We don't know who it was but somebody once asked Jesus the really hard question: "Lord, are there few who are saved?" He gave an honest answer: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able." He will at last be forced to inform the "many," "I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. ... There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In the last judgment they will argue with Him vociferously, "We ate and drank in your presence, and You taught in our streets" (Luke 13:23, 24, 27, 28). Sorry, He says; "I do not know you." "Few are chosen," "the laborers are few," etc. (Matt. 9:37; 22:14).
But wait a moment; get the full picture. The "144,000" of Revelation 7:1-4 seems like a tiny number from earth's billions, yet when John views them through a zoom lens they turn out to be "a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, ... clothed with white robes" (vs. 9). "In their mouth was found no guile [falsehood]" (14:5). The Good News Bible (Today's English Version) says "they have never been known to tell lies," but their being "without fault" in the judgment does not mean they never have sinned; they are a pretty sorry lot down at the end of the sinful human race where "the love [agape] of many [has grown] cold" (Matt. 24:12), but they have been "justified by faith." That means, like Abraham, sinful as he was, when he "believed" his faith was "counted to him for righteousness" (Rom. 4:3) and he stood before the throne as though he had never sinned! The sins of those who believe are cast into the ocean deeper than the Titanic and can never be retrieved (see last night's "Dial Daily Bread").
Don't worry whether you are one of the "few" or "many." Thank the Father that His Son whom He "gave" died your second death, and rejoice every moment of your life from now on. You will then obey from the heart!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 21, 2006.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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