Friday September 15, 2023

Luke 13:23-24
“Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter
through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you,
will seek to enter and will not be able.”

Are they few that are saved?

This is, in truth, a pertinent question. Many in our day would answer at once: All. All are saved.

If any one dares to mention eternal perdition, they ask: Do you really believe that there is such a thing as eternal perdition? No educated person believes that any more. Would a good and merciful God do anything so brutal and senseless as to torture His opponents in all eternity?

I admit openly that no thought is as painful to me as the thought of eternal perdition. I am not able to think of it very long at a time.

But the time is past in my life when I permit my thoughts and my feelings to decide what is the truth. Jesus is my authority. I believe in Jesus Christ. Also when He speaks of eternal perdition.

But people say that it is not compatible with God’s mercy.

Pause a little, my bold friend, before you upbraid Jesus for not being merciful. When you have walked the way He trod in merciful love unto death itself, then you can begin to speak of mercy.

None of us reaches the place of eternal suffering because God has ceased to be merciful. We do so because we have taken an attitude toward the mercy of God in which not even a merciful God can save us from eternal woe.

My friend, are you saved? Or are you also drifting along toward eternal perdition?

O. Hallesby, God’s Word for Today: A Daily Devotional for the Whole Year, translator Clarence J. Carlsen (Augsburg, 1994)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.