Ken Chumbley
A number of years ago, a preacher that I knew was back in the States from Australia where he had lived for some time. Late one night he got onto the interstate leaving Abilene, Texas. He had gone about 50 miles when he realized he was on the wrong side of the road traveling in the wrong direction! In all that time, he had not met another vehicle. Yes, it is possible in the physical realm to be on the right road but going in the wrong direction! Under such conditions, clearly, no progress has been made. In the spiritual realm, it is also possible for one to have gotten on the right road—the way that leads to life—but have turned back from following that way and, thus, he does not make progress in his spiritual journey but instead he is, by the u-turn he made, now going in the wrong direction, thus going away from that life that he had once sought.
C.S. Lewis wrote: “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” Jesus said: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). If you have looked back, turned back, there is only one way to make progress toward the heavenly home. You need to do an “about face” and return to going in the right direction, without looking back. Our Lord also, said: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14). The right way—the right road—is a narrow road; the wrong way—the wrong road—is the broad way that leads to destruction. Sir Winston Churchill, in one of his speeches to Parliament, made the following statement that changes the metaphor but has a great point:
I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these break beneath your feet.
Churchill made the statement on March 24, 1938, relative to the appeasement of Hitler and Nazi Germany prior to World War Two. This statement illustrates the way it is with the “broad way” of which Jesus teaches. It starts out fine and beautiful “the pleasures of sin,” but as one travels in that way its finery decreases until it is a way that is rough on the feet because those “pleasures” are indeed but “for a season” (Heb. 11:25). If you are traveling the “broad way,” we would plead with you to make those changes that are necessary that you might be able to enter the “narrow way that leads to life” by your obedience to the Gospel through faith, repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Remember, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12; 16:25). We plead with you, don’t come to end of life’s journey only to find that you have taken the wrong road and your soul is lost.
