Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14.
The mild, beloved disciple [John] has said, “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). The Word of God is very plain and pointed. It is dangerous business to profess to be a follower of Jesus and in works deny Him by indifference to even one of His requirements.
The history of the Reformation teaches us that the church of Christ is never to come to a standstill and cease reforming. God stands at the head, saying to them as He did to Moses, “Go forward.” “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” God's work is onward; step by step His people advance onward through conflict and trial to final victory. The history of the church teaches us that God's people are not to be stereotyped in their theories of faith, but to be prepared for new light, for opening truth revealed in His Word.
The past history of the advancement of truth amid error and darkness shows us that sacred truth is not cherished and sought after by the majority. Those who have advanced in reform, obeying the voice of God—“Go forward” have been subject to opposition, torture, and death; and in the face of gaping prisons and threatened torture and death, they deemed the truth for their time of sufficient importance to hold tenaciously, yielding their life rather than to sacrifice their faith. They counted not their life dear unto them if sacrificed for the truth of God. The truth in our day is as important as it was in the days of the martyrs....
What if in Luther's day people had taken a position to cover their disobedience to God's requirement with: “God is too merciful to condemn me for not taking unpopular truth. Our intellectuals and our religious leaders do not accept it. I will run the risk of transgressing God's law because the world rejects it.... I am satisfied with my religion; ... I will risk going with the crowd.”
If I go with the crowd, the Bible tells me I am in the broad road to death. Said the Majesty of heaven, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” We are accountable for the light that shines in our day. Christ wept in agony over Jerusalem because they knew not the time of their visitation. It was their day of trust, their day of opportunity and privilege.... The foul ingratitude, the hollow formalism, and the hypocritical insincerity of hundreds of years called these tears of irrepressible anguish from His eyes.—Letter 35a, 1877.
From Christ Triumphant - Page 317
Christ Triumphant