Luke 13:24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. I. EXPLAIN THE EXHORTATION. By the strait gate, we are to understand the entrance into that way which leads to life; and to enter in as the strait gate denotes the commencement of holiness in the heart of man. The same thing is denoted by conversion — by making a new heart — by giving God the heart — by reconciliation to God — by repentance for sin — by faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The gate is said to be strait or difficult, on account of the difficulties of entering it. The expression is designed to show us that m commence a religious course is difficult. The difficulty arises, not from the nature of religion, but from the depravity of the heart. Hence the text requires us to "strive to enter in at the strait gate." The sinner must summon all the powers of his soul to the performance of his duty, and to put himself upon the utmost exertion, of which as a moral being he is capable, in the work of turning to God. 1. The understanding must be duly employed. 2. Conscience must perform its appropriate part in connection with all the moral sensibilities of the soul. 3. The will or the heart — that faculty of the soul by which man chooses and refuses, loves and hates — is also to be properly exerted. II. ENFORCE THE INJUNCTION. 1. It is a command of God. 2. The command is perfectly reasonable. The requisition is, that man should do that, neither more nor less, which, as a moral being, he is qualified to do; that he should put those moral faculties which God has given him upon their appropriate exertions; in a word, that he summon all the faculties of his soul to the single point of doing as well as he can do. 3. It is only by compliance with the precept in the text, that man will perform his duty, and secure his salvation. All who shall seek the favour of God and eternal life without striving, i.e., seek these blessings without that full, and vigorous, and appropriate exertion of all the moral faculties of the soul, must fail of final salvation. This is plain from the nature of the case. If duty is not seen, if obligation is not felt, if the will or heart does not comply, no obedience is, or can be rendered. 4. I would further enforce the injunction, from the case of those who make no efforts to perform the duty, and the manner in which the Divine Spirit converts the sinner. It is a momentous fact — a fact which, in one respect, even after all the displays of mercy in the work of redemption, saves this guilty world from the midnight of despair — that the Spirit of God renews the heart of man through the truth. "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth." The very object, and the only object, for which the Spirit strives with sinners, is to give truth its proper effect on the mind, the conscience, and the heart; and the thing, and the only thing, which He does, in regeneration, is actually to secure this effect. But how? Does the Spirit of God give effect to truth, when that truth is unthought of; and when the sinner effectually shuts it away, alike from his understanding, and his conscience, and his heart? Has such a thing ever been known or heard of, in all the earth, that God has converted a stupid sinner, continuing stupid? Is there one such on earth — one such among the redeemed in glory? Not one.Remarks: 1. This subject shows us that the sinner may become a Christian soon, and how he may do so. Religion, whether it be called repentance, faith, a new heart, or love to God, is action — mental, moral action. The sinner, to become the subject of either, must act it. What the Holy Spirit does, is not to impart a gift merely to a passive subject, a mere receiver, but to move a free moral agent to act — to act as a moral agent. 2. We see what a fearful condemnation awaits the impenitent sinner. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. |
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