The Wednesday after the Festival of the Transfiguration of our Lord
Posted on February 12, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 13:22-30 (NKJV)
13:22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 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,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
Devotion
The Scriptures clearly condemn the wide gate of works-righteousness, by which man’s merit earns any part of salvation. Every single non-Christian religion teaches works-righteousness. The narrow gate is the way taught only by Christianity—that a man is saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ’s atoning work.
When the Scriptures speak of good works, they are simply describing the God-pleasing acts which fl ow from the faith of believers. Those adopted as sons should also love and trust in Him, and willingly do according to His Commandments. Similarly, when the Scriptures speak of “workers of iniquity” (today’s reading) or “those who practice lawlessness” (yesterday’s reading), it is describing unbelievers transgressing the Commandments. Those who hate Him work iniquity. Though the wicked hung out with God’s adopted sons, Jesus declares that He does not know the unbelievers, nor the false way in which they entered His kingdom.
Moses and Elijah confirm that the way of salvation proclaimed by Jesus is none other than the narrow gate of justification by grace through faith. Let us enter into that God-ordained Church. And then let us love Him and keep His Commandments.
Collect: O God, Who in the glorious Transfiguration of Thine Only-begotten Son, hast confirmed the mysteries of the Faith by the testimony of the Fathers, and Who, in the Voice that came from the bright cloud, didst in a wonderful manner foreshow the adoption of sons: Mercifully vouchsafe to make us coheirs with the King of His glory, and bring us to the enjoyment of the same; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
