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On one hand, God desires all men to be saved (1Ti.2:4). On the other hand, His way of salvation is such that finally only a few will be saved (Mt.7:13,14). Is this a contradiction? No. But to understand this, we must get to know the proper meaning of salvation from God's point of view.

Sad to say, many people resist God's love towards them, and want nothing to do with His salvation because they want to live their own lives following after pleasure. That explains the crowds that are going on the broad way that leads to destruction. Unfortunately, many people who think they are on their way to heaven are also actually on the same broad way without realising it. They look at salvation as merely receiving forgiveness of sins. So they raise their hands, come forward, say the sinner's prayer or whatever the preacher tells them to do, in order to obtain it. After that, they assume that they are headed for heaven when they die. Then they continue to live like the rest of the world, seeking to make more money, enjoy all the pleasures of this world to the full, make themselves great in front of the others, etc. This is because they have not understood salvation as God has prepared.

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey the clear instruction that God had given them and to obey the Devil instead, they were making a switch from God to the Devil as lord. How the Devil got them to do that was by promising that they would become like God, knowing what to do, and being able to make their own decisions independent of God (Ge.3:5). Their happiness and fulfilment used to be in their relationship with God where they were entirely dependent on Him and submitted to Him. Now when they got disconnected with God, God's offer of salvation to all mankind is to get man to the original way of dependence on God, submitting to Him and doing His will. When we go to Him first as sinners, believing that only the death of Jesus Christ for our sins can allow God to forgive us, He forgives us and justifies us in His eyes. But then He begins to work in us, trying to slowly bring us to the place where we will happily submit to Him and do His will.

But many people only want forgiveness and not submission to God. They want to live their own lives. So, they are also walking on the broad way, but imagining that they are on the narrow way because they 'believe in Jesus'. I am not saying that those who have received forgiveness from God because of their faith in Jesus will not go to heaven. But I am saying that those who do not want to stop sinning and learn to submit to God have not really received forgiveness because they have not actually repented from their sins. Those who repent from their sins do not want to continue in sin any more, and so those who continue in sin have not repented from their sins at all.

When we see the amount of preaching that omits repentance from sin, we can imagine the large number of people who are deceived in this way!

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