Some will mortify themselves in many things, and so almost every thing in religion but one; unfortunately, that one is the test of their obedience, and the very thing required of them. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The Scriptures are quite clear as to the nature of true repentance, though it is the case that many prefer to limit the whole of Scripture to one definition. It is easy to repent if all that means is to change your mind about an intellectual belief of the moment, or perhaps some external behavior. It is easy to repent (in the big picture) if one just needs to quit the obvious sins and start attending church and going through a few motions. It is relatively easy to repent for one to become quite stringent in their religious activity. But this is not the repentance that the Bible requires. Look seriously at the two verses from Matthew 7 just below.
Matthew 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
In this passage Jesus is telling people that there are only two ways for people who are “seeking” to enter heaven. Just to be clear, there is only one real way, but Jesus sets out the two ways that people try to enter on. Why must we enter through the narrow gate? It is because there is the wide gate and a broad way and that leads to destruction. Many enter through that and go to destruction. The one real way to life is the small gate and the narrow path. Only a few find it. These verses should chill our souls. It is not just that out of the whole population of the entire world that just a few will be saved, but that just a few who are actually looking for salvation will be saved. In other words, we have a large percentage of people who are not on the broad road or the narrow road.
In the context of Matthew 7 (just a few verses after) we also have the following passage:
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
We should see this passage as some of those on the broad road. The broad road includes those who have a correct theology and even some who appear to have miraculous gifts. But their problem is that they never truly repented of some sin or sins because they are told to depart from Him because they practiced lawlessness. This should strike at the heart of those who continue in sin regardless of how small they think it is. It should also strike at the heart of those who are not concerned to cry out to God to show them the sin of their hearts. The words of the passages from Matthew 7 would awaken us if we were not so dead and hard in sin and not led astray by so much false theology. For some reason, even after reading verses like this, people can say “amen” and go on leading comfortable lives while they are on the broad road. People are so blind as to which road they are on because they judge themselves and the road they are on by things other than the whole of Scripture.
People ask themselves if they believe some facts rather than dealing with their own heart to see just how much they have repented from and are willing to repent of. It is not just that people must repent of sin, but that they must repent of their self-righteousness and of their pride and self-centeredness. People may have to repent of their religion, of loving their families too much, and of all sorts of good things that they do to impress others. But they will not repent of the one thing required of them and that is whatever it is that the love the most. They will not repent of all things but all things but one or a few. But that is no repentance at all. Those on the broad road can be very, very religious and have repented of everything but one or two things. But it is still the broad road.
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