Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

You might say that at this rate, very few will be saved. I answer, “I know it. It is precisely what we are told in the Sermon on the Mount.” The Lord Jesus said so two thousand years ago. Narrow is the gate, and confined is the way which leads unto life, and there are few that find it (Matthew 7:14). Few will be saved because few will take the trouble to seek salvation. Most people will not deny themselves the pleasures of sin and their own way for a little season. They turn their backs on the incorruptible inheritance that cannot be defiled and that does not fade away (1 Peter 1:4). Ye will not come to me, says Jesus, that ye might have life (John 5:40). You might say that what I am saying is difficult to follow and that the way is very narrow. I answer, “I know it. Jesus said the same in the Sermon on the Mount.” The Lord Jesus said so two thousand years ago. He always said that we must take up the cross daily and that we must be ready to cut off hand or foot if we would be His disciples. It is the same with Christianity as it is in other things, that there are no gains without pains. That which costs nothing is worth nothing.

Few will be saved