Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
Christ commands intense, wholehearted agonizing to enter the narrow gate to life, because merely wishing or seeking without that strenuous effort will leave many unable to enter. The gate is narrow because entry into His kingdom demands self-denial, bearing the cross, obedience to God's commandments, cleansing from sin, and a Christlike character with no room for love of the world or cherished sin. Outward association with Him, profession of faith, and hearing His teaching do not suffice, and those who refuse the conditions, cling to selfish pleasure and dishonest practice, or rest in good resolutions without heart-change will be shut out when probation closes. Each person must do his allotted part by responding to the Holy Spirit, cooperating with God, and taking Christ's yoke, while God supplies the power to will and to do and Christ Himself fights beside the striving soul so none who truly agonizes need perish. The work is urgent and lifelong, requiring daily persevering warfare against Satan and self with no safe time to stop, for character must be formed now because no cleansing or repentance is possible after death or when the heavenly door is shut.
Strive Versus Merely Seek
The word strive means to agonize, with intense, wholehearted and strenuous effort to force a passage through, like a traveler intent on reaching a city gate who will not turn aside for attractions along the way. Entering the spiritual kingdom calls for that supreme desire and effort because its glory is glory of character rather than earthly dominion or selfish rule, and following Christ involves real struggle and victories to be won. Striving is sanctification through the truth by heart-reception of the Word of God rather than mere assenting to theory, and truth thus received sanctifies the entire man unto perfection even as the Father in heaven is perfect. Whenever a person advances a step toward Jesus in this striving, Jesus is ready to respond, conquering the foe on humanity's behalf and helping through His divine and human nature to overcome the degradation of the fall. This requires recognizing the weakness of human wisdom, judgment and strength and depending wholly on God, praying fervently in Christ's name and making serious efforts to overcome Satan while resisting temptation and the desires of the natural heart.
Satan has placed active agents and whole armies of hell along the passage to dispute the way of every soul, so followers must not be intimidated but press on and urge their way through with the same tirelessness and perseverance Satan shows. Striving therefore includes giving up darling cherished idols and indulged sins even when it cuts as close as plucking out the right eye or cutting off the right arm, seizing the kingdom by force because there is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. There is no time left for excuses, blaming others, or flattering the soul about more favorable circumstances.
Merely wishing, wanting, or seeking to enter is not enough, for many will seek to enter and shall not be able because they seek without striving. Each person must accept the individual burden of that work, strive daily to pass through the narrow gate and way, and make a great, persevering effort to overcome, to know and obey the truth, to live by God's Word, to resist evil, and to press toward the heavenly prize. Listless indifference cannot win the crown of life, and many fail because they are not living their faith. Those who are at ease and do not agonize to enter are seeking without striving, and earnest effort includes discerning and confessing wrongs so that character stains may be removed. A lack of high resolve and moral power is alarming, and many will spend their Christian lives seeking without making the effort that leads to entry, though the narrow way leads to eternal life, fullness of joy, and lasting pleasures.
Striving must be lifelong, persevering, untiring and continuing, with no safe time to stop striving for the narrow gate or to devote oneself to worldly desires and sinful self-gratification. Without such striving people remain outside, and only those who pursue eternal life with persevering effort, untiring zeal, and intense desire proportionate to its worth gain life that measures with the life of God. The present time is a short time of preparation in which the work must be done quickly because time is short. The warning is urgent because probation may close at death or at Christ's return, when no further opportunity to repent, receive cleansing through the atoning blood, or form a fit character will be given, and at Christ's appearing people remain as they are found with purification impossible afterward. Following Christ along this way therefore requires perseverance through conflict, self-denial, overcoming self, and pressing on through hardship and discouragement, yet Christ guides His followers along this difficult path safely to immortal life and final victory.
No one can be saved in indolence, passivity, or idle waiting, but each person must actively strive with every faculty and muscle, straining every muscle and exercising every faculty in the great struggle for everlasting life and immortality. Man is allotted a part and must respond to the working of the Holy Spirit, struggling to break through the powers of darkness, while God supplies the power and efficiency both to will and to do His good pleasure and make the effort effective. This active cooperation is part of sanctification which is the will of God, and the narrow way that leads to life is found by few while many who only want to enter will not be able. Striving is thus a real struggle, warfare and conflict against the powers of darkness, Satan's active agents and armies, and the desires of the natural heart, requiring perseverance and endurance as soldiers of Christ. Those who do not agonize to enter, trembling lest they fail, rest in dangerous confidence and boasting and are in danger of being unable to enter and perishing with the unbelieving.
Gaining eternal life will ever involve continually fighting the good fight of faith, for those enlisted in Christ's army are expected to do difficult work that taxes their energies to the utmost, living a soldier's life of aggressive warfare, perseverance and endurance, and enduring trials for Christ's sake. Victories are not gained by ceremonies or display, but by simple obedience to the highest General, the Lord God of heaven, and he who trusts in this Leader will never know defeat. Obedience to God is liberty from the thraldom of sin and deliverance from human passion and impulse, by which a man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers, and of the rulers of the darkness of this world, and of spiritual wickedness in high places. The Holy Spirit supplies the power for this effort, and Christ enables His followers to overcome and obey God as they learn from Christ and accept His yoke in order to attain a Christlike character.
Narrow and Broad Ways
The strait gate and narrow way lead to life and are found by few, while the wide gate and broad way lead to destruction and many go that way. The way to life is narrow and difficult, not a road of inviting convenience but an apparently inconvenient path of conflict, trial, tribulation and suffering. The safe way is the Lord's way, and Jesus as Captain hides nothing about the battles to be fought but opens the map and shows the way. Those who follow the narrow way walk in Christ's footsteps in a life unlike the world's, distinct in character and conduct from travelers on the broad way that leads to eternal death. Jesus Himself opened and traveled the narrow way, and His followers can reach its end safely by following Him. Merely drifting with the world carries multitudes down the broad way, while entrance to life requires striving because many will seek to enter and shall not be able.
The gate signifies entry into Christ's spiritual kingdom. Its glory is glory of character rather than earthly dominion, power, or selfish rule, and its worth calls for supreme desire and effort. Entering calls for intense, wholehearted, strenuous effort, like a traveler intent on reaching a city gate who will not turn aside for attractions along the way and refuses distractions. Following Christ in this way involves a real struggle and victories to be won, though victory is not a contest for worldly supremacy.
The way is narrow because truth and obedience to God restrict sin. It leaves no room for attachment to the world, selfishness, or any cherished sin, and people must consent to part with these to enter. Many will not be saved, not because salvation is unavailable to them, but because they refuse this appointed way and will not give these things up. A Christian profession alone does not make a person a Christian at heart. Those seeking to keep God's commandments must heed this warning and choose the way that leads to life, especially when in the last days people absorbed in amusement and excitement may resist that truth, as most did in Noah's day.
Entering requires self-denial, bearing the cross, discipline and constant watchfulness, renouncing one's own will and chosen objects of affection and pursuit. Seeking to enter is not enough when a person avoids the effort of the Christian life and lets pleasure and self-will rule; a decided change and firm principles are needed. It requires striving with whole heart and undivided purpose, denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ. That decision is made where the cross stands and two roads diverge, and it cuts directly across human inclination, selfish worldly considerations, and natural bias of character. All the universe of heaven looks on to see which path the convicted person seeking eternal life will take, whether to take the cross road to heaven and stand with the purified, made white, and tried who are wise and understand, or to keep the burden of sin and corruption on the broad road that leads to destruction and perdition while seeking to enter but not being able. Many will try to get in while holding on to their worldly possessions and will not be able, for those who draw back from the cross to preserve worldly interests and follow selfish desires or the broad road of sin will not reach heaven, while those who choose the narrow way of obedience obtain eternal life that is measureless, imperishable riches, a life that measures with the life of God. This change cannot be accomplished in one's own strength, but God can help and strengthen the person who strives.
Entering requires constant watchfulness and prayer, obedience to the truth and to God's commandments, cleansing from moral impurity, and holiness before God. Striving means doing God's will amid voices that would divert people from the truth, recognizing and following Christ's voice as the Good Shepherd. Sin must be confessed and forsaken, and Christ's promises of pardon and righteousness accepted. The destroyer and the enemy oppose this effort, so they must be resisted and overcome in Christ's strength, not one's own, lest they prevail, with the crown of immortality in view. People must press through the crowd taking the broad road and remain firm in obeying God, drawing near to Jesus and reflecting His character so as to live the truth and lead others to the Saviour. Striving is earnest and active rather than idle waiting for God to act apart from the means He has provided, including studying Scripture, obeying its definite commands, and battling the world, the flesh, and the devil and overcoming the evils it condemns. Sin is hateful to God and opposed to His holiness, so secret faults must be overcome and life and character reformed, for those who are to be saints in heaven must first become saints on earth.
The strait gate does not admit doubtful characters, worldly treasures, deception, or anything defiled. No one carries the world into heaven, and a life of deception does not glorify God or prepare a person to meet eternity. The gate to Paradise is opened not by wealth, lands, position, dignity, or intellectual achievement, but by a Christlike character, and the gift of immortality is received by the meek and lowly who make God their sufficiency, with effort matching the value of eternal life. All who enter the city of God enter through the strait gate through agonizing effort, and nothing defiled can enter there. Yet those who have fallen into sin need not despair; if they repent, forsake sin, and turn to God, He offers mercy, abundant pardon, healing, and freely given love.
The broad road is made attractive and easy by Satan and those serving him so that multitudes are drawn away from the path of holiness and truth to life. Riches, power, talent, pride, and pleasing speech can all be used for this purpose. God's way is the strait gate and narrow way, plainly defined in His pure Word as the guide for Christian service and action, requiring cooperation with God in His work of restoration in order to be saved. The broad way is a false substitute offered as an improvement on the strait gate, belonging to the religion of self that makes conversions easy by perverting Scripture, dethroning God, deifying self, denying the operation of the Holy Spirit on hearts, losing sight of God, cheapening experience, exalting human opinions, using religion for selfish purposes, and treating God's solemn claims lightly. It leads to fruitless efforts, false theories, false piety, and a life drifting without anchorage that cannot prosper.
Setting and Solemn Warning
The command was given in answer to the question whether few are saved, turning hearers away from speculation to the duty to strive to enter in at the strait gate because many will seek to enter in and shall not be able. The failure is that of seeking Christ after He has gone and not finding Him, dying in sins and being unable to come where He is. The gate is strait and the way narrow and few enter in, while the gate is wide and the way broad that leads to destruction and many go in there. The broad way takes no seeking or striving, only drifting with the current of the world, its maxims, its standard and its spirit, with the line between saint and sinner obliterated. Eternal things must not be made minor while self and the world are put between the soul and God, and there is call for reformation in institutions and churches and for eyes opened by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for without thorough arousing, crying to God and change of course, professed believers will be lost as surely as Judas, selling the Lord for a bribe, having a name to live while dead, leading others in the road to death and hell, and meeting a judgment that decides their case forever.
The warning was spoken to Jewish teachers, scribes and Pharisees who refused light, rejected the working of the Holy Spirit, and made the commandments of God of none effect. They failed to comprehend the true import of the Sabbath as a memorial of creation and rest for man and turned it into vigorous bondage, and they erected false standards that made the outward and ceremonial eclipse the spiritual requirements of God. Striving to enter the strait gate means yielding to that light while the door of mercy stands open, because many will seek to enter and shall not be able once the Master has shut the door.
Outward association with Christ does not suffice, for eating and drinking in His presence, hearing Him teach in the streets, hearing His teaching and claiming familiarity with Him will not save those who remain workers of iniquity. Entering requires striving and not merely seeking or professing to believe the truth. When the Master shuts the door, those who persisted in iniquity will stand outside knocking in vain, will be disowned and thrust out with weeping and gnashing of teeth, and will be excluded from the kingdom. No dishonest practice in any temporal or spiritual transaction, no crookedness, no mingling of the sacred with the common, and no unpurified wrong habits and practices can be carried through the strait gate and along the narrow road that leads to life, and those who after test and trial give no evidence of purification, who are not straightforward, who treat the rich mercies of God as common and do not appreciate the pearl of great price, show they have chosen the broad road where the world travels that leads to destruction.
Then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets will sit down in the kingdom of God, together with those coming from the east, west, north and south. Those regarded as first, as the only pious people on earth with great light and every facility, will become last, and the last will become first.
The warning is as true now as when spoken, for the majority of those who claim to be Christians are not truly spiritual-minded, since the gate is wide and the way broad that leads to destruction and many go that way, while the gate is strait and the way narrow that leads to life and few find it. Few will be saved, and many who are called will prove unworthy of everlasting life and lose their place in heaven, for rejecting mercy and choosing pride and vanity lead to ruin, while the choices made now determine eternal destiny. Christ's followers are a little flock, and few follow the principles of the Bible, for profession of faith cannot make up for lives that misrepresent Christ, seek personal advantage at others' expense, and fail to live by the principles of the Bible. The small number who accept present truth and keep God's commandments is no reason for discouragement and does not show they are wrong, so a person must not follow the majority or turn from truth but must take courage, lift the cross, obey the truth even at the cost of life, and stay with truth rather than following the majority. Those who know their duty but refuse to bear the cross will finally be destroyed, and those who remain faithful are promised that they will walk with Christ in white because they are worthy.
Why Many Fail
Many fail to enter because they trust in uncertainties instead of living faith, failing to read and understand God's Word and to live what they know. They do not make serving God their business and lack the love from above that would carry them through the narrow path to eternal life. Earnest effort is required, and seeking without such living faith leaves them unable to enter.
Many are drawn by the beauty of Christ and the glory of heaven, yet they shrink from the conditions of entrance. They desire the good and make some effort in their own strength against evil practices, looking toward the narrow way while remaining in the broad way unsatisfied and longing to break from slavery to sin. They hesitate and falter and turn back at the sacrifice of renouncing their own will and their chosen objects of affection and pursuit, because they do not choose the good with settled purpose to secure it at the cost of all things.
Selfish pleasure, love of the world, pride, unsanctified ambition, sinful indulgence, and worldly attachments place a barrier between them and the Saviour. Many try to get in while holding on to worldly possessions and treasures, which requires self-denial and cross-bearing to abandon, and so they are not able. The rich young ruler illustrates this failure, for he would not give up his wealth through sacrifice, perfect submission, and obedience to follow Jesus, choosing earthly treasure over eternal life.
No dishonest practice in temporal or spiritual transaction, no crookedness, no mingling of the sacred with the common, and no unpurified wrong habits can be carried through the strait gate and along the narrow road to life. Those who after test and trial give no evidence of purification, who are not straightforward and treat God's rich mercies as common, show they have chosen the broad road to destruction. Profession of faith cannot make up for lives that misrepresent Christ, practice iniquity, seek personal advantage at others' expense, and fail to live by Bible principles, and a stubborn, querulous spirit puts a person in positive danger unless replaced by heartfelt repentance and a Christlike spirit, words, and actions. Genuine followers are a little flock who love their neighbors, refuse to join or excuse evil, and do the works of repentance.
Mere profession of the Christian name, assent to truth, and claim to precious faith count for nothing without virtue of character and practical knowledge of Christ through obedience to all His requirements, with faith proved by works. Entering requires heart-work, discerning and confessing wrongs so character stains are removed, ongoing reformation, and a life that leaves a bright track toward heaven. Grace received must be followed by forward advancement step after step upward to God in peace, grace, and holiness, for those who stop progressing lose the grace they had, and those who do not choose available truth will face judgment. Nominal belief at ease without agonizing to enter is seeking without striving.
Many fail because they wait for every mystery to be solved and every doubt removed, making that an excuse to refuse light instead of walking in light already given. They cannot enter while carrying the world or holding on to evil suspicions, doubts, criticism, jealousy, and unkindness, and inclinations to evil, with habits and practices contrary to God's Word, must be denied, cut away, and overcome. Those who search Scripture with a humble, teachable spirit and obey the light received will know the truth, see the path grow clearer as they advance, and will not be led astray by the enemy's deceptions.
Many want to enter but are unable through lack of high resolve and moral power, resting in mere good resolutions that are not carried out. The heart as the fountain of action must be cleansed so that actions flow from a pure source. Self-esteem and self-confidence bring eternal ruin by making the narrow path cast up for the ransomed seem altogether too restricted, especially in the last days. To agonize to enter is to make Christ one's dependence and abide in Him as the only refuge, which means being crucified to the world, and those who thus overcome will be exalted with Him.
Human Effort and Divine Power
Man is allotted a part in the great struggle for everlasting life and immortality and must respond to the working of the Holy Spirit rather than remain passive or idle. Entering the way to life requires active, strenuous effort, struggling to break through the powers of darkness, straining every muscle and exercising every faculty instead of being saved in indolence. God supplies the power and efficiency that makes this effort effective, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit works in the person to accomplish this, conforming habits and practices to its power and sanctifying and reshaping character to the divine likeness. Many will want and seek to enter but shall not be able, because seeking alone without such striving is not enough.
The change required cannot be accomplished by human wisdom, judgment, or strength alone, and no one is safe by making no effort. Entering requires earnest effort in self-denial, bearing the cross, discipline, constant watchfulness, confession and forsaking of sin, and acceptance of promised pardon and righteousness. The destroyer and the enemy oppose this effort and must be resisted and overcome in Christ's strength, not one's own, with reliance on God for the grace and power needed toward the crown of immortality. When relief or assurance of God's love does not come at once the struggle for victory must not be abandoned, but the person must keep relying on His strength and pleading for mercy until help comes. Christ conquered the foe on humanity's behalf and through His divine and human nature helps people overcome the degradation of the fall in His name. He stands beside those who strive, sympathizes with the weak, fights their battles, and would send every angel from heaven rather than let a striving soul perish.
Striving is sanctification through the truth by heart-reception of the Word of God rather than mere assent to theory, and the truth thus received sanctifies the entire person unto perfection. It requires much prayer with a humbled heart, painful struggles to learn line upon line and precept upon precept, searching the Scriptures for oneself, and working out one's own salvation with fear and trembling. It consists in gaining an experimental knowledge of God, being ready to believe what He tells and to do what He bids instead of following own judgment, and drawing nearer to God. Whenever a person advances a step toward Jesus in this striving, Jesus is ready to respond, and earnest Scripture study makes believers familiar with God's precious promises. Human striving thus works together with God working in the person both to will and to do.
To strive is to be one with Christ and to make Him the sole object of attraction, coming to Him as the One who calls all who labor and are heavy-laden to take His yoke, learn from Him as meek and lowly in heart, and find rest for souls in His easy yoke and light burden. It means surrendering selfish interests, submitting fully to God in obedience, not exalting or honoring self but glorifying God the Redeemer, and giving up all for Christ even through pain or humiliation. It means keeping close to God, speaking as Christ would speak and acting as Christ would act, keeping the soul pure and clear with elevated and sanctified thoughts. It means not letting anyone prejudice the mind into unadvised speech, neither praising or exalting people to their injury nor hastily condemning those thought not to act wisely, but letting all see love for Jesus and trust in Him. Those who so strive and agonize to enter are loved by God with peculiar tenderness, find the broadness of His commandment, and have the soul converted by His perfect law, for eternal life is worth every sacrifice.
Each person must make a great effort to overcome and accept the individual burden of that work, for merely wishing or seeking is not enough. Jesus has made provision for everyone to enter the city, but each must advance through trials and a life of overcoming toward the heavenly kingdom and its eternal reward, and responsibility for ruin if striving is neglected lies at one's own door. Scripture speaks as if everything depended on human effort: one must come, resist the devil, strive to enter, run the race with patience, fight the fight of faith, wrestle with principalities and powers, and agonize in prayer in order to stand blameless before the throne. This striving is the condition for increase of grace by improving light already given through continual seeking, asking, and knocking. Yet good works do not pay the price of redemption; they are only the blossoms and fruit of a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
Striving to gain entrance includes earnestly seeking to learn what constitutes the laws of the kingdom, studying Scripture, obeying its definite commands, overcoming the evils it condemns, and battling the world, the flesh, and the devil rather than idly waiting for God to act apart from the means He has provided. No one drifts into heaven in indolence and inactivity, and no sluggard can enter there, for a truly converted life is never helpless and useless. It requires cooperating with God on earth in His work of restoration as defined in His pure Word as the guide for service and action, which alone fits a person for a part in heaven. Those who refuse to cooperate with God on earth would not cooperate with Him in heaven, so it would not be safe to take them there.
Probation and Prophetic Timing
Entering through the narrow gate demands earnest, continuing striving with no safe pause for worldly desire and sinful self-gratification, because probation can close at death or at Christ's return. Then the invitation to salvation ends and the heavenly gate closes, leaving no further opportunity to repent, to receive cleansing through the atoning blood, or to form a character fit for life. At His appearing people will remain as they are found, since purification cannot be performed afterward and the final separation between time and eternity will have come to those who merely wished or sought without striving.
Warnings of coming judgment are liable to be mocked and dismissed as idle tales, as Noah's warning of the Flood was, yet unbelief did not prevent the Flood from coming and sweeping the unprepared away. In the last days many absorbed in amusement and excitement will likewise resist truth, because the way is narrow in that truth and obedience to God restrict sin. Those who seek to keep God's commandments must heed the call to strive, since many will want to enter and will not be able.
In 1844, when the expected date for Christ's coming passed, believers applied the saying about seeking entry after the door is shut to a time shortly before His coming and wondered whether that date marked its beginning. They concluded that probation had ended, but that application was mistaken and the verse was no evidence that their work for sinners was over or that the door of mercy had then closed.
The present is a short probationary time of preparation in which the work must be done quickly, and listless resistance will not gain the prize. Those living in probation must wake from spiritual sleep, put aside self-interest, and labor urgently for God while there is still time, pressing toward the heavenly calling by grace to stand against the tide of moral evil and obey His truth. Their lives must consistently show they are bending their steps heavenward, for merely wishing to enter is not enough. Eternal life is gained by desire joined with effort, as gold hidden in the earth is secured only by both combined, and that striving includes warming the hearts of others and arousing interest in souls ready to die, which keeps one's own soul warm with the love of God.
Daily Christian Application
The struggle for the narrow gate must not be abandoned when relief or assurance of divine love does not come at once, but must be continued with determined, persistent effort while there is time, since many will seek to enter and fail. Victory is impossible by human strength alone, so the striver must keep relying on God's strength and pleading for mercy until help comes, correcting wrongs and confessing and forsaking sin in readiness to stand spotless when the time of refreshing comes. This striving means overcoming self and Satan daily, and overcoming self-righteousness, pride, and false security through humility, prayer, and honest recognition of wrongs, working with Christ rather than living for oneself. It is shown in tender interest and practical care for those in need, following Christ's example.
Following Christ along the difficult way to life requires perseverance through conflict, self-denial, overcoming of self, and pressing on through hardship and discouragement, with urgency in seeking salvation and coming to Christ. Earnest seekers, including Christians and backsliders, must make a decisive effort to enter. Christ guides His followers along this difficult path, and following Him leads safely to immortal life and final victory.
In married life husband and wife must unite in overcoming destructive behavior and sin and wrong habits, practicing kindness and Christian courtesy. Parents and their families must agonize to enter through the strait gate together, gathering every ray of light God gives them and cherishing and following it, for determined effort is required and many who merely seek will fail.
Sinners in the ministry who tolerate sin are not striving to enter through the narrow gate, for entering life requires earnest struggle against sin. Sin is hateful to God and opposed to His holiness and to the holiness on which His throne rests, so even secret faults must be overcome and life and character reformed. Those who are to be saints in heaven must first become saints on earth.
Each person's influence either gathers to Christ or hinders, encouraging people toward salvation or turning them away, so no one can remain indifferent and each must take responsibility for striving and for urging others to strive through earnest, persevering effort. That striving includes tender, practical care for the needy rather than living for self, seeking to warm the hearts of others and arousing an interest in souls ready to die, which keeps one's own soul warm with the love of God. Probationary time still lasts, and eternal life is gained by such earnest striving, for he who earnestly desires it will strive for it and obtain it by desire joined with effort, as gold hidden in the earth is secured only by desire and effort combined.
The only thing to fear is failing to strive and so failing to have God's approval, for there is danger of not striving and not receiving it. Faithfully living for Christ demands more than is supposed, requiring heart-work rather than nominal belief, ongoing reformation, and a life that leaves others a bright track toward heaven, including saving souls such as those who come to the sanitarium. Striving calls for using all the powers God has given with strenuous effort, and though Jesus has made provision for everyone to enter the city, each person must advance and is responsible for failure. The trials endured in this life of overcoming are worth the eternal reward toward which the effort leads in the heavenly kingdom, pictured as walking with Christ in white, the white robe, and the crown of life.
Christ commands intense, wholehearted agonizing to enter the narrow gate to life, because merely wishing or seeking without that strenuous effort will leave many unable to enter. The gate is narrow because entry into His kingdom demands self-denial, bearing the cross, obedience to God's commandments, cleansing from sin, and a Christlike character with no room for love of the world or cherished sin. Outward association with Him, profession of faith, and hearing His teaching do not suffice, and those who refuse the conditions, cling to selfish pleasure and dishonest practice, or rest in good resolutions without heart-change will be shut out when probation closes. Each person must do his allotted part by responding to the Holy Spirit, cooperating with God, and taking Christ's yoke, while God supplies the power to will and to do and Christ Himself fights beside the striving soul so none who truly agonizes need perish. The work is urgent and lifelong, requiring daily persevering warfare against Satan and self with no safe time to stop, for character must be formed now because no cleansing or repentance is possible after death or when the heavenly door is shut.
Strive Versus Merely Seek
The word strive means to agonize, with intense, wholehearted and strenuous effort to force a passage through, like a traveler intent on reaching a city gate who will not turn aside for attractions along the way. Entering the spiritual kingdom calls for that supreme desire and effort because its glory is glory of character rather than earthly dominion or selfish rule, and following Christ involves real struggle and victories to be won. Striving is sanctification through the truth by heart-reception of the Word of God rather than mere assenting to theory, and truth thus received sanctifies the entire man unto perfection even as the Father in heaven is perfect. Whenever a person advances a step toward Jesus in this striving, Jesus is ready to respond, conquering the foe on humanity's behalf and helping through His divine and human nature to overcome the degradation of the fall. This requires recognizing the weakness of human wisdom, judgment and strength and depending wholly on God, praying fervently in Christ's name and making serious efforts to overcome Satan while resisting temptation and the desires of the natural heart.
Satan has placed active agents and whole armies of hell along the passage to dispute the way of every soul, so followers must not be intimidated but press on and urge their way through with the same tirelessness and perseverance Satan shows. Striving therefore includes giving up darling cherished idols and indulged sins even when it cuts as close as plucking out the right eye or cutting off the right arm, seizing the kingdom by force because there is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. There is no time left for excuses, blaming others, or flattering the soul about more favorable circumstances.
Merely wishing, wanting, or seeking to enter is not enough, for many will seek to enter and shall not be able because they seek without striving. Each person must accept the individual burden of that work, strive daily to pass through the narrow gate and way, and make a great, persevering effort to overcome, to know and obey the truth, to live by God's Word, to resist evil, and to press toward the heavenly prize. Listless indifference cannot win the crown of life, and many fail because they are not living their faith. Those who are at ease and do not agonize to enter are seeking without striving, and earnest effort includes discerning and confessing wrongs so that character stains may be removed. A lack of high resolve and moral power is alarming, and many will spend their Christian lives seeking without making the effort that leads to entry, though the narrow way leads to eternal life, fullness of joy, and lasting pleasures.
Striving must be lifelong, persevering, untiring and continuing, with no safe time to stop striving for the narrow gate or to devote oneself to worldly desires and sinful self-gratification. Without such striving people remain outside, and only those who pursue eternal life with persevering effort, untiring zeal, and intense desire proportionate to its worth gain life that measures with the life of God. The present time is a short time of preparation in which the work must be done quickly because time is short. The warning is urgent because probation may close at death or at Christ's return, when no further opportunity to repent, receive cleansing through the atoning blood, or form a fit character will be given, and at Christ's appearing people remain as they are found with purification impossible afterward. Following Christ along this way therefore requires perseverance through conflict, self-denial, overcoming self, and pressing on through hardship and discouragement, yet Christ guides His followers along this difficult path safely to immortal life and final victory.
No one can be saved in indolence, passivity, or idle waiting, but each person must actively strive with every faculty and muscle, straining every muscle and exercising every faculty in the great struggle for everlasting life and immortality. Man is allotted a part and must respond to the working of the Holy Spirit, struggling to break through the powers of darkness, while God supplies the power and efficiency both to will and to do His good pleasure and make the effort effective. This active cooperation is part of sanctification which is the will of God, and the narrow way that leads to life is found by few while many who only want to enter will not be able. Striving is thus a real struggle, warfare and conflict against the powers of darkness, Satan's active agents and armies, and the desires of the natural heart, requiring perseverance and endurance as soldiers of Christ. Those who do not agonize to enter, trembling lest they fail, rest in dangerous confidence and boasting and are in danger of being unable to enter and perishing with the unbelieving.
Gaining eternal life will ever involve continually fighting the good fight of faith, for those enlisted in Christ's army are expected to do difficult work that taxes their energies to the utmost, living a soldier's life of aggressive warfare, perseverance and endurance, and enduring trials for Christ's sake. Victories are not gained by ceremonies or display, but by simple obedience to the highest General, the Lord God of heaven, and he who trusts in this Leader will never know defeat. Obedience to God is liberty from the thraldom of sin and deliverance from human passion and impulse, by which a man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers, and of the rulers of the darkness of this world, and of spiritual wickedness in high places. The Holy Spirit supplies the power for this effort, and Christ enables His followers to overcome and obey God as they learn from Christ and accept His yoke in order to attain a Christlike character.
Narrow and Broad Ways
The strait gate and narrow way lead to life and are found by few, while the wide gate and broad way lead to destruction and many go that way. The way to life is narrow and difficult, not a road of inviting convenience but an apparently inconvenient path of conflict, trial, tribulation and suffering. The safe way is the Lord's way, and Jesus as Captain hides nothing about the battles to be fought but opens the map and shows the way. Those who follow the narrow way walk in Christ's footsteps in a life unlike the world's, distinct in character and conduct from travelers on the broad way that leads to eternal death. Jesus Himself opened and traveled the narrow way, and His followers can reach its end safely by following Him. Merely drifting with the world carries multitudes down the broad way, while entrance to life requires striving because many will seek to enter and shall not be able.
The gate signifies entry into Christ's spiritual kingdom. Its glory is glory of character rather than earthly dominion, power, or selfish rule, and its worth calls for supreme desire and effort. Entering calls for intense, wholehearted, strenuous effort, like a traveler intent on reaching a city gate who will not turn aside for attractions along the way and refuses distractions. Following Christ in this way involves a real struggle and victories to be won, though victory is not a contest for worldly supremacy.
The way is narrow because truth and obedience to God restrict sin. It leaves no room for attachment to the world, selfishness, or any cherished sin, and people must consent to part with these to enter. Many will not be saved, not because salvation is unavailable to them, but because they refuse this appointed way and will not give these things up. A Christian profession alone does not make a person a Christian at heart. Those seeking to keep God's commandments must heed this warning and choose the way that leads to life, especially when in the last days people absorbed in amusement and excitement may resist that truth, as most did in Noah's day.
Entering requires self-denial, bearing the cross, discipline and constant watchfulness, renouncing one's own will and chosen objects of affection and pursuit. Seeking to enter is not enough when a person avoids the effort of the Christian life and lets pleasure and self-will rule; a decided change and firm principles are needed. It requires striving with whole heart and undivided purpose, denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ. That decision is made where the cross stands and two roads diverge, and it cuts directly across human inclination, selfish worldly considerations, and natural bias of character. All the universe of heaven looks on to see which path the convicted person seeking eternal life will take, whether to take the cross road to heaven and stand with the purified, made white, and tried who are wise and understand, or to keep the burden of sin and corruption on the broad road that leads to destruction and perdition while seeking to enter but not being able. Many will try to get in while holding on to their worldly possessions and will not be able, for those who draw back from the cross to preserve worldly interests and follow selfish desires or the broad road of sin will not reach heaven, while those who choose the narrow way of obedience obtain eternal life that is measureless, imperishable riches, a life that measures with the life of God. This change cannot be accomplished in one's own strength, but God can help and strengthen the person who strives.
Entering requires constant watchfulness and prayer, obedience to the truth and to God's commandments, cleansing from moral impurity, and holiness before God. Striving means doing God's will amid voices that would divert people from the truth, recognizing and following Christ's voice as the Good Shepherd. Sin must be confessed and forsaken, and Christ's promises of pardon and righteousness accepted. The destroyer and the enemy oppose this effort, so they must be resisted and overcome in Christ's strength, not one's own, lest they prevail, with the crown of immortality in view. People must press through the crowd taking the broad road and remain firm in obeying God, drawing near to Jesus and reflecting His character so as to live the truth and lead others to the Saviour. Striving is earnest and active rather than idle waiting for God to act apart from the means He has provided, including studying Scripture, obeying its definite commands, and battling the world, the flesh, and the devil and overcoming the evils it condemns. Sin is hateful to God and opposed to His holiness, so secret faults must be overcome and life and character reformed, for those who are to be saints in heaven must first become saints on earth.
The strait gate does not admit doubtful characters, worldly treasures, deception, or anything defiled. No one carries the world into heaven, and a life of deception does not glorify God or prepare a person to meet eternity. The gate to Paradise is opened not by wealth, lands, position, dignity, or intellectual achievement, but by a Christlike character, and the gift of immortality is received by the meek and lowly who make God their sufficiency, with effort matching the value of eternal life. All who enter the city of God enter through the strait gate through agonizing effort, and nothing defiled can enter there. Yet those who have fallen into sin need not despair; if they repent, forsake sin, and turn to God, He offers mercy, abundant pardon, healing, and freely given love.
The broad road is made attractive and easy by Satan and those serving him so that multitudes are drawn away from the path of holiness and truth to life. Riches, power, talent, pride, and pleasing speech can all be used for this purpose. God's way is the strait gate and narrow way, plainly defined in His pure Word as the guide for Christian service and action, requiring cooperation with God in His work of restoration in order to be saved. The broad way is a false substitute offered as an improvement on the strait gate, belonging to the religion of self that makes conversions easy by perverting Scripture, dethroning God, deifying self, denying the operation of the Holy Spirit on hearts, losing sight of God, cheapening experience, exalting human opinions, using religion for selfish purposes, and treating God's solemn claims lightly. It leads to fruitless efforts, false theories, false piety, and a life drifting without anchorage that cannot prosper.
Setting and Solemn Warning
The command was given in answer to the question whether few are saved, turning hearers away from speculation to the duty to strive to enter in at the strait gate because many will seek to enter in and shall not be able. The failure is that of seeking Christ after He has gone and not finding Him, dying in sins and being unable to come where He is. The gate is strait and the way narrow and few enter in, while the gate is wide and the way broad that leads to destruction and many go in there. The broad way takes no seeking or striving, only drifting with the current of the world, its maxims, its standard and its spirit, with the line between saint and sinner obliterated. Eternal things must not be made minor while self and the world are put between the soul and God, and there is call for reformation in institutions and churches and for eyes opened by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for without thorough arousing, crying to God and change of course, professed believers will be lost as surely as Judas, selling the Lord for a bribe, having a name to live while dead, leading others in the road to death and hell, and meeting a judgment that decides their case forever.
The warning was spoken to Jewish teachers, scribes and Pharisees who refused light, rejected the working of the Holy Spirit, and made the commandments of God of none effect. They failed to comprehend the true import of the Sabbath as a memorial of creation and rest for man and turned it into vigorous bondage, and they erected false standards that made the outward and ceremonial eclipse the spiritual requirements of God. Striving to enter the strait gate means yielding to that light while the door of mercy stands open, because many will seek to enter and shall not be able once the Master has shut the door.
Outward association with Christ does not suffice, for eating and drinking in His presence, hearing Him teach in the streets, hearing His teaching and claiming familiarity with Him will not save those who remain workers of iniquity. Entering requires striving and not merely seeking or professing to believe the truth. When the Master shuts the door, those who persisted in iniquity will stand outside knocking in vain, will be disowned and thrust out with weeping and gnashing of teeth, and will be excluded from the kingdom. No dishonest practice in any temporal or spiritual transaction, no crookedness, no mingling of the sacred with the common, and no unpurified wrong habits and practices can be carried through the strait gate and along the narrow road that leads to life, and those who after test and trial give no evidence of purification, who are not straightforward, who treat the rich mercies of God as common and do not appreciate the pearl of great price, show they have chosen the broad road where the world travels that leads to destruction.
Then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets will sit down in the kingdom of God, together with those coming from the east, west, north and south. Those regarded as first, as the only pious people on earth with great light and every facility, will become last, and the last will become first.
The warning is as true now as when spoken, for the majority of those who claim to be Christians are not truly spiritual-minded, since the gate is wide and the way broad that leads to destruction and many go that way, while the gate is strait and the way narrow that leads to life and few find it. Few will be saved, and many who are called will prove unworthy of everlasting life and lose their place in heaven, for rejecting mercy and choosing pride and vanity lead to ruin, while the choices made now determine eternal destiny. Christ's followers are a little flock, and few follow the principles of the Bible, for profession of faith cannot make up for lives that misrepresent Christ, seek personal advantage at others' expense, and fail to live by the principles of the Bible. The small number who accept present truth and keep God's commandments is no reason for discouragement and does not show they are wrong, so a person must not follow the majority or turn from truth but must take courage, lift the cross, obey the truth even at the cost of life, and stay with truth rather than following the majority. Those who know their duty but refuse to bear the cross will finally be destroyed, and those who remain faithful are promised that they will walk with Christ in white because they are worthy.
Why Many Fail
Many fail to enter because they trust in uncertainties instead of living faith, failing to read and understand God's Word and to live what they know. They do not make serving God their business and lack the love from above that would carry them through the narrow path to eternal life. Earnest effort is required, and seeking without such living faith leaves them unable to enter.
Many are drawn by the beauty of Christ and the glory of heaven, yet they shrink from the conditions of entrance. They desire the good and make some effort in their own strength against evil practices, looking toward the narrow way while remaining in the broad way unsatisfied and longing to break from slavery to sin. They hesitate and falter and turn back at the sacrifice of renouncing their own will and their chosen objects of affection and pursuit, because they do not choose the good with settled purpose to secure it at the cost of all things.
Selfish pleasure, love of the world, pride, unsanctified ambition, sinful indulgence, and worldly attachments place a barrier between them and the Saviour. Many try to get in while holding on to worldly possessions and treasures, which requires self-denial and cross-bearing to abandon, and so they are not able. The rich young ruler illustrates this failure, for he would not give up his wealth through sacrifice, perfect submission, and obedience to follow Jesus, choosing earthly treasure over eternal life.
No dishonest practice in temporal or spiritual transaction, no crookedness, no mingling of the sacred with the common, and no unpurified wrong habits can be carried through the strait gate and along the narrow road to life. Those who after test and trial give no evidence of purification, who are not straightforward and treat God's rich mercies as common, show they have chosen the broad road to destruction. Profession of faith cannot make up for lives that misrepresent Christ, practice iniquity, seek personal advantage at others' expense, and fail to live by Bible principles, and a stubborn, querulous spirit puts a person in positive danger unless replaced by heartfelt repentance and a Christlike spirit, words, and actions. Genuine followers are a little flock who love their neighbors, refuse to join or excuse evil, and do the works of repentance.
Mere profession of the Christian name, assent to truth, and claim to precious faith count for nothing without virtue of character and practical knowledge of Christ through obedience to all His requirements, with faith proved by works. Entering requires heart-work, discerning and confessing wrongs so character stains are removed, ongoing reformation, and a life that leaves a bright track toward heaven. Grace received must be followed by forward advancement step after step upward to God in peace, grace, and holiness, for those who stop progressing lose the grace they had, and those who do not choose available truth will face judgment. Nominal belief at ease without agonizing to enter is seeking without striving.
Many fail because they wait for every mystery to be solved and every doubt removed, making that an excuse to refuse light instead of walking in light already given. They cannot enter while carrying the world or holding on to evil suspicions, doubts, criticism, jealousy, and unkindness, and inclinations to evil, with habits and practices contrary to God's Word, must be denied, cut away, and overcome. Those who search Scripture with a humble, teachable spirit and obey the light received will know the truth, see the path grow clearer as they advance, and will not be led astray by the enemy's deceptions.
Many want to enter but are unable through lack of high resolve and moral power, resting in mere good resolutions that are not carried out. The heart as the fountain of action must be cleansed so that actions flow from a pure source. Self-esteem and self-confidence bring eternal ruin by making the narrow path cast up for the ransomed seem altogether too restricted, especially in the last days. To agonize to enter is to make Christ one's dependence and abide in Him as the only refuge, which means being crucified to the world, and those who thus overcome will be exalted with Him.
Human Effort and Divine Power
Man is allotted a part in the great struggle for everlasting life and immortality and must respond to the working of the Holy Spirit rather than remain passive or idle. Entering the way to life requires active, strenuous effort, struggling to break through the powers of darkness, straining every muscle and exercising every faculty instead of being saved in indolence. God supplies the power and efficiency that makes this effort effective, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit works in the person to accomplish this, conforming habits and practices to its power and sanctifying and reshaping character to the divine likeness. Many will want and seek to enter but shall not be able, because seeking alone without such striving is not enough.
The change required cannot be accomplished by human wisdom, judgment, or strength alone, and no one is safe by making no effort. Entering requires earnest effort in self-denial, bearing the cross, discipline, constant watchfulness, confession and forsaking of sin, and acceptance of promised pardon and righteousness. The destroyer and the enemy oppose this effort and must be resisted and overcome in Christ's strength, not one's own, with reliance on God for the grace and power needed toward the crown of immortality. When relief or assurance of God's love does not come at once the struggle for victory must not be abandoned, but the person must keep relying on His strength and pleading for mercy until help comes. Christ conquered the foe on humanity's behalf and through His divine and human nature helps people overcome the degradation of the fall in His name. He stands beside those who strive, sympathizes with the weak, fights their battles, and would send every angel from heaven rather than let a striving soul perish.
Striving is sanctification through the truth by heart-reception of the Word of God rather than mere assent to theory, and the truth thus received sanctifies the entire person unto perfection. It requires much prayer with a humbled heart, painful struggles to learn line upon line and precept upon precept, searching the Scriptures for oneself, and working out one's own salvation with fear and trembling. It consists in gaining an experimental knowledge of God, being ready to believe what He tells and to do what He bids instead of following own judgment, and drawing nearer to God. Whenever a person advances a step toward Jesus in this striving, Jesus is ready to respond, and earnest Scripture study makes believers familiar with God's precious promises. Human striving thus works together with God working in the person both to will and to do.
To strive is to be one with Christ and to make Him the sole object of attraction, coming to Him as the One who calls all who labor and are heavy-laden to take His yoke, learn from Him as meek and lowly in heart, and find rest for souls in His easy yoke and light burden. It means surrendering selfish interests, submitting fully to God in obedience, not exalting or honoring self but glorifying God the Redeemer, and giving up all for Christ even through pain or humiliation. It means keeping close to God, speaking as Christ would speak and acting as Christ would act, keeping the soul pure and clear with elevated and sanctified thoughts. It means not letting anyone prejudice the mind into unadvised speech, neither praising or exalting people to their injury nor hastily condemning those thought not to act wisely, but letting all see love for Jesus and trust in Him. Those who so strive and agonize to enter are loved by God with peculiar tenderness, find the broadness of His commandment, and have the soul converted by His perfect law, for eternal life is worth every sacrifice.
Each person must make a great effort to overcome and accept the individual burden of that work, for merely wishing or seeking is not enough. Jesus has made provision for everyone to enter the city, but each must advance through trials and a life of overcoming toward the heavenly kingdom and its eternal reward, and responsibility for ruin if striving is neglected lies at one's own door. Scripture speaks as if everything depended on human effort: one must come, resist the devil, strive to enter, run the race with patience, fight the fight of faith, wrestle with principalities and powers, and agonize in prayer in order to stand blameless before the throne. This striving is the condition for increase of grace by improving light already given through continual seeking, asking, and knocking. Yet good works do not pay the price of redemption; they are only the blossoms and fruit of a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
Striving to gain entrance includes earnestly seeking to learn what constitutes the laws of the kingdom, studying Scripture, obeying its definite commands, overcoming the evils it condemns, and battling the world, the flesh, and the devil rather than idly waiting for God to act apart from the means He has provided. No one drifts into heaven in indolence and inactivity, and no sluggard can enter there, for a truly converted life is never helpless and useless. It requires cooperating with God on earth in His work of restoration as defined in His pure Word as the guide for service and action, which alone fits a person for a part in heaven. Those who refuse to cooperate with God on earth would not cooperate with Him in heaven, so it would not be safe to take them there.
Probation and Prophetic Timing
Entering through the narrow gate demands earnest, continuing striving with no safe pause for worldly desire and sinful self-gratification, because probation can close at death or at Christ's return. Then the invitation to salvation ends and the heavenly gate closes, leaving no further opportunity to repent, to receive cleansing through the atoning blood, or to form a character fit for life. At His appearing people will remain as they are found, since purification cannot be performed afterward and the final separation between time and eternity will have come to those who merely wished or sought without striving.
Warnings of coming judgment are liable to be mocked and dismissed as idle tales, as Noah's warning of the Flood was, yet unbelief did not prevent the Flood from coming and sweeping the unprepared away. In the last days many absorbed in amusement and excitement will likewise resist truth, because the way is narrow in that truth and obedience to God restrict sin. Those who seek to keep God's commandments must heed the call to strive, since many will want to enter and will not be able.
In 1844, when the expected date for Christ's coming passed, believers applied the saying about seeking entry after the door is shut to a time shortly before His coming and wondered whether that date marked its beginning. They concluded that probation had ended, but that application was mistaken and the verse was no evidence that their work for sinners was over or that the door of mercy had then closed.
The present is a short probationary time of preparation in which the work must be done quickly, and listless resistance will not gain the prize. Those living in probation must wake from spiritual sleep, put aside self-interest, and labor urgently for God while there is still time, pressing toward the heavenly calling by grace to stand against the tide of moral evil and obey His truth. Their lives must consistently show they are bending their steps heavenward, for merely wishing to enter is not enough. Eternal life is gained by desire joined with effort, as gold hidden in the earth is secured only by both combined, and that striving includes warming the hearts of others and arousing interest in souls ready to die, which keeps one's own soul warm with the love of God.
Daily Christian Application
The struggle for the narrow gate must not be abandoned when relief or assurance of divine love does not come at once, but must be continued with determined, persistent effort while there is time, since many will seek to enter and fail. Victory is impossible by human strength alone, so the striver must keep relying on God's strength and pleading for mercy until help comes, correcting wrongs and confessing and forsaking sin in readiness to stand spotless when the time of refreshing comes. This striving means overcoming self and Satan daily, and overcoming self-righteousness, pride, and false security through humility, prayer, and honest recognition of wrongs, working with Christ rather than living for oneself. It is shown in tender interest and practical care for those in need, following Christ's example.
Following Christ along the difficult way to life requires perseverance through conflict, self-denial, overcoming of self, and pressing on through hardship and discouragement, with urgency in seeking salvation and coming to Christ. Earnest seekers, including Christians and backsliders, must make a decisive effort to enter. Christ guides His followers along this difficult path, and following Him leads safely to immortal life and final victory.
In married life husband and wife must unite in overcoming destructive behavior and sin and wrong habits, practicing kindness and Christian courtesy. Parents and their families must agonize to enter through the strait gate together, gathering every ray of light God gives them and cherishing and following it, for determined effort is required and many who merely seek will fail.
Sinners in the ministry who tolerate sin are not striving to enter through the narrow gate, for entering life requires earnest struggle against sin. Sin is hateful to God and opposed to His holiness and to the holiness on which His throne rests, so even secret faults must be overcome and life and character reformed. Those who are to be saints in heaven must first become saints on earth.
Each person's influence either gathers to Christ or hinders, encouraging people toward salvation or turning them away, so no one can remain indifferent and each must take responsibility for striving and for urging others to strive through earnest, persevering effort. That striving includes tender, practical care for the needy rather than living for self, seeking to warm the hearts of others and arousing an interest in souls ready to die, which keeps one's own soul warm with the love of God. Probationary time still lasts, and eternal life is gained by such earnest striving, for he who earnestly desires it will strive for it and obtain it by desire joined with effort, as gold hidden in the earth is secured only by desire and effort combined.
The only thing to fear is failing to strive and so failing to have God's approval, for there is danger of not striving and not receiving it. Faithfully living for Christ demands more than is supposed, requiring heart-work rather than nominal belief, ongoing reformation, and a life that leaves others a bright track toward heaven, including saving souls such as those who come to the sanitarium. Striving calls for using all the powers God has given with strenuous effort, and though Jesus has made provision for everyone to enter the city, each person must advance and is responsible for failure. The trials endured in this life of overcoming are worth the eternal reward toward which the effort leads in the heavenly kingdom, pictured as walking with Christ in white, the white robe, and the crown of life.