Chapter 14: The Gift of Jesus

Page 2

Few Will Find Eternal Life!

“The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of only a few. But I tell you a parable, Ezra. Just as, when you ask the earth, it will tell you that it provides a large amount of clay from which

earthenware is made, but only a little dust from which gold comes, so is the course of the present world. Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved.” 2 Esdras 8:1-3 NRSV

Jesus said: “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:14 NRSV

Its been over twenty-five years since I first encountered the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:14. “Few will find eternal life” is the message of Christ. Not only that, but the road that leads to that eternal life is hard. Yet today a

lot of Christians think they’ve got an easy pass on life; an easy pass on their continued willful sins. The words of Jesus mirror the words taught to Ezra. These words disturb me today even as they did back then; they mean many lost souls in plain and simple language. It grieves my spirit.

It is easy for me to imagine now that you have just skipped the entire first thirteen chapters of the book and are turning to this chapter. After all, isn’t this the crux of the matter for Christianity? Exactly what is the gift of

Jesus? Does that gift of Jesus give us a pass on our sins? Total forgiveness of what evil has been done and what evil we may choose to do in the future?

If you have flipped the book to this chapter as a starting point, go back

and read the first thirteen chapters. You will not get from God all of what you need to understand from this chapter alone. It is the conclusion of the second volume and while there will be good stuff in this chapter; it does not stand alone in this writing. It stands as the fourteenth chapter in a sequence that God has given me. Taken alone, it is taken out of context. Isn’t taking