There is a fable that tells of a man who
was deeply in love with a king’s daughter. The problem was that he was not of
royal descent, and the relationship was strictly forbidden. Nonetheless, the
king’s daughter was in love with this young man, and the king was angry and at
wits end with his daughter. It was a very delicate matter for the king loved
his daughter and feared any resentment from her, but he couldn’t afford to
allow any of his subjects to violate the king’s decrees.
So, the king gave the young man two
options. One was to leave the kingdom immediately with enough money to live
comfortably for the remainder of his days, but he could never return to the kingdom
or see his daughter ever again. The other option was to choose
between two doors. Behind one of the doors would be the king’s daughter and the
other a Bengal tiger that had been deprived of food.
The young man without hesitation chose
the test of the two doors over certain riches. He had already reasoned within his
heart that if he could not have the king’s daughter, he would rather be dead. The
story abruptly ended there, depriving the reader of the outcome.
The choice of the two doors is similar
to the choice between life and death from a spiritual perspective. There are no
50-50 odds of risking it all for love, however. But we can be 100% positive
based on the authority of God’s Word where each door leads without any
guesswork (Jn 3:36; 5:24). Why one would ever choose the door that leads to death only God knows
(cf. Mt 7:13).
Jesus declared that He was “the way,
the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6a), not a way, a truth, and a life. He was the only door (Jn 10:7, 9), not a
door of many doors, leading to the Father (Jn 14:6b). He could not be any clearer or explicit about
this. His claim was so restrictive that it excluded all other religions, including Judaism.
Jesus characterized all other faiths as
“thieves and robbers” (Jn 10:8) for they only intend “to steal, and to kill,
and to destroy” (Jn 10:10a). How well did Jesus know this (Jn 1:11; Acts 7:51-52); this is very descriptive of Satan’s M.O.! Even though He came that we might “have life and
have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10b, ESV), Jesus was still crucified without mercy.
Every person will eventually have to go
through one of two doors into eternity from a biblical point of view. Which is
the right door?” The Word is very clear about this; it’s Jesus, but if you
listen very intently, you might hear the sounds of knocking on the other side of one of the doors
(Rev 3:20); open that door while you still have breath for that story has a definite
happy ending! The Word and the knocking take all of the guesswork out of it! <><
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44%20png.png){kind=small}
+Camel+Silhouette+Camel+CLR+Bkgrd+right+10%25.png)
