The Bible describes two types of people in the world. Most people will be on the unsaved (or lost) side of the line. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.”
Jesus was not one to mince His words when it came to telling people the truth, especially when it came to speaking of the condition of one’s soul. In these two verses alone He makes it abundantly clear that the condition of mankind is a lost one. We are told in Isaiah 59:2 that our sins have separated us from God, and that includes everybody, for Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “ . . . for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. . . .” Jesus further makes no bones about the fact that most of the world will remain forever lost and cutoff from God.
There is much to be gleaned from these words from our Savior in Matthew 7, but one thing that seems to me to grow keener and clearer the older I get is just how much sorrow and just how much grief must have afflicted the Lord when He uttered these tragic words some two thousand years ago! Here He was (and is), the Creator and the Sustainer of the entire cosmos (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16), the One Who is above all thrones, principalities and powers, the One Who is the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8), the beginning and the Firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18), the One Who is the Redeemer of all the Earth (Job 19:25; Isaiah 41:14), the One Who stretched forth the very heavens from horizon to horizon and the One Who formed us in the womb (Isaiah 44:24), the One Who loved us so much that He left the glory and riches of Heaven to come to this lowly plain of existence and humble Himself to live His life as an unassuming servant (Philippians 2:7), the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only Potentate there is or ever will be (1 Timothy 6:15) Who suffered Himself to be beaten, and scourged, and nailed to the cross as a common criminal. This same Person had to tell us that in spite of all that He has done for us and continues to do for us, we will, for the most part as a people, continue to reject Him to our own utter destruction! I can only imagine how hard He must have fought back to keep the tears from flowing and streaming from His eyes when He spoke these words.
Yes, it is true that all have sinned, and that everyone is in dire need of salvation, but the sad truth is for us to face is the realization that one of the most difficult of all things to do is to convince a person that he or she even needs a Savior! That, to me, is the reason that most of the world will reject Jesus Christ as their Savior, and it seems the older I get while living in 21st century United States of America the harder it gets to show the people they have sin in their lives. The world about them, operating under the influence of Satan, even when they believe he does not exist, does everything in its power to teach our young that there is no such thing as sin. There is no right, there is no wrong. I take that back . . . according to the world, there is really only one thing that is wrong anymore, and that is to have morals and principles based upon a strong foundation in one’s belief and confession of Jesus Christ as the true and risen, living Savior He is!
Jesus was not one to mince His words when it came to telling people the truth, especially when it came to speaking of the condition of one’s soul. In these two verses alone He makes it abundantly clear that the condition of mankind is a lost one. We are told in Isaiah 59:2 that our sins have separated us from God, and that includes everybody, for Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “ . . . for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. . . .” Jesus further makes no bones about the fact that most of the world will remain forever lost and cutoff from God.
There is much to be gleaned from these words from our Savior in Matthew 7, but one thing that seems to me to grow keener and clearer the older I get is just how much sorrow and just how much grief must have afflicted the Lord when He uttered these tragic words some two thousand years ago! Here He was (and is), the Creator and the Sustainer of the entire cosmos (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16), the One Who is above all thrones, principalities and powers, the One Who is the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8), the beginning and the Firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18), the One Who is the Redeemer of all the Earth (Job 19:25; Isaiah 41:14), the One Who stretched forth the very heavens from horizon to horizon and the One Who formed us in the womb (Isaiah 44:24), the One Who loved us so much that He left the glory and riches of Heaven to come to this lowly plain of existence and humble Himself to live His life as an unassuming servant (Philippians 2:7), the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only Potentate there is or ever will be (1 Timothy 6:15) Who suffered Himself to be beaten, and scourged, and nailed to the cross as a common criminal. This same Person had to tell us that in spite of all that He has done for us and continues to do for us, we will, for the most part as a people, continue to reject Him to our own utter destruction! I can only imagine how hard He must have fought back to keep the tears from flowing and streaming from His eyes when He spoke these words.
Yes, it is true that all have sinned, and that everyone is in dire need of salvation, but the sad truth is for us to face is the realization that one of the most difficult of all things to do is to convince a person that he or she even needs a Savior! That, to me, is the reason that most of the world will reject Jesus Christ as their Savior, and it seems the older I get while living in 21st century United States of America the harder it gets to show the people they have sin in their lives. The world about them, operating under the influence of Satan, even when they believe he does not exist, does everything in its power to teach our young that there is no such thing as sin. There is no right, there is no wrong. I take that back . . . according to the world, there is really only one thing that is wrong anymore, and that is to have morals and principles based upon a strong foundation in one’s belief and confession of Jesus Christ as the true and risen, living Savior He is!
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