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​ go through the narrow door

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Jesus tells us to strive to enter through the narrow gate, saying, “The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many go in by it, but the gate is narrow and stray that leads to life, and few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14) . . Why did Jesus say this? Jews are people who sacrificed themselves to die before God, and Christians today are people who worshiped diligently.

The people of Israel have lived under the Law for about 2,000 years. As a result, this kind of life is naturally ingrained into the body. They believed that as long as they went to the temple and offered sacrifices to God, everyone would become holy and automatically enter the kingdom of God. As a result, whenever they offered sacrifices before God, they became more and more holy people. Under the law, the more zealous you are before God, the more you build up your own righteousness. Therefore, in the end, they become enemies with God. The Pharisees are such people. The same is true of Christians today.

Even the Israelites who lived under the law had their own difficulties. They could not live freely like the Gentiles, and they could not eat anything because of the restrictions of the law. Furthermore, he had a much more difficult life than the Gentiles because there were many things that were forbidden by the Sabbath and various laws. However, if you can enter heaven with this kind of suffering, you will want to enter heaven even if you have experienced this kind of pain a hundred times or a thousand times.

Does this really mean enter through the narrow gate Jesus is talking about? Since the people of Israel have already lived through suffering due to the law, why did Jesus dare to tell them to enter through the narrow gate again? It is saying that the life of the people of Israel until now was not the way through the narrow gate.

What, then, is the way to the narrow gate? That is, believing in the Son God has sent is the shortcut to the narrow gate. The people of Israel will say that they cannot agree to this. Until now, they had gone to the temple, slaughtered cattle and sheep, and offered sacrifices to God. As a result, their sins were blotted out and they all became God's holy people. have. However, this is only the thoughts of the people of Israel, and God's will is that only when they believe in the Son can the people of Israel be forgiven of their sins and attain eternal life.

Because no one can enter the kingdom of heaven under the law, those who lived under the law must believe in the Son sent by God to enter the kingdom of heaven. Because the God-given law is something that all the Israelites are obliged to do, everyone must do it whether they like it or not. However, if you do not want to believe in the Son sent by God, you do not have to believe. But you are responsible for the results.

From the point of view of the people of Israel, they cannot easily accept the saying that they must believe in the Son sent by God to enter the kingdom of heaven. The reason is that until now, they had sacrificed zealously to God according to the law, and they thought that their sins would be blotted out and that everyone would go to heaven. to be the Son of God, who would believe in such a fact? But this is the meaning of the narrow gate Jesus is talking about.

So, how do Christians today accept the meaning of the narrow gate Jesus spoke of? Christians today, like Jews, believe that if they just go to a chapel and worship God in the name of Jesus, all their sins will be blotted out and they will go to heaven. Christians are following the path that the Jews followed. But this is ignorance that comes from knowing only one and not knowing the other.

Above all, how can Christians with a corrupt heart overcome all the unclean sins that come up in their hearts every day and live fully according to the law of the Holy Spirit? None of the Christians live by the law of the Holy Spirit. If Christians who have received the Holy Spirit break God's law, they will get sick in the heart of man due to God's curse, and from then on, sin will not be recognized.

If the sin is not recognized, the voice of the Lord will not be heard. If the voice of the Lord is not heard, the person will not be able to understand the sin and will not believe in the Son whom God has sent. This is the person with spiritual leprosy today. Among Christians, there are many who are spiritually blind, spiritually lame, spiritually deaf, and spiritually bleeding because of their disobedience to the Holy Spirit. All of these things must be solved by the spiritual son who comes and solves them.

Christians who have been called to be God's people also suffer from all kinds of suffering if they live by the law of the Holy Spirit. While non-believers go out to play and eat and drink freely, Christians have to spend the whole day in church on Sundays and cannot play around freely, nor can they eat and drink anything freely. There, they have to go to the early morning worship every day, and the Wednesday worship and Friday all-night services also hold back Christians. In any case, compared to the free life of unbelievers, it is true that there is a great deal of suffering in its own right.

But with this kind of discomfort and pain, wouldn't you be willing to go to heaven at all costs? So, does this really mean entering through the narrow gate Jesus is talking about? It is true that Christians have lived under various restrictions under the law of the Holy Spirit until now. But why does Jesus tell us to enter through the narrow gate again? It tells us that Christians, too, have never been a shortcut through the narrow gate by living under the law of the Holy Spirit.

So what is the shortcut to the narrow gate? It is a shortcut through the narrow gate for Christians, too, to believe in the Son sent by God. As Christians, I would say that I cannot agree with this. Since they have gone to the chapel and worshiped before God in the name of Jesus, their sins have been blotted out and they have all become children of God. have. However, that is only the Christian's opinion, and God's will is that only when they believe in the Son can Christians also receive forgiveness of their sins of disobeying the Holy Spirit and reach eternal life.

From a Christian's point of view, everyone is upset when they say that you must believe in the Son sent by God to enter the kingdom of heaven. The reason is that until now, they believed in Jesus, received the Holy Spirit, and worshiped diligently before God in the name of Jesus according to the law of the Holy Spirit, and thought that everyone would enter the kingdom of heaven. How absurd would it sound to believe in a poor-looking man as the Son of God? However, you should know that this is the 'narrow gate' that Christians are talking about.

Any Christian who lived under the law of the Holy Spirit can go to a chapel and worship before God in the name of Jesus. However, for the people of God to worship before God, it is a duty according to the law, and everyone must fulfill that duty whether they like it or not. If the duty is not fulfilled, it is a violation of God's law, and God's curse will come upon them, and the Christian's heart will become sick. Those who are ill in their hearts suffer in various ways because they are used by an evil spirit.

In this way, no one can reach heaven by the law of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, those who lived under the law of the Holy Spirit must believe in the Son sent by God in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. However, you are solely responsible for it.

Jesus says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12) . Literally translated, it means that the people of God made every effort to keep the laws God gave them, but no one can enter the kingdom of heaven with that. These words apply equally to Christians who live under the law of the Holy Spirit today.

However, those who do not want to enter the kingdom of heaven do not have to believe in the Son sent by God. Believing in the Son is not something that anyone is forcing you to believe, nor is it obligatory to believe in the Son. So, if you don't like it, you don't have to believe it. However, you are responsible for the results. Jesus also said of this, “The gate is wide and the road leading to destruction is broad, and many go in by it, but the gate is narrow and stray that leads to life, and few find it .”

Also, Jesus said that it is more difficult for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:24; Luke 18:25). The reason is that it is so difficult for him to abandon himself and trust his son. If it was believed that Christians would enter the kingdom of heaven by keeping the law of the Holy Spirit, Jesus would not have had to use this expression.

In order to enter through the narrow gate, you have to throw away everything you have. Those who have wealth, honor, and power must throw away them, and they must also throw away all the science and knowledge they have learned in the world. If you don't throw away those things and believe in your son, it will become a stumbling block. And in order to believe in the Son sent by God, we have to give up our human pride and even our own life. This is because if you do not throw away these things, the thoughts of the flesh will eventually come up and you will not be able to trust the Son. It is said that the carnal mind is enmity with God.

“If anyone would come after me, let him leave father and mother or brothers or sisters or children and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 19:29)

Under the law of the Holy Spirit, you can continue your life of faith without throwing away these things. It is possible for Christians to go to a chapel and worship without giving up their own lives. But in order to believe in the Son sent by God, you cannot believe without giving up everything you have. That is why it is said that the road to heaven is difficult. Jesus also spoke of the meaning of the narrow gate in this sense. If Jews can go to heaven by offering sacrifices before God, why do they need a narrow gate?

When Jesus said, “The gate is wide and the road is wide that leads to destruction, and many people enter through it,” he was referring to those who wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven by going back and forth between churches according to the law of the Holy Spirit. Also, the saying, “The gate that leads to life is narrow and the road is stray, and few find it” is a statement of regret because there are so few people who give up everything and believe in the Son sent by God.

Since the Son only comes to save sinners, if he does not realize that man is a sinner, he will never be able to believe in the Son. If you do not believe in your son, your sin problem will not be solved forever. The sacrifice of the law never solves the problem of human sin. If a person dies without solving the problem of sin, he must face God's judgment seat.

As among the Jews, tax collectors and prostitutes brought their sins before Jesus, those who realize that they are sinners against the law of the Holy Spirit today will run to the Son, and those who justify themselves like the Pharisees will Just as they rejected Jesus, those who claim to be born of the Holy Spirit today will also reject the Son. However, you are responsible for the results.

A person who once lived as a Gentile received the Holy Spirit and lived under the law, then disobeyed the Holy Spirit, became a sinner, confessed his sin before the Son who came personally before the Gentiles, received the Spirit of adoption (the Spirit of Christ) and was born again as Christ. They are called spiritual children (sons) of God. Therefore, since the spiritual Son of God has not yet come before Christians (spiritual people), Christians do not yet have a perfect person. It may be difficult for Christians to accept this fact, but since it is a law established by God, no one can protest.

If we say that we need to believe in the Son who comes spiritually to be saved, Christians will be asked this question. So, what happens to all those who have died while living their faith before the spiritual son comes? As an answer to this, then, Jews must also believe in Jesus to be saved, but you can think about what happened to all the people of the Old Testament who died while living their faith before Jesus came. In the Old Testament and today, those who died while living a religious life before the Son came, and those who were worthy in God's sight, were saved. However, they must not be worthy in the eyes of men, but those worthy in the eyes of God.

That is why Jesus said, “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets are in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11) . These are all those who have been used for God's purpose. Likewise, in today's Christians, all those who were used for God's purposes were saved by God as servants. However, there are not many people who are saved as slaves because they do well ten times and are thrown away even if they make one mistake. Even those who are filled with the Holy Spirit today fall at the end of the day. When they come to love the world more than God, God works a temptation in their hearts to turn them away from salvation.

It should be a life that only God sees and judges, not a life that man sees and judges. In the Old Testament, people like Abel, Job, and the widow of Sarepta who treated Elijah with the utmost respect were those who lived a life worthy of God's sight. In the New Testament, they are like Zacchaeus, the widow of Nain, and Simeon in Luke 2. And among the Gentiles, the Roman centurion, the Syrobonic woman, the woman at the well of Sychar, and Cornelius were those who lived a life worthy of God's sight.

Now, when the Son of God comes even to the Gentiles (Christians), at that time, God entrusts all matters of salvation to the Son. Until now, Christians have lived their lives of faith in their own way under the law of the Holy Spirit, but since it is not a perfect life and only a model of the spiritual Christ to come, Christians must put an end to their religious life under the law. Just as the Jews offered sacrifices to God for 2,000 years as a model of Christ in the temple, because of Jesus' coming, the sacrifices were abolished.

“All the prophets and the law prophesied until John, from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force!” (Matthew 11:12-13)

After the Son comes, the Bible clearly states that 'the kingdom of heaven will belong to violent and plunderers'. This is a comparison of who will come running to the son with his sins. A life of faith under the law is only fulfilling one's obligations as God's people, and through such a life, one cannot become a child of God. Therefore, in order to become a child of God, one can become a spiritual child of God only after receiving the forgiveness of sins and receiving the Spirit of adoption through the Son whom God personally sends.

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