The Road Less Traveled

Dear graduates, parents, administrator and teachers, schoolboard and school committees, and friends,

Tonight we congratulate you, dear graduates, upon God’s enabling you to reach the milestone of your graduation. By the grace of God, you have achieved your goal. You have worked hard. Tonight we share in your joy and recognize the gifts the Lord has provided you.

Graduation is a time for appreciation. To appreciate, above all, the abilities God has given you, for without Him none of us can so much as think one thought, write one paper, or pass one test. My dear friends, are you acutely aware tonight of Paul’s profound realization in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”

Tonight is a special time to appreciate your caring parents who have prayed, sacrificed, and wrestled for your welfare both in and beyond your Christian education. It is a time to appreciate your dedicated teachers and administrator, who have given their gifts and resources, their prayers and time, yes, themselves, for your proper, Biblical and Reformed training. It is a time to recognize the numerous hours of careful deliberation and assistance provided on your behalf by the school board, school committees, and numerous volunteers.

Graduation is both a sad and glad time. A time for embraces and tears, for orations and reflections. Tonight you say farewell to fellow students and faculty; you look ahead to new friends and challenges in the unkown future.

Dr. J.R. Beeke is pastor of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This article is a 1989 graduation address given at Plymouth Christian High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Graduation is transition time. Graduation is a stepping-stone from the past with its hours of studies and fond memories to a new and somewhat different life filled with major decisionmaking and responsibility. Graduation spells high hopes and serious apprehensions. It is a happy, unforgettable, solemn event. Graduation is an end and a beginning.

Yes, perhaps more than anything else, graduation is a beginning. Isn’t this why we call graduation, “commencement”?

Dear graduates, beginnings are terribly important. Beginnings usually set the general tone of a thing. Beginnings determine the general direction of a projector relationship. If you begin something in disobedience to God’s will and Word, you will soon be in grave trouble. If a beginning is not good, the end is seldom good.

Tonight you leave behind old, well-traveled ways, and set out on new, unexplored roads. By the grace of God, you have been equipped at Plymouth Christian with the teaching and tools necessary to map your way. Through years of diligent study, work, and application, you have been instructed how to think, speak, and act biblically in each subject area pursued.

Right beginnings compel you, dear graduates, to seek grace to be crucified to sin, Satan, and worldly enticements.

I pray God tonight that you may seek His grace to put these teachings and tools to good use. With a mixture of fears and hopes, I pray that your post-high school beginnings may be carried out in obedience to the Word of God and in the fear of His Name.

Perhaps you will ask: “But if we have been trained well and been equipped with proper tools, why do you have fears for our beginnings?”

Dear graduates, I have fears for you because I know something of my own heart and of worldly, satanic influences. Our hearts by nature wage war against the teaching and tools you have received. Please remember, my friends: the world is strong; our hearts are weak and corrupt; Satan is clever; sin is enticing. You need almighty, divine grace to follow the map of Scripture, to pursue the paths of fidelity to God, to acknowledge Him in all your ways.

The road you are called to seek grace to travel is not the broad road of popularity. It is not the broad road of secular humanism and self-acceptance. Not the broad road of worldly thought-patterns or worldly behavior. Not the broad road of substance abuse, sexual permissiveness, theater-attendance. Not the broad road of materialism or self-gratification.

A real beginning is a call to walk a road less traveled. Robert Frost has said it well, as you will no doubt recall from English Literature:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

/ took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Most importantly, Scripture also speaks of a road less traveled. You’re familiar with Jesus’ words:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Mt. 7:13–14).

In presenting this theme of your call to seek grace to take the road less traveled, I would like to briefly outline for you three great hallmarks such traveling would involve.

Dying to Live

Dear graduates, the first hallmark of taking the biblically less-traveled road is the necessity of dying to live. The message of the gospel, of Golgotha, is that Jesus Christ died to live. He died to destroy death and to bring life out of death. “Through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14b).

The true believer is one called to walk in the footsteps of His Master — not meritoriously, but gratuitously. In other words, out of Christ and for Christ’s sake. The true Christian lifestyle is a way of dying to live. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (Jn. 12:24–26).

Dear graduates, should you desire a true beginning you must seek grace to die to self in at least two ways. First, you need the Holy Spirit to teach you to die to self in regard to all self-righteousness for salvation. You need the Holy Spirit to persuade you in your heart that everything you think, say, or do which is not motivated by loving God above all and your neighbor as yourself is regarded as sin in God’s holy sight. You need the Holy Spirit to show you that by nature nothing we think, say, or do is motivated by such love. You need the Holy Spirit to persuade that by nature you are never doing anything therefore that is not sin. You need the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin, righteousness, and judgment; to strip you of all your righteousness in the presence of almighty God. You need the Holy Spirit to cause you to write “death” across all that is of you, shall you ever live to God in the face of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. You need to sign your own death-sentence that God is righteous and just to cast you away forever, before you may wholeheartedly be brought to agree with God’s life-sentence for cut-off sinners in the bloody satisfaction of Jesus Christ who died in order that poor sinners may live.

Secondly, if you would take the difficult yet blessed road less traveled, you must also learn to die to self in terms of daily sanctification, in terms of a daily Christian walk. The true Christian is one who learns to die to God both in the way of justifying righteousness and in the way of sanctifying righteousness. Right beginnings compel you, dear graduates, to seek grace to be crucified to sin, Satan, and worldly enticements. You must seek grace to deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Christ (Mt. 16:24).

True freedom is not to be found in the crowded road of “living it up”; it is to be found in the narrow, scarcely populated road of unconditional surrender of self in blind obedience to God. No man was ever so free and happy as the Apostle Paul who confessed, “I die daily.”

By living to live, the God-fearing graduate will be motivated by a call to service.

Dear graduate, at this time of new beginnings, pray for grace to flee from and die to sin. If you do not die to sin now, it is very possible that sin will eventually bring about your eternal death. Perhaps you recall a classic experiment with a frog. If dropped into a pot of boiling water, a frog will quickly jump out. But if the same frog is put into a pot and the water is slowly heated, the frog will stay put until boiled alive. We are like that frog. If we gradually accept sin, we shall sear our consciences, and in the end sin shall destroy us.

To die to live is no easy road. But God never promised a God-fearing teenager an easy road; He does promise all His disciples — also teenagers — a blessed road. Blessed are those graduates who have learned in some measure to die to self in order to live to God! Oh, my dear friends, are you experientially acquainted with this road?

Scripture abounds with examples of life-pronouncements for those who must die to self: the kingdom of heaven for the poor in spirit, comfort for the mourning, joy for sackcloth, light for darkness, guidance for confusion, myrtles for briars, blessings for curses, satisfaction for hunger and thirst, gracious rewards in heaven for persecutions on earth, strength for weakness, glory for humiliation, immortality for mortality, a resplendent body for a vile one.

In a word, the road less traveled is life out of death. And this mystery is only understandable through the cross of Calvary being applied to our heart and bearing fruit in our lives. That fruit will be self-denial, service, the fear of God, integrity, and humility.

Living to Live

To die to live paves the way for living to live.

Living to live — what do I mean by that? Well, dear graduates, as you move out into the world and observe peers and associates, you will notice that many people, though alive, are not really living. They have no purpose to life, no meaningful goal for living. They just live on, keeping themselves busy with temporal things—things of this world. They live a physically — not spiritually —oriented life. They live aimlessly. They live for entertainment, for amusement, for happy-go-lucky weekends. Their motto is: Thank God it’s Friday.

The true Christian who takes the road less traveled lives differently. He lives to live. He has purpose, meaning, fulfilment — in his devotional life with God, in his personal relationships, and in work. He can thank God for Mondays too, because he sees every day as a gift of God. In other words, the true believer does not only live a dying life. He lives not only negatively—opposing sin, Satan, worldliness, and evil influences of the old-man self. He also leads a living life. He lives positively. But how?

The true believer’s greatest goal is to seek grace to live out the purpose for which he was created, namely, to honor and glorify God. He lives to live when he wrestles in prayer and practice for the psalmist’s confession:

Help me Thy will to do,
Thy truth I will pursue,
Teach me to fear;
Give me the single eye
Thy Name to glorify,
O Lord, my God Most High,
With heart sincere.

— Psalter 236, stanza 2

To truly live means to seek grace to live out creation’s mandate through the recreative powers of Jesus Christ. It means to seek strength in Christ to think God’s thoughts after Him; to speak God’s Word in accordance with Him; to act out God’s commands in obedience to Him.

Thus, by living to live, the God-fearing believer (and I pray tonight, the Godfearing graduate) will seek grace to live positively in the fear of God. He will aim to esteem the smiles and frowns of God to be of more value than the smiles and frowns of people. He will aim to live with integrity in his whole way of life. He will wrestle for guidance to make all his decisions in accord with the will and Word of God. He will strive to live in accord with Proverbs 3:6, “In all Thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct Thy paths.” He will desire to live in the conscious presence and omniscience of God, to live as the Reformers would say, “In Coram Deo” (in the face of God). Blessed life, dear graduate, when you too may take refuge to the Lord by faith with Peter, saying, “Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love thee”!

Moreover, by living to live, the Godfearing graduate will be motivated by a call to service. When he faces a dating relationship, a career option, a major or minor decision, the question, “What can I give?” will supersede, “What can I get?” “How can I serve others?” will take precedence over, “How can others serve me?” The God-fearing graduate is one who has learned by experience, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” He is acquainted with the joy of service. He lives to be of positive service — yearning to serve God above all, and out of divine love, to serve his neighbor. And he finds gracious riches in the process of giving all away.

There is an old story of a king who went into village streets to greet his subjects. A beggar sitting by the roadside eagerly held up his almsbowl, sure that the king would give generously. Instead the king asked the beggar to give him something. Taken aback, the beggar fished three grains of rice from his bowl and dropped them into the king’s outstretched hand. When at the end of the day the beggar poured out what he had received, he found to his astonishment three grains of pure gold in the bottom of his bowl. “Oh,” he cried, “had I only given him all!”

True meaning true fulfilment, true joy in life is not the result of worldly self-service as the crowded road of humanism currently preaches. Rather, it is the fruit of biblical self-denial, of giving all, of serving others out of love to God above all, as the less traveled road affirms.

Living to Die

Finally, the road less traveled not only signifies dying to live and living to live, but also living to die.

Dear graduate, if your post-high school beginnings will be right, you must view your entire life in the light of eternity. You will seek grace to live in the light of eternity knowing that, due to our deep fall in Adam, we are all living to die. All of us are in the process of dying each day of our lives. Each day we are another step closer to eternity. Each day the thin thread of our lives is growing thinner.

To take the road less traveled means to be aware of our impending death. It means to pray with the Psalmist, “Lord, make me to know mine end” (Ps. 39:4a). It means to face the issues of life and death. It means to truly believe that we are dying people in a dying world. It means to have our houses set in order, to be prepared to meet God in and through His only-begotten Son.

Your search for friendships and a life partner will be guided more by how these friends stand with respect to eternity than by their outward characteristics of talent and beauty which the world may adore.

If you truly live in the light of eternity, your life, dear graduate, shall be very different from the bulk of those who will surround you. The world lives this-worldly; the true believer lives other-worldly. The world looks for paradise here below, for a self-made city with a self-made foundation — albeit a sandy one. The true believer looks for paradise only in glory; he looks for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. He builds by grace on the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

The consequences of living to die shall be great. Then your sin will be a greater burden than worldly disappointment. Your time will be valued rather than wasted. Your need to spiritually profit from affliction will mean more than the burden of affliction itself. Your search for friendships and a life partner wiII be guided more by how these friends stand with respect to eternity than by their outward characteristics of talent and beauty which the world may adore. Your selection of a career will be very much influenced by the jeopardy in which such a career may place your soul.

Dear graduate, which road shall you travel? You can’t travel on the broad, popular road and the narrow, less traveled road simultaneously. You can’t mix worldliness with spirituality, God with Satan, sin with service. Shall you walk the road of obedience or the road of self-pleasure? Shall you be guided by God’s Word or by your selfish feelings? You can’t have it both ways. Shall the hallmarks of your road be:

• living to die,

• living to live,

•dying to live?

Will you dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone? Shall the shores of eternity reveal for you by grace:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

/ took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Dear graduate, if you are still on the broad road of self-centered living which leads to destruction, I beg you tonight, in the Name of my Master, plead with God to transfer you irresistibly to the narrow road less traveled which leads to everlasting life. Make haste for your life’s sake. The less traveled road is not yet closed for you. The throne of grace is still open. No sin is great enough to drain dry the ocean of God’s grace. Repent and return. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Is. 55:6)

Out of free and sovereign grace, may God grant you, your parents, teachers, and friends —yes, all of us — some measure of the Abrahamic blessing: “I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2b).

With all my heart I wish you Godspeed on the narrow road less traveled.

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