by John H. Gerstner

Dante's Inferno tells of Virgil leading Dante to the entrance of Inferno. There is a sign that says, "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here." There is a sign over the entrance to the Kingdom of God also, and it reads: "Abandon all pride, all ye who enter here." All who would enter this narrow road must abandon all pride. They must recognize that they do not deserve to be permitted to enter this way. They must know that they have forfeited all right to escape the just damnation of their former evil ways. God is under no obligation whatever to rescue anyone from their hellbound ways. He has every right to permit them to go on to their destruction.

The narrow road is a road of free grace, of condescending mercy. No one ever deserves to find or enter this way. No one ever deserves to find this way or to enter onto it. Only God's grace can show it or open it. All must enter it in abject penitence, with nothing in their hands, and with only a plea for mercy on their lips and in their hearts. Christ said, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself." Let him pull himself up by the roots; let him turn away from himself and rely entirely on Christ.

This road is for sinners only. If a man has any righteousness of his own, even an iota of merit or goodness to which he can lay claim, the other road is for him. That is where the supposedly virtuous make their self-righteous way to perdition. The road of life is for sinners only, sinners whose hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

A woman said to me after listening to a sermon on this subject, "You make me feel so big," holding her thumb and index finger about a half inch apart. I replied, "That is too big!" John Bunyan wrote in his autobiography that he found this road so narrow that there was room only for body and soul, not for body and soul and sin.

Not only must all who enter here abandon all pride, but once they are on this road they must agonize all the way to the end of it. It is a narrow road, exacting and confining. It is a road of holiness, and no sin is permitted here. It is for sinners only, to be sure, for those who know that they have no righteousness of their own and who trust in Christ alone. But they must, on this road, prove that they really do trust in Christ. "If ye love Me," said the Lord of this road, "keep My commandments." Those commandments call for perfect holiness in every area of human behavior. Nor is there any time when a person can take a rest from holiness on this road. All the way he must be striving after Christ, who leads the way.

It is a road which calls for daily self-denial and for each person to bear their own cross. This is where the eye that offends is plucked out and the arm that offends is cut off. This is where men of violence overcome every barrier to their progress. This is where men hunger and thirst after more and more progress along this road. This is where men beat their bodies and keep them in subjection. This is where the pilgrim presses ever onward and never counts himself to have attained.

But you may ask, "If there is the necessity of agonizing and striving along the way, how can it be grace? Won't we be earning rather than receiving?"

No, not at all! Suppose I were preaching in an auditorium and offered all my hearers free watches on the condition that they come down the center aisle to get them. If they came down the side aisles, through the basement, or by a rear window, they would not get the watches. If they came down the center aisle, the watches would be theirs as a gift. They would not earn them by coming down the aisle! They would only show that they would accept them as a gift. So our persevering works only show our entire trust in the free gift of God.

In spite of the rigor of this way, so sharply in contrast to the ease on the broad road, this is a happy road. Christ is this road, and Christ is our companion on this road. Those who bear His burden find that the burden is light; and those who are under His yoke find it to be easy. Those who "lose" their lives discover that they really "find" them. Those who deny themselves find themselves. Those who suffer are very happy. This road, in spite of all its hardships and demands, is the road to glory.

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This is part thirty-two of John H. Gerstner's small book entitled Theology for Everyman, originally published in 1965 (Moody Press, Chicago). That book was subsequently republished in 1991. It has since fallen out of print and we thought it would be good to revisit this book here on the blog. Over the past weeks, we've been working our way through the book. Here is where we've been so far: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9 and Chapter 10.