Devotional Part 14

19 May 2021

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it as many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

The way is hard. The way is HARD.

Many years ago while doing my first year of theological study, I had a lecturer by the name of Gregory McCormack. He was a small, bookish looking man, balding with glasses, every popular trope of what a professor should look like.

He was a sharp and keen thinker. He inspired my early walk with the Lord, and while I only had him for one paper, I will forever be in his debt. As such, I think of him often.

He once said to the class that if you are comfortable in your Christian faith then you are doing it wrong.

Another dear friend and former lecturer of mine Michael Green used to say that there was no going fee in becoming a Christian, however the annual subs would cost you everything.

The way is hard, the cost is real, and suffering inevitable.

This passage I think needs to be the lens through which we understand the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, I think I will read through the Sermon on the Mount again keeping these words in mind.