flesh, to seek worldliness. But the grace of God has been given to us to set us free from this bondage and to equip us for a life of righteousness, a life that brings glory to the Lord, a life of gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us. We have been called to live a humble life, to renounce to worldliness and carnality, and embrace a life of faith in obedience to God’s will. And so in v. 2-3 Paul urges us, by saying, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Only the grace of God disentangles the cords of pride that holds the heart of the natural man captive, profanes it, and prevents it from seeking after God. Grace pulls us out of the dark and filthy pit that imprisons our souls, and gives us a new heart and a new mind that accept and understand the things of the Spirit. In other words, it is by God’s grace alone that we are emptied of our moral corruption, freed from the bondage of sin and the sting of death, and fuelled with love for Christ. God’s grace is foundational to our spiritual birth and life; it is the foundation of our ability to love God and to love one another. It is by grace alone that we are delivered from the yoke of corruption and adopted into the family of Christ. It is by God’s grace alone that we can live a fulfilled life. Grace is sufficient for our reconciliation with our Heavenly Father and for the fulfilment of the life He has prepared for us in Christ Jesus.

The works of man cannot cover him. It does not matter how hard he labours, he remains naked before the Holy God, alienated from his glory. Only Christ the Lord and Saviour, in Whom grace is found, can cover the nakedness of those who humble themselves, count their works as refuse, cast themselves on the tender mercies and seek the righteousness of the perfect Lamb of God. It is Christ who takes away the sins of every repentant sinner who trusts in Him and confesses Him as Lord and Saviour. The prideful and self-righteous, those who store up for themselves earthly treasures, anyone who seeks the glory of men or that in which the Lord does not delight, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, for thus says the Lord in Is. 66:2, “on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.”