SPM Articles

WHICH ROAD ARE YOU ON?

by Tom Houck

The Right Perspective Provides an Advantage

When traveling to a destination by automobile for the very first time, a roadmap can be a helpful tool. It gives a predictable outcome that will save the user time traveling from one destination to another. The map is able to do that because it illustrates to us a different perspective than we currently have. Instead of being limited by the view of immediate surroundings, a roadmap provides a broad, overhead view that encompasses not only where a person is located but also where that person wants to end up and includes locations in between. With that broad overhead view, a traveler can easily examine where each road will take him or her and determine the best route to get to a chosen destination.

Without a roadmap, the person often ends up driving around aimlessly in hopes of finding the desired destination. Some people choose the “I don’t need a map” method. They prefer to use trial and error instead. This method rarely results in a productive use of time or energy.

Life is a journey, like it or not. Each one of us is traveling in a direction, either on purpose or by happenstance. Regardless of how you got there, if you remain on the road you are on now that road will determine where you end up later in life.

Thankfully, we have a roadmap for our life’s journey. The Bible is God’s roadmap for each of us to follow. His Map uses the words road, way, path and course to indicate a route or, in other words, a way of life that will take someone to an end result. We find one of those illustrations in Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV). "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Described here are two completely different roads, one broad and the other narrow, leading to two completely different locations—destruction and life.

Unlike a roadmap, which shows us multiple routes we can travel to the same location, the roads we travel in life have only one road that will get us to a location in life. The narrow road mentioned in Mathew chapter seven represents the one belief that will put us on the road to a favorable destination. The wide road is wide because it is made up of a collection of many different lanes each representing one of the multitude of beliefs that will take a person in the wrong direction.

We all need the Bible as a roadmap because none of us, by ourselves, have the right perspective on our own life. In Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25 it says that “There is a way (road) that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (NIV) Proverbs 18:17 explains how this happens “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.” (NIV) The phrase the first to present his case in this scripture is referring to us. We are the ones who select our own evidence to prove our own innocence to ourselves. The one who questions him is God’s truth written in the Bible. We are further told in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?” (RSV) Often we justify, rationalize, and blame everyone and everything around us, but ourselves, and cheat ourselves right out of the blessings of knowing and following the truth.

The Bible Gives Us a Predictable Outcome

One of the keys of life is to foresee the final destination of a belief before it takes you there. You don’t have to go to Hell to find out you believed the wrong thing about Jesus as Savior. Everyone needs to know with absolute certainty where he or she will end up before they begin their travel in any area of life. Rather than just hoping your beliefs and actions will get you to a certain destination, the Bible tells you with certainty whether you will arrive there or not before you start the journey. Because life is much too precious to experiment or gamble with. This will save us from wasting a portion, or even all, of our life by going down the wrong road and arriving at a destination we would rather not be at.

One of the Bible’s benefits is to present a picture of predictable outcomes on the issues of life. The Bible is able to do this because it was written from God’s unlimited perspective. It is filled with examples of people who chose the right beliefs and were blessed, while others didn’t choose wisely and came to ruin. The Bible lets each of us know in advance where the road we are on will take us. By using the Bible as our map it is possible to examine different roads to see where each one will take us without traveling on any of them

As an example: some people have the belief that sex outside of marriage is an acceptable way to get pleasure. We can easily examine this belief in the Bible to see which direction it will take someone. Proverbs 7:21-27 (NIV) tells us about the final destination of that belief: “With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.” Either knowingly or unknowingly, if this path is taken, the final destination is death, and this incorrect belief is an access to the expressway that leads to it.

Road Access

Another difference between traveling on our nation’s roadways and the paths of our life’s journey is how we gain access to them. With our public road system we are free to choose any of the roads we want to travel on. In contrast, the paths that we take in life have restrictions. To travel on any of those life paths you must first choose the corresponding belief that allows access to that road. Your beliefs determine decisions, and those decisions drive your behavior.

If you find yourself going down the wrong path, there is only one explanation—you have chosen a wrong belief that has put you there. So, if you don’t like the road you are on, change your beliefs. Changing your unbiblical beliefs will put you on a different road; one that is not destructive. I am not saying that every difficult or hard place is the result of traveling down the wrong road, sometimes it is the result of traveling the right road.

People can sincerely choose an outstanding destination in life, but unless they have the right belief to access the road to that destination they will never end up there. Simply choosing the right destination without the corresponding belief won’t work. Without the correct belief, access to that road will be denied. No exceptions! People may choose to go to heaven, but unless they have the corresponding belief that has led them to making Jesus Christ the Lord of their life that puts them on the road to heaven they simply won’t arrive there.

What you believe about Jesus being the sole means of salvation determines which of Matthew 7’s two roads you will travel on— the road to destruction, or the road to life. In John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus talks about the road to life. He says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In the Greek translation, the word way in John 14:6 means road; therefore, Jesus is the only road to the Father. A person cannot get there any other way. One is not being mean or legalistic when pointing to a narrow truth. It is, however, incredibly cruel to tell someone there are several ways to take in order to get to a specific destination when, in truth, only one path does.

Many Different Categories of Beliefs

In life, there are many different areas of belief to adopt. For every categories there are corresponding roads pertaining to that belief, favorable and unfavorable. As shown in Matthew, chapter seven, for each area of belief there is one right road and several wrong roads that pertain to that area of belief. We need to realize that just because someone is on the right road in one area of belief that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s true in other areas. A person can be on the right road concerning their eternal destiny but on the wrong road in other areas of belief.

Christianity is a belief system and within that belief system there are many areas of belief, probably several thousands, the exact number I don’t know. It is possible for a Christian to travel down the right road in thousands of those areas and still travel down the wrong road in hundreds of others. Our challenge as Christians is to adopt as many of those thousands of areas of correct belief as we can. Often Christian’s become so satisfied with traveling on the right road in one or more areas they do not concern themselves with other areas.

Unfortunately, some people make the mistake of judging Christianity by Christians. The truth is that because Christianity is a belief system it is possible for Christians to be imperfect. Subsequently, Christians are not the perfect representation of Christianity. Christianity is perfect; Christians are not.

Some of the different categories would be: Money, Fame, or Relationships. In fact the entire contents of the Bible is all about relationships. It tells us how God relates to us, how we should relate to Him and how we should treat one another.

The Bible is a book about relationships, in fact that’s all it’s about. When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment in the Bible, He boiled the whole Book down to two relationships, loving God and loving your fellow man (see Matt 22:37-40). The Ten Commandments are just relationship guidelines.

One relationship that is way off track; the boyfriend /girlfriend relationship. The boyfriend/girlfriend relationship has become so meaningless. When it should be special and unique. What is typical in society today in the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship is basically divorce practice. How that relationship is often conducted puts people on the road to divorce, not the road to a successful marriage. There are people who sincerely desired to arrive at a successful marriage but their beliefs and the desired destination simply do not match. Once again, we must turn to God’s map to acquire the beliefs to have to a successful marriage.

Which roads are you on? Honestly examine your beliefs and you will know your future.

June 5, 2008