Today will be a theological vacation from the Book of Matthew, taking a tour of Luke with a view of the end.
People gleefully say, “I am saved” without understanding what salvation entails. Today, we will examine the Way to salvation. The following are the key verses:
When once the Master of the house has risen-up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, “Lord, Lord, open for us,” and He will answer and say to you, “I do not know you, where you are from… (Luke 13:25)
The Master of the House is of
course is God who wisely used symbolism to get the message across.
The “Master” is the owner of the
Estate, and the Estate is Paradise. Only He has the right to allow entry; if
not so, then the person trespasses onto the Estate of the Master. Jesus is the
heir designate of the Master. By grace, God the Father has passed along the paradisical
Estate to His Son. Paradise now belongs to Jesus and God in the Flesh of that
One Man is the owner of the Estate. Hence, Jesus is the Way to Paradise.
There is a “door” between here
and there. It is not a hinged door that can be locked as we might think, but
something else.
Now for a moment, let us return
to the days of Noah. Destruction was outside the ark. Anyone not on
the ark would perish. The ark provided safe passage to a place where there was
no manmade tribulation. The ark provided safe passage to a “paradise” for a new
beginning.
The Way was through a door which was
the entry for all who would be saved. God told Noah about the ark, “You shall
make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and
set the door of the ark in its side” (Gen 6:16). The window was the frame for
the door. The Hebrew word for “door” is petah, which is metaphorically a
“gate of hope” and by entering through that “narrow gate” (Mat 7:13),
hope is achieved.
Hope is not wishful
thinking but an expectation that what is believed is real. Noah and his family
thought that there was life on the other side of the door and found that was
true. They found the Way to safety but to remain safe, they would need to
endure the wiles of the Devil. Soon, Noah took his “grace” off, laid it aside,
and according to the Book of Jasher, Ham stole the Garment of Adam from
Noah. His grace was stolen when he became unsober and non-vigilant; he then was
no longer safe but in danger.
The door that Noah entered was a
real door that he had built. It did not lead from one realm to another but from
one “economy” to another… “economy” being life under different conditions.
Noah’s door was also symbolic. It
was belief that there was life on the other side. The fabric of the door to
others was wood, but Noah knew its “fabric” was faith. He entered the door,
knowing that God was on the other side. Perhaps, for his children, it meant
only that there was a safe-haven away from sin, or so they thought, on
the other side. Thus, the door to the ark was both real and metaphorical.
The ”door” tended by Jesus is real as well, but it cannot be seen. It is understood to be there when the time comes, and to enter it means that Christians must see the door as real to be allowed in. That “door” is the decision point “to guard the way to the Tree of Life” (Gen 3:24). That “Tree” is symbolic of Jesus who is now in Paradise, to wit:
In the middle of its street (the Way in Paradise), and on either side of the river, was the Tree of Life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations. (Rev 22:2)
How to get past the gate/door/whatever on the Way?
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter through the gates into the city. (Rev 22:14)
The “blessing” is having the right
to pass through the opening to the Tree of Life; the one that is in Paradise in
heaven — in another realm that cannot be seen by any other Way than passaging
along with Christ.
Paradise is a real place with location,
dimensions, and its own economy. The rules there are straight and right,
so if you do not enjoy righteousness, you probably would not have joy in being
righteous for eternity. It is your choice!
Now let’s discuss the “door” some
more. The Master of the house/ark/Paradise is God who shuts the door just as He
did in the Ark.
“So those that entered, male and
female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in”
(Gen 7:16). The door was wide open to everyone and even the animals. The animals
came in, one of each gender for the most part, to be engendered again to
multiply. After a long time, the choices had been made, and God closed the
door. All who would enter in had entered in.
The door was open but those who
failed to come in saw no door. They saw the freedom around the opening and as
such, chose the wide gate to destruction (Mat 7:13). They saw only the door after
it was closed and then they were too late because the waters came and the Ark
arose, ostensibly to “Paradise” on the Holy Mountain.
Luke wrote about that “door” using
the Greek word, “thyra” — “a way or passage into” — a “portal.”
In science fiction, the word
"portal" generally refers to a technological or magical doorway that
connects two distant locations separated by spacetime. Portals are gateways that
allow objects to pass through instantaneously.
The same definition applies to theology, but it is not technological nor magical but miraculous. It is neither science nor fiction but ultimate truth. To get from here to heaven requires a time/space/mass portal for objects to enter in.
16 The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thes 4:16:17)
Portals are not all science
fiction but a certain one is truth. Paradise is in the realm of heaven, not
some vast distance away but as close as a “twinkling of the eye” (1 Cor 15:52).
Take for instance the repentant
thief to whom Jesus was speaking as He was about to die, ““Assuredly, I say to
you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Dismus, the thief, Jesus assured
him, would be in Paradise that day. The day was ending as Jesus spoke
those words. The Sabbath would begin shortly in a few minutes. Jesus
transported Dismus to Paradise through a portal.
To enter in required them to
become Spiritual. Jesus gave up the Ghost and so did Dismus and immediately their
spiritual bodies — their souls — had passed through the portal between death
and eternal life. It was not magical, and neither was it technological, but a
miraculous ascension from one realm to another.
The Holy Ghost was in the “bodily
shape” of Jesus (Luke 3:22). Jesus gave up the Ghost to pass through the portal
to heaven. Dismus must have also; a believer, now in the bodily shape of the
Holy Ghost of Jesus — in His image — passed through the portal in just a few
moments, all the while the body of Jesus was being transported to a grave, and
perhaps the body of Dismus as well.
The point here is that not just
any body cannot pass through the portal; it must be an image in the manner of
Christ to pass through. It just fits that shape, and some awkward or evil shape
cannot pass through.
For instance, Satan, the image of
Lucifer cannot pass through, and neither can his nature, the Serpent, crawl
through! “On his belly he shall go,” according to Genesis, but not
through the portal to life but the broad gate to Hell, or Gehenna, as it turns
out with Judas dying with Satan in him.
You too can enter through that portal:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Rev 3:20)
That “door” is a portal, having no mass
and no hinges to resist, let alone a lock to raise nor for time to pass. Jesus
does all the work; all you do is pass through as the Voice of God opens
the portal.
(picture credit: Shutterstock)
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