By Robert E. Coleman
There are many religious leaders who claim devotion from their followers, but only One who accepted in His body the guilt of our sins, bore our judgment unto death, then rose victoriously from the grave.
The resurrection of Christ confronts the world with a bewildering problem. For when someone dies who has power over the grave, you must ask, why did He die? The Bible gives the only answer: "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). Facing this fact, everyone now must come to terms with the crucified and risen Son of God, for "there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ is Lord! By Him alone can we enter through the gate into the Kingdom of God.
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2. It's narrow too, because to go this way we must repent. Jesus came to call "sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32; Matt. 4:17). And "unless you repent," He said, all of us will "perish" (Luke 13:3).
Repentance means a change of direction. Seeing ourselves responsible for what happened at the cross, in godly sorrow for our sin, with brokenness and contrition, we choose to leave the road of destruction and start to follow Jesus. We confess our sin and resolve to turn away from everything displeasing to the Lord.
Evidencing this change of heart is willingness to make restitution where others have been wronged. I knew a man who after his conversion got a wheelbarrow and spent half a day taking back the tools he had stolen when he worked for the railroad.
The act of repentance issues in a state of penitence, a continuing responsiveness to the truth whenever the Spirit of God reveals further areas of our life out of line with the character of Christ. And as "we walk in the light" He sheds on our path, quick to "confess our sins," we never have to go to bed at night with a guilty conscience (I John 1:7-9).
3. To go this narrow way, moreover, we must believe in Christ. Everyone "who believes," Jesus says, "has eternal life" (John 3:15). But, He adds, "Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" (John 3:18). Jesus made it clear: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." Then He asks, "Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26).