Troubling Times Ahead

The great truth that we thus must face is that of God’s severity with sin. Troubling as the result of sin is inevitable. It is inevitable by the law of God. This whole universe is constituted so. Stanley Jones in his great book, The Christ of Every Road, says: "We do not break the laws of the universe, we break ourselves upon them." Stanley Jones is right. We never break the laws of the universe. We break ourselves on them, and that is troubling. The whole universe is built so that no man can escape from that sequence. Put your hand in the fire, and the pain is the troubling, and you cannot escape from it. You have not broken the law; but you have broken your hand. Law conditions heaven. Violated law creates hell. Troubling is the inherent necessity of sin. The way is hedged and hindered, the false lovers are lost, and there is nothing ultimately but desolation. Remember those words of our Lord, "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction." The root sense of the word "destruction" is narrowness. "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life," and life is breadth. The way of sin is easy, the gate is wide open, the highway is broad. Yes, but watch it, watch it; it is narrowing, until life becomes crushed and cursed. That is always the way of sin. The whole universe is built on that pattern. The way of life is narrow; yes, strait is the gate. Stripping is needed to enter upon the way of life. Narrow the way in the beginning, but mark it, it broadens out into the spaciousness of life.

--G. Campbell Morgan, Hosea: The Heart and Holiness of God