The Extreme Gospel

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." (Lk 13:25)

"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." (Jn 10:9)

One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that it is at the same time both open to everyone and limited to those who follow Christ. I think both strands of this thinking need to be stressed in equal measure to be biblically faithful and honoring to God and exalting of Christ. The verses above represent a glimpse at the exclusivity side of things, while verses like John 3:16 and Mt 11:28-30 show us the expansive openness of Jesus and the gospel.

It is easy for us to lean toward one of the ends of this spectrum or the other. For those of us who don't want anyone to miss the good news of grace and want to make sure we are not the offending agent, we will tend to move toward the expansiveness and the openness of Christ. And there is a lot of truth here. We must never portray Christianity or the gospel as something constrained or limited.

And yet there is a limitation. Those of us who want to make sure that faith and dependence on Jesus is stressed will head toward the other end of the spectrum We rightly highlight the cross and the fact that Jesus himself declares that He is the only way to the Father. And there is a lot of truth here. We must never portray Christianity (or Jesus) as one religion (or religious leader) among many. Christianity and Jesus himself are unique and by definition exclusionary.

So, where do we go? At the risk of being paradoxical myself, I think we need to go both to the middle and to the extremes. We need to go to the middle because each of us is somewhere on this pendulum of expansiveness and exclusivity. If we are not precisely at the apex, we could very easily over emphasize one element of the gospel to the detriment of the other. But we need to go to the extremes because the gospel itself is extreme. The gospel is offered to all. Jesus prayed for Jerusalem's salvation a week before his death in that very city. Paul prayed and labored for his brother Jews even though they were out to kill him. We must push the expansiveness boundary as much as Jesus and Paul did. All the while, the Jesus and the gospel must remain exclusive. There is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved. Any one who does not enter by the gate is a thief and a robber. Behold, I hold the keys of death and Hades.


Father, give us balance in our view and articulation of Christianity and the gospel. And grant us the passion and power to push the envelope in declaring both the expansiveness of the gospel and the exclusivity of Christ. For your glory and exaltation of Jesus Amen.

To God Alone be the Glory