That Strait Gate

We like to read about the joy of the Christian life.  Consider all these joyful benefits of surrendering to Jesus and allowing His Holy Spirit to transform us: 

Gal 5:22 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

Yet, when we continue reading, we see that these benefits accrue when we have crucified our worldly desires: 

Gal 5:24 – And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

Crucifixion is a painful process.  It doesn’t come easy because we have to do it to ourselves.  Jesus put it this way: 

Luke 9:23 – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Perhaps this is why Jesus also said: 

Luke 13:23-24 – And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door [“strait gate” in KJV]. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 

Did you notice the word, “strive”?  Those who only seek to enter fail, but those who strive succeed.  Strive is a word with negative connotation; it means to forcefully struggle, perhaps denying self, taking up a cross and crucifying yourself.  While Satan employs the elements of the world to weaken and defeat us, we are to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).  Under Satan’s onslaught, we cannot remain lethargic, in tepid resistance, and yet gain the prize.  Also, beyond our own fitness to enter through that strait gate, we bear a solemn responsibility when we claim the name of Christ.  We must live like He is the Lord of our lives, so that our lives reflect the principles of the Beatitudes. 

Perhaps this is what Luke meant when he said, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).  Although this was said in the context of Paul’s stoning at Lystra, it applies as well to the everyday Christian in our own times.  While members of the Remnant can eventually expect literal persecution and tribulation, the striving to enter that strait gate brings its own internal (and sometimes external) tribulation. 

Paul sums it up nicely.  First, he speaks of the peace of God that comes when we surrender to Jesus and receive His justification: 

Rom 5:1-2 – Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

But then he moves on to the striving and tribulation, whether literal and external or the internal striving to crucify self: 

Rom 5:3-5 – Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 

We need this striving to build character, and if called to endure it, we need the persecution or other external suffering for the development of our characters.  Our witness and our fitness for heaven both depend on it.  Therefore: 

1 Pet 1:6-7 – though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.