Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”
The question haunts Christians: "Is it easy or is it hard to be saved? Are we correctly representing the Lord Jesus if we tell people that following Jesus is the difficult way to choose?"
Many people, especially youth, have somehow gained the impression that to be a genuine, true Christian is the hardest thing anyone can do, and for sure Jesus tells us we must "strive to enter through the narrow gate" (Luke 13:24), and we must "compete" as "in athletics" (2 Tim. 2:5), and according to The New King James Versionin Matthew 7:14 Jesus said His way is "difficult " (the King James Versionsays "narrow," and that is the correct meaning of the Greek word there; it is not "difficult").
On the other hand, Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 that His "yoke is easy," and His "burden is light."
Who are we to believe--those who represent Jesus as telling us His way is "difficult," or those who tell us He says His yoke is easy and His burden light? The two positions are as far apart as the east is from the west.
There is a mountain in the West that had a steep road going up. Model T's had trouble climbing it; they found it "difficult." No one could honestly deny that the road up Pike's Peak was "difficult."
But if someone installed a V-8 engine in the Ford, it could zip up the mountain road with "ease." Is the missing factor our lack of understanding what Paul calls "the truth of the gospel" (Gal. 2:5, 14)?
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 9, 2005.
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