The INTENSELY Personal Issue of Salvation
I would like to further discuss on the meaning of the narrow road and the wide road. In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus mentions this fact that wide is the road that leads to destruction and many enter therein while He mentions the dreadful truth that narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find. In short, one must realize that this narrow gate means salvation is intensely personal, nobody gets saved because of their families as Christians nor does anybody get damned because of the unbelieving lifestyle of the wicked heathen they may have for relatives. For one, I agree that Jesus does not always seek multitudes but rather He usually chooses to seek and saved only those who knows they are lost because in turn, they are the only ones who will truly receive Him, others will turn away when they realize that their personal sin must be dealt with. No repentance means they will turn away from Jesus when sin is dealt with. In fact, as much as people are preached to in groups BUT the response is still individually accountable. Jesus knows who will reject Him and who will accept Him and it's a very individual issue.
To add, I also began to read a few of Pastor John F. Macarthur's sermons which one was entitled "Which Way to Heaven?" which actually does present this commentary that a good description of the narrow gate is wide as a turnstile that we can see in airports and train stations. It is where a person enters it ALONE and it is a one-on-one issue- between God and the sinner. Just to think of it, I do remember a few of my trips in the airport where only one person can enter at a time. That is, Christians must enter this narrow road alone meaning that they cannot ride on another or one can get saved for another unsaved relative. Truth is, I wish I could get saved for my unsaved relatives BUT the Bible says I cannot. In fact John 3:16-20 is clear that the believing is intensely individual and whoever does not believe is already condemned. However people refuse to believe the hard truth of them being sinners, that everything will just pass away and every Biblical truth that has been revealed to them. Seriously the issue of salvation is not based on what man did but what God did then because of pride, it becomes very hard to believe especially when it's personally dealt to the sinner that they are helpless before God.
What can be very hard with this intensely personal issue of salvation can also be this- it's also very hard to believe because people are used to do things with the crowds. One can think of the heresies of church membership salvation and proxy salvation from Mormonism where they claim that I can be saved for others that means they are saved by a group just because of one saved member. There is also the riding the crowd, etc. but they were never saved to start with. Seriously, I can run a church of 1,000,000 members coming in earlier but let me preach a real message against sin and the need for repentance so many will be saved and get a changed life in Christ, I do expect even only 5% or less to remain sooner or later because of the chaffing of the wheat and the tares. That is, the remaining 95% are just apostates or Judases (1 John 2:19). That is, the fallacy of appeal to popularity or "we are here because we are many." In one of Pastor Ruben L. Lumagbas Jr.'s sermons I've listened to, he even emphasized how difficult for it is for Catholics to believe the Gospel because of the claim, "We are the true church because of our numbers." yet Matthew 7:13-14 says more are entering Hell than Heaven. Perhaps one may consider that for a Roman Catholic priest to enter the narrow road will inevitably mean leaving the parishioners, leaving his fellow priests and throwing away his legalistic doctrine he so loves. You may also consider how people just want to be conformed by the world.
Yet I still have good news to share. No matter how hard it was for me to believe that salvation is intensely personal, yet it becomes easy to believe when the hardened heart is softened. Talk about how the preaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon against sin throughout his career caused the rise of the 1689 Baptist movement. Talk about how Martin Luther's use of God's Law to preach against personal sins softened the heart. It takes a hard lesson, a hard belief to soften the person's heart to put aside their pride and prejudice which makes it hard to believe and simply go to the cross of Christ, nothing in their hands they bring, only to the cross of Christ they cling.