Enter through the narrow gate.
Matthew 8:13-14 has Jesus teaching “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Preaching Christ crucified isn’t popular. What it really means is a faith greater than the rich young ruler with the inhibition of a child. We don’t want to give up what we have, and we like to think of ourselves as wise in our own eyes. The call to Christ involves the denial of self, identity outside of you, and transformation through new birth in Him.
If the narrow gate was as simple to enter through by mastery of abiding by the law in our own strength, surely more than a few of the billions of souls who’ve walked the earth would have found it. Of course Jesus is talking about himself as the narrow gate, and following him is the narrow road. John 14:6 tells us Jesus’ clarity, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
This followship is discipleship. Discipleship will put you at odds with all around you, even in the midst of a place where you assume there ought to be the greatest consensus — be it family, friendships, or church. Do not compromise in following Christ, which is to endorse the thought — do not abandon the truth of the Word. Every believer in Christ as sanctified through knowing and sharing his Word (all of it) at some point becomes some measure of a theologian. Don’t be afraid, don’t be shy, but most importantly don’t put yourself in front of the Word. Let it, let him, lead. Even when it leads you into contradiction. Count it a blessing if as a consolation prize you receive clarity over agreement.
In 1884, C. F. W. Walther wrote in Law & Gospel, “If a theologian is asked to yield and make concessions so that peace may at last be established in the Church, yet if he refuses to budge on even a single point of doctrine — to human reason this looks like excessive stubbornness, even like downright evil intent. This is why such theologians are rarely loved or praised during their lifetime. On the contrary, they are scolded as disturbers of the peace or even as destroyers of the kingdom of God. They are regarded as men worthy of contempt. But at the end of the day it becomes clear that the very determined, unfailing tenacity of these theologians as they cling to the pure teaching of the divine Word by no means tears down the Church. On the contrary, it is this very attitude that — even amid the greatest dissension — builds up the Church and ultimately brings about genuine peace. Therefore, woe to the Church if it has no men of this stripe — men would who would stand watch on the ramparts of Zion, the alarm whenever a foe threatens to rush the walls, men who would rally to the banner of Jesus Christ, ready for a holy war!”
Wide is the road that leads to “peace in our time.” History shows us how terribly destructive it is. It accommodates the wants of many to ordain their fleeting truths for the sake of preferences and/or dictates in a temporal illusion.
But we have one peace to pursue, that is in Christ. He said as much to the churches in Revelation, he says as much in the message of the Gospel, He demonstrated as much in the work on the cross… as He is the way, the truth, and the life, so too is He the small gate along the narrow road that leads to life.