Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
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" (Luke 13:23, 24, 27, 28). In the last judgment they will argue with Him vociferously, "We ate and drank in your presence, and You taught in our streets." Sorry, He says; "I do not know you" (Luke 13:26, 27). "The laborers are few," "few are chosen," 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." Their being "without fault" in the judgment does not mean they never havesinned; 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 "accounted 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.
Don't worry whether you are one of the "few" or "many." Thank the Father that His Son whom He "gave" died yoursecond death, and rejoice every moment of your life from now on. You will then obey from the heart!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 21, 2006.
Copyright © 2019 by "Dial Daily Bread."
