On the job training (part 8)

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”  – MATTHEW 7: 13, 14

Many today think that reciting the “Sinner’s Prayer,” being baptized and joining the church is all they have to do to inherit eternal life! 

Praying a prayer doesn’t save us, being baptized doesn’t save us, and neither does joining the church.

The rich young ruler asked Jesus how he could have eternal life and Jesus didn’t lead him in a prayer. Instead, He told him to lose his life and follow Him. 

Don’t get me wrong – when someone is under conviction by the Holy Spirit that he is lost, praying a prayer in an honest and good heart will save your soul. When asked 41 years ago if I thought God would save me, all I said was, “Yes!”

The key to eternal life is believing, acknowledging, receiving, repenting and submitting to the Lordship of Christ.

This is the narrow way, by walking through the gate to life eternal and giving one’s life to the Lord Jesus and by submitting to His perfect will for our lives. No one ever led anyone in a prayer to be saved in the New Testament, they were convicted by the Holy Spirit and repented of their sins and then were baptized in Jesus name.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” – MATTHEW 7:21-23