8-24-16
“Strive to enter at the strait gate: for many I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Luke 13:24
I'm just saying is all. I can make this argument till the day that I die without convincing many people of its truth because for most people it’s about what they believe and what the Word of God says, in reality, has very little sway over what they believe. I actually had a guy tell me just last week, “I don’t care what the Bible says, this is what I believe.” This was after I explained there were two parts to salvation. I pointed out that John 1:12 explains that those who receive Jesus are given power to become sons of God and Romans 10:10 very clearly says you have to believe in your heart before you can be saved and salvation is obtained by a confession of the mouth. I showed him a picture of the outer courts and inner courts of the tabernacle and said, “Two parts.” He said, “I don’t care what the Bible says, I believe you get everything at one time.”
Such disregard for the scriptures are why the Church is in this condition and what is it going to take to get people to wake up! It is God that provides salvation. If we change the Word of God to suit our own needs and wants, we fail to enter at the narrow door that is salvation. When Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich man to be saved” Matt.19:24, He was speaking of how easy it is to unburden a camel and coax it through the small walk through door in the wall of the city on its knees compared to how hard it is to get a man to see the truth and abandon the lies he has embraced. The disciples understood the universal nature of this metaphor perfectly as they exclaimed, “Who then can be saved?” To which Jesus said, “It is impossible with men,” because men always think more highly of themselves than they ought, Romans 12:3. This tendency to over rate one’s self is at the heart of all interpretation of scripture; it is what causes men to discount certain parts of the scripture and embrace others. It is why a man would say, “I don’t care what the Bible says, I believe…”
Jesus said the door of salvation is a narrow opening in the side of a wall (eye of the needle) and in order to enter you must be accurate in your approach. In the movie, Lord of the Rings, the elf Galadriel told Frodo, “The fellowship stands on the edge of a knife, stray just a little and you will fail.” Cities in Jesus’ day were surrounded by walls designed to keep marauding bands out and the occupants within safe. One or more large gates provided access during the day but at dark these gates were closed and the only access was a very small slit in the city wall, called, “the eye of the needle.” On another occasion Jesus said, “Enter in at the strait gate: For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction and many there be that go in there at: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it.” Matt.7:13-14. Most Christians seem to think it the other way around, “Broad is the way to salvation and narrow is the door to destruction.” Most Christians seem to think what you believe is actually immaterial; as long as your heart is right, you will find the door. However, how can your heart be right with God when your approach to His Word is so callous?
John 1:1-9 informs us that Jesus is the Word of God. If we disrespect God’s Word by interpretation or ignoring or disdaining or whatever adjective you might choose, you are disrespecting Jesus, the author of salvation.
If we are to take Jesus’ metaphor literally, the preaching of salvation is a large wall but the way of salvation is a small doorway in the middle of this wall. And it is certainly true that Jesus provided a very specific salvation. God has been issuing laws to mankind from the day He told Adam, “You may eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam’s salvation involved a very small door in a large expanse. In his case as long as he avoided that door he remained saved. But Adam thought more highly of himself than he should have. Instead of taking God at His Word, he thought he could change God’s Word and remain saved. Adam was wrong.
Adam walked through the very small door out into the world. Now, we are trying to find the door to walk back in to the fellowship he enjoyed with God.
When Jesus died on the cross to provide salvation, He died within the parameters of God’s law, a very specific law. If you do not understand the parameters of God’s law, you will never understand how to be saved. Jesus provided a very small door of salvation; a very specific way out and we must apply ourselves to this way, which means, we must understand the parameters of salvation. We already know the way is narrow but it is in a broad expanse of information. We don’t need to study the broad expanse of information to find the door; we merely need to study the law of God. If you are believing in a broad way of salvation, as in “All you have to do is believe in Jesus,” you are probably wrong. The eye of the needle was no more than a small opening, just large enough for a man to walk through, in the side of the wall of the city and the way of salvation is much narrower than a broad belief in Jesus.
Jesus died under the authority of the old covenant law but when He was raised from the dead, He was given all power in heaven and earth according to Matthew 28:18. Now, Jesus would have to have been granted all authority as well or the conveyance of all power would have been an empty gesture. We know it was not an empty gesture because He was also given the title Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Jesus not only has all power; He also has all authority to execute all power. Thus even though Jesus died under the authority of old covenant law as Saviour of the World, after the resurrection He reached back in time and pulled His death into the new covenant. He had the power and the authority to do so.
We know this to be true because Jesus had to fulfill the old covenant before He could establish a new covenant. Thus He died under old covenant law. However, the Church does not observe the last supper of the Saviour; it observes the last supper of the Lord, 1Corinthians 11:27. Jesus was not made Lord until His resurrection, Phil.2:6-9, some three days later. So in order for the death of the Saviour to become the death of the Lord, Jesus had to use His power and authority to make it so. We are now no longer under the authority of old covenant law; we are under the authority of new covenant law and in order to receive the salvation of the Lord, we must abide by the law of the new covenant. What is it? Is Jesus’ commandment to love one another one of the laws of the new covenant? No. The commandment to love one another is a condensation of the second of the Ten Commandments: to love your neighbor as yourself. It is therefore not a commandment of the new covenant. The new covenant is just that: new.
During the time of Moses, God set about to rescue His chosen race of people from their oppressor. Moses led the Children of Israel out into the desert and God showed Moses a pattern for a tabernacle he was commissioned to build, Heb.8:5. The Children of Israel built this tabernacle and the tabernacle was a life size model of the covenant God established with them. Each article of the tabernacle represented an article of the written covenant. However, Moses’ tabernacle was patterned off of a heavenly tabernacle, Heb.8:5. The two tabernacles are mirror images one of the other but the articles of furniture represent two totally different covenants. Jesus did not enter the old covenant tabernacle with His blood; He entered the new covenant tabernacle. Thus, it is the new covenant tabernacle that explains where the door of salvation is and how to enter it.
If you are trusting in old covenant theology to save you, you are not entering at the straight gate and will miss the true door of salvation. Again, the eye of the needle was a very small door in the side of a large expanse. A camel had to be un-burdened, and then it could only crawl through on its knees. Jesus is the one who installed the laws of the new covenant; He is the one who warned that the door that leads to life is narrow. We cannot expect that Jesus will make exceptions; we must “strive to enter at the straight gate,” Luke 13:24. The word, “strait,” means, “restricted or constricted; narrow; tight; confined,” and also, “strict, rigid, and exacting.” The laws of the new covenant are strict, rigid, and exacting. Everyone who observes and honors the laws of the new covenant is guaranteed salvation but everyone who ignores them will be denied.
Consider Hebrews10:28-29: “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, do you suppose, shall he be worthy of who treads under foot the Son of God, and counts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and does despite unto the spirit of grace?” Moses’ law is the Ten Commandments and their associated articles. The obvious comparison is between the old and new covenants, which means, the new covenant has laws. Moreover, this verse suggests there is a place where after being sanctified by Jesus’ blood, one can tread the Son of God underfoot.
The new covenant is best understood by the tabernacle that represents it. At the front of the tabernacle is the gate. Just like the eye of the needle, the gate of the tabernacle can only be found in the middle of one end of the tabernacle and it is the only entrance to the tabernacle. It is a very specific entrance. Inside the tabernacle is a large brass bowl that is all polished on the inside bottom and it is filled with water. When one looks in the bowl of water, it shows the true condition of their heart and having seen the debt of righteousness they owe to God, their creator, the only true course of action is to sell their life to God and become a slave to His standard of righteousness. God’s standard of righteousness is found in the old covenant law, or Ten Commandments.
Just on the other side of the brass bowl, otherwise known as the bronze laver, is a large brass altar. It is on this altar that Jesus has placed His sacrifice to God on our behalf. If those who have sold themselves to God as indentured servants, slaves to His will, choose to accept the sacrifice Jesus made of Himself, they are clothed with Jesus’ perfect keeping of the old covenant law and set free from being slaves to God’s standard of righteousness. These are the outer courts of the tabernacle and it is here that Jesus completed what the old covenant could not accomplish.
According to Philippians 2:7-8, Jesus laid aside His godhood and came to earth as a man because, as a man, He could perfectly keep God’s standard of righteousness and die under the penalties of disobedience; then, as God, apply His righteousness to whomever accepts His sacrifice as their own. This is represented in the outer courts by the brazen altar. Thus, the outer courts represent Jesus’ humanity. However, even though Jesus laid aside the power and authority that made Him God, He remained God in essence. Thus you have the inner courts or holy place. The holy place is so called because it represents Jesus’ divinity. Here is where the commandments Jesus issued after the resurrection become critical to salvation. In order to enter the holy place one must honor Jesus’ divinity; one must honor Jesus as God, which in fact He is; raised from the dead with all power and authority. If we do not keep Jesus’ commandments, we dishonor Him. We dishonor His death on the cross that delivered us from having to keep the old covenant law. We dishonor the blood that sanctified us. Moreover, we dishonor the Holy Spirit who is Jesus’ representative on earth, executor of the new covenant.
It should be clear that the Ten Commandments provided the foundation of the old covenant but in that Jesus fulfilled the old covenant and replaced it with the new covenant, the commandments of the new covenant are the foundation of the new covenant. One must know the commandments of the new covenant and keep them in order to gain the salvation Jesus authored, John 14:21. The first piece of furniture in the holy place is the golden lamp stand which represents the first and principal commandment of the Lord Christ Jesus. It is to wait for the saturation of the Holy Spirit. The second piece of furniture is the table of show bread, which represents the body of Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to baptize each believer into the body of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who is representing Jesus on the earth and as believers saturate themselves with the Spirit they are actually saturating themselves with Jesus (baptizing) and become one with Jesus. This process of obedience is represented by the altar of incense. Our obedience causes us to be a sweet smelling savor before the presence of God, here represented by the holy of holies, and opens the veil for us to enter God’s very real presence.
This is exactly what Jesus said in John 14:21: “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is the loves me, and he that loves me, will be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to Him.” Notice the progression. We must first have the foundation of the new covenant. This is the door from the outer courts to the holy place. We cannot enter the holy place until we are clothed with Jesus’ righteousness. We cannot receive Jesus’ righteousness until we acknowledge we owe God a debt of righteousness we cannot pay and sell our selves to God in payment of this debt. We cannot realize our debt to God until we approach Him. Once we have Jesus’ commandments we can keep them and be made one with Jesus through the saturation of the Spirit. Our obedience causes us to be a sweet smelling savor and the Lord of Lords and King of Kings reveals Himself to us by opening the veil of separation between us and the manifestation of the almighty God.
There are two sets of courts in the new covenant. There are the outer courts where we receive the righteousness of God through faith and the inner courts where we perform the righteousness of the Lord by faith. Jesus said, “Strive to enter at the restricted, constricted, narrow, tight, confined, strict, rigid and exacting gate” (The meaning of “strait”). This is the gate that Adam walked through by disobedience and t is the same gate we walk back through by faith and obedience. Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” but in order for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle, everything on the back of the camel had to be taken off. It had to get down on its knees and crawl through a small opening 6-10 feet long. The walls of Jericho were ten feet thick. It was no easy task to get the camel through the eye of the needle, nor is it easy to get a man into the kingdom of heaven.
Once a man gets through the outer courts, he still has the inner courts to negotiate. If we stop short of the holy place, fellowshipping around the brazen altar, we are not entering at the strait gate and we will not realize salvation. In order to get the camel through the eye of the needle, the camel must pass through the complete wall and come out the other side. If the camel balks in the dark confines of the middle of the wall, and refuses to move any further, then you have a major problem. And this is the same problem we see in the Church today. It is not so hard for people to realize they aren’t living up to God’s standard of righteousness and the realization that they never will is not far behind. By this time the debt they owe to God is overwhelming and the only right thing to do, which is to sell your life to God in payment of this debt, looms heavy. It is an easy task then to get them to receive Jesus’ righteousness as a free gift; though the understanding that they are now clothed with God’s standard of righteousness and no longer have any need to attempt to keep it is most often not understood.
However, having received the righteousness of God as a free gift, to suggest they now must keep Jesus’ standard of righteousness by keeping His commandments, causes most men to balk and proceed no further. While the camel will eventually realize its predicament and proceed into the city; mankind, being clothed with the righteousness of God, will see no need to proceed to the inner courts. Jesus said, “Only those who keep my commandments truly love me,” and in order to enter the kingdom of heaven one must keep Jesus’ commandment, thus only those who truly love Jesus go to heaven. All others are kept out by the inner courts of the tabernacle.
Now, let’s review. The tabernacle is a life sized model of the written document that is the new covenant. The new covenant is not only the outer courts; it is also the inner courts. To enter into the presence of God, one must pass through the outer courts and the inner courts. The manifestation of Jesus only occurs after the keeping of His commandments (Jn.14:21). Jesus said it is easier to cause a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to get a rich man into heaven but the truth of the matter is; a camel’s body is too wide to enter the eye of the needle, making it impossible to pass a camel through it. The disciples understood it wasn’t just rich men that would be hindered from entering the kingdom of heaven and exclaimed, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus answered, “It is impossible with men, but with God, all things are possible.” The key to getting men to move on past the outer courts is found in having God’s help. Salvation is impossible with men because mankind cannot allow God to be God. Consider Adam. He had it made in the Garden of Eden. He only had to avoid eating from one tree of the garden but he couldn’t do it. Now, right on the other hand, Abraham kept the commandment God gave to him, proving some will be saved, most will not.
Jesus, in Acts 1:8, said, “You shall receive power to witness of me after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” It is this power to witness of Jesus that is the help of God Jesus spoke of in Matthew 19:26, but it is missing in the Church today because the tabernacle is not being respected. Though the Pentecostal, Church of God, Holiness, and Full Gospel/Charismatic Churches of today have convinced many people to receive a baptism with the Spirit, all deny the commandment of Jesus. So, instead of passing through the tabernacle in a strict, rigid, and exact way, some souls are taking liberties with the tabernacle and are transgressing the divinity of Christ thereby. Jesus said, “Strive to enter at the strait gate.” The word, “strive,” means, “to make great effort.” The word, “strait,” means, “restricted or constricted; narrow; tight; confined, strict, rigid, and exacting.” So Jesus is admonishing us to make great effort to enter salvation the correct way; a way that has narrow and exact parameters. The reason the Church, full gospel and mainline denominational, has no power to witness of the resurrected Lord is because it is not striving to enter salvation at the strait gate. The Church is making up its own path to salvation and ignoring the way of the Lord. It will not work.
In Luke 13:23, a certain man asked Jesus, “Are there few that be saved?” and Jesus replied, “Strive to enter at the strait gate: For many I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Notice that many will try to be saved and today there are thousands who enter the outer courts of the new covenant. They do not enter the inner courts for several reasons, lack of proper teaching, lack of faith, lack of willingness, to name a few. There is no power to witness of the resurrection of Jesus and therefore no help from God to convince these precious ones of their error. In Matthew 7:14, again Jesus said, “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, few there be that find it.”
In Matthew 7:21-23 and Luke 13:24-30 Jesus says many will come to me in the day of judgment protesting that they knew me, but I will say, “Depart from me you who work iniquity,” because to deny the Lord after receiving the Saviour is iniquity. To disobey the commandments of the Lord while wearing His cloak of righteousness is sin. To know the Saviour is not the same as knowing the Lord and it is the Lord who rules the heavens. It is the Lord who is returning to judge all things.
It should be easy to get people into the kingdom of heaven. Almost everyone knows they don’t live up to God’s standard of righteousness and most people want to go to heaven. It is just how to get there that is at question. Most people do not want to enter at the strait gate. They believe they can come up with a way of entering that will be acceptable to God on their own. Thus you have the Presbyterians, the Methodist, the Baptist and you have the Lutherans, Church of God, Pentecostal, Holiness, and Church of Christ. You have the Catholics, Episcopalians, Eastern Orthodox, Foursquare, and Assemblies of God. Moreover, there are untold independent Churches, each with their own belief as to how to enter the kingdom of heaven. Each will come to Jesus and say, But we fellowshipped with you, worshipped you, cast out devils in your name, ate at your table, fed the poor in your name and to each He will say, “Depart from me you who work iniquity, I never knew you.”
It is amazing to me that one man actually had the foresight to ask Jesus if few would be saved, and even more amazing that Jesus didn’t answer this man with a parable or story or hyperbole. Jesus answered forthrightly, “Yes; many will try, but few will succeed.” So when Jesus hung upon the cross, dying for men’s sins, after enduring untold torture and suffering, He actually knew that the vast majority who sought salvation would be unsuccessful in gaining it. He then said, “Strive to enter at the strait gate,” Luke 13:23. The new covenant is the only instrument of salvation today and it is very specific in the salvation it offers. There is no broad tent of salvation. We either strive to understand what is required of us and perform that requirement as closely to the prescribed way as possible or miss this wonderful salvation Jesus authored. Jesus said most will miss out. I don’t intend to be one of them.
Now, it is abundantly clear that those who attempt any form of salvation focused on Jesus certainly experience mercy and at times much of it, but mercy is not salvation. Although salvation has a very narrow parameter; God’s love is as broad as the heavens. Each man, woman, and child wakes up each morning with God’s grace because God wants each man, woman, and child to be saved. Sadly, few will. Still, “it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance,” Romans 2:4. God’s goodness, kindness, and patience are why we are still here 2,000 years later while it is man’s obstinate rebellion against God that has changed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ till there is no resemblance between what is preached today and what the bible teaches. I can make this argument till the end of time and still only convince a very few because most will say, “Well, I just don’t believe that way,” and, “I don’t care, I still believe…” as if they can change salvation by what they believe. The truth is Jesus had one narrow opportunity to provide salvation for all mankind and what you believe only matters if you are entering at the straight gate. If you make it up as you go, choosing some verses to believe and ignoring others, you are on your own. Good luck with that; you’re going to need it.
If you want to be saved and live with God for eternity, salvation is found in the strict, rigid, and exacting, restrictive, constricted, narrow, tight and confined way. It is easy to enter the outer courts but to fail to honor the Lord after receiving the Saviour, to fail to keep the commandments of the Lord after being saved from your sins, is to incur the vengeance of the Lord, Hebrews 10:30-31. He that despised Moses law died under two or three witnesses without mercy; of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of who despises the law of the Lord? It is about honoring the one who saved you from your sins.
Most Christians do not realize the new covenant has two parts. Jesus died under old covenant law as a man but was raised from the dead as Lord four days later, and established the new covenant. The outer courts pertain to the death of the man, Christ Jesus, the one who laid aside His power and authority and humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But four days later, God highly exalted Him, giving Him a name that is above every other name: that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil.2:6-11). The inner courts pertain to the Lord, Christ Jesus. There is three days time between the inner and outer courts; three days time between the death of the Saviour and the resurrection of the Lord. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who infuses power into the new covenant and gives it the authority to save. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who sprinkled the blood of the Saviour inside the new covenant tabernacle (Heb.9:11-12). Thus, it is the inner courts that provide power to the new covenant and the death of the Saviour becomes the death of the Lord. If we receive the righteousness Jesus earned by perfectly keeping His Father’s commandments as a man through faith in His death but then deny the Lord His commandments, commandments He issued with all power and authority as Lord, we deny the power and authority to save and sin against the Saviour. The Saviour laid aside all power and authority: The Saviour cannot save you; only the Lord has the power to save. The outer courts provide redemption from sin but not eternal salvation. Therefore the new covenant has two parts and two standards of righteousness. Jesus imparts the righteousness gained through His life to all who accept His death as payment for sin, but He established a new standard of righteousness by issuing commandments after the resurrection. We gain one by faith, the other we perform by faith. Even though the Saviour would judge all righteous who believe in the Saviour, if we do not keep the Lord’s commandments, we will not be judged as righteous by the Lord. We will be judged as workers of iniquity, Matthew 7:21-24, regardless of what good we do in His name. We are talking about the strait gate. We are talking about a narrow path to salvation. There is no broad way of salvation. There is the edge of a knife; the eye of the needle. “Stray but a little and you will fail.”
In order to move from the gate of the tabernacle to the presence of God, we must negotiate both the outer courts and the inner courts. It is easy to negotiate the outer courts; Jesus was a man when He died on the cross, having no power or authority. It is much harder to negotiate the inner courts; Jesus was raised from the dead as the blessed only Potentate, 1Timothy 6:15, He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings; He wields more power than any single entity in the history of mankind. The outer courts bathe us with the love of God but the inner courts bathe us with the power and authority of a son of God. If we stop at the outer courts, we have not attained salvation and, what is more, we disrespect the Lord who established the outer courts by the blood and death of the Saviour. Furthermore, we disrespect the Holy Spirit who seals us in the outer courts against the salvation available through the inner courts, Hebrews 10:29. Moreover, those who receive the baptism with the Spirit but do not keep Jesus’ commandments have disrespected the holy place. Jesus said, “Strive to enter at the strait gate.” There is a correct way and an incorrect way to enter and progress through the new covenant tabernacle, as illustrated by the old covenant priests. Jesus said as Saviour, “He that has my commandments,” the ones He issued as Lord, “and keeps them, he it is that loves me and he that loves me will be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” In the inner courts, we must both have Jesus’ commandments as the foundation of the new covenant and practice them in life in order to see the manifestation of the ruler of the heavens. It is the Lord who sprinkled the Saviour’s blood inside the tabernacle.
Jesus is returning for a Church without spot or wrinkle, Ephesians 5:27, which means, Jesus is returning for a Church that is perfectly negotiating the tabernacle; both the outer and inner courts. He is returning for a Church that is entering at the restricted, constricted, narrow, tight, confined, strict, rigid, and exacting gate. Will you be a member of that Church? Why did Paul tell Timothy to, “Keep this commandment, without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ,” 1Timothy 6:14? While most all ministers of the gospel will tell you it was the commandment of the Saviour, to love one another, that Paul was admonishing Timothy to keep, there was nothing exacting about that commandment. However, there is a commandment that Christians are charged with keeping that is exacting; the commandment issued by the Lord.
The truth of the matter is; the strait gate that leads to life is not the outer gate to the tabernacle; it is the altar of incense inside the holy place. It is the approach to this gate that is narrow, restricted, tight, confined, rigid, and exacting. It is how we approach the altar of incense inside the holy place that determines whether we enter through the veil to the presence of God. Old covenant priests were stoned to death if they did not respect the narrow, restricted, tight, confined, rigid, and exacting, way of the old covenant tabernacle and it was sealed by the blood of innocent animals. Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of who transgresses the way of the new covenant tabernacle, sealed with the blood of God (Heb. 10:29)? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man approaches the Father except through me” John 14:6. The way to the Father is through Jesus, both the Saviour and the Lord.