JESUS SAID, "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
leads to life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13).
A person must choose between two leaders either God, and serve Him, or
Satan, and serve him. Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters...."
(Matthew 6:24). You must choose either to be right or wrong, good or
bad, saint or sinner, saved or lost. God's way leads to eternal life,
the other way leads to eternal death.
In the "broad way" many claims are made, but only God's way is right.
In the "broad way" you'll hear that man is saved by "faith only." God's
way says man is saved by faith (John 8:24), but "not by faith only"
(James 2.24) God's way commands all men to repent (Acts 17:30), but in
the "broad way" you hear that a man is saved at the point of faith. In
the "broad way" various confessions are made, but in God's way the
confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is taught (Matthew 10:32;
Acts 8:37). In the "broad way" it is claimed that baptism is non-
essential. God's way says, "even baptism doth also now save us"(1 Pet.
3:2).
The "broad way" is easy. To go that way, you only have to follow the
crowd. In God's way you must be clean and holy (Isaiah 35:8), by obeying
the truth (1 Peter 1:22), but those who "obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ shall be punished with everlasting destruction ..." (2
Thess. 1:8,9).
Taking the Word of God only will lead you into the "narrow way" that
leads to life, but the "broad way" will lead you to accept all kinds of
things that are not in God's word. On your own you can't figure out
anything that will make God happy. His word furnishes "every good work"
(2 Tim. 3:17-18). If it's not in His word, no matter how good it seems,
to God it's not a good work.
Jesus says, "No man cometh to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Only
through Christ we reach the Father. All who will enjoy the blessings of
Heaven some day must get into Christ. To be in Christ is to be in His
body (Ephesians 2:16). In His body you are reconciled to God and saved
from sin. How do you get into His body? You are baptized into Christ
(Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 12:13), and you are then subject to Christ
who is "the head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18). The church
of Christ is the body of Christ.
Ask others if it is too narrow to call the body of Christ, the church of
Christ. If they are too broad-minded for the teaching of the "narrow
way," show them what God's word teaches.
