Daily Devotional for Friday, March 13

Physical Births Versus Spiritual Births

“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able,” Luke 13:24.

More people pass unrestricted through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany annually than any other gate in the world. For many decades no one passed through it at all. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in front of it calling for Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall near the gate. The door in Luke 13 is neither impassable nor is it permissive.

Someone asked Jesus if few would be saved. Jesus said that the door to the kingdom of God was constrictive and that one must strive or agonize to enter through it. In fact, another Scripture (John 10:9) tells us that Jesus is the Door. The prerequisites for entering this door are repentance of sin and singular faith in the gospel for salvation. These prerequisites alone make it narrow. The Jews assumed that because they were descendants of Abraham, they would be allowed easy access. Jesus told them that their honored patriarchs would be there, but they would not. Even one born a Jew had to be born again into a spiritual family by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Have you been born again? Are you a citizen of Heaven by a spiritual birth? Will Jesus know you are from His kingdom or will the door be shut for you?

Jonathon D. Smith