Many people wonder why Truth in Love Ministry invests so much time and energy reaching Mormons. After all, they speak often of Jesus, live visibly moral lives, and make great personal sacrifices for their faith. On the surface, it can seem like our differences are small.
But Jesus gives a sobering picture of the way to eternal life:
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9)
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction… But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13–14)
The narrow gate is not narrow because God is reluctant to save. It is narrow because only one thing can bring sinners safely through: the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The Picture That Concerns Us
Imagine someone approaching that narrow door with arms stacked high.
In one arm are folders labeled Religious Duties Completed and Good Deeds Performed. Under the other is a binder marked Service Hours. Tucked beneath it are Family Faith Traditions Kept. Balanced on top are checklists titled Rules Followed and Promises Kept.
Every item may represent real striving, sacrifice, and sincerity. Yet the doorway is too narrow for anyone to pass through while carrying their own record.
That is the heart of our concern.
Good works are not bad. Obedience is not bad. Service, sacrifice, and moral living are not bad. But they cannot become the basis of our confidence before God.
When our hope rests partly on our own worthiness, even sincerely, Christ is no longer being received as the whole basis of our acceptance before God. And only Jesus can open the way.
Paul’s Story: From Self-Trust to Christ-Trust
The apostle Paul understood this from experience. Before following Jesus, he had an impressive spiritual résumé:
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised on the eighth day,
of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrews;
in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
as for zeal, persecuting the church;
as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” (Philippians 3:4–6)
If anyone could have stood before God on the basis of religious devotion, Paul would have had reason to try. But when he came to know Christ, everything changed:
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ… I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own… but that which is through faith in Christ.” (Philippians 3:7–9)
Paul did not merely add Jesus to his spiritual résumé. He counted his résumé as loss so that he would be found in Christ.
That is the difference between self-trust and Christ-trust.
Why This Matters Eternally
This is why we are concerned about any religious system, including Mormonism, that directs people to look partly to their own worthiness, obedience, covenants, or spiritual progress as the basis for standing right with God.
The Bible teaches that our own righteousness cannot make us right with God (Isaiah 64:6). It teaches that if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21). It teaches that sinners are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).
The stakes are eternal. Sincerity cannot open the narrow gate. Religious devotion cannot open the narrow gate. Personal worthiness cannot open the narrow gate.
Only Jesus can.
The Invitation We Long to See Accepted
We long for our Mormon friends, and for anyone tempted to rely on their own spiritual résumé, to lay it all down.
Not because good works do not matter, but because good works cannot save.
The narrow gate stands open for those who come with empty hands, trusting in Jesus alone. His perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection are enough—completely enough—for eternal life with God.
This is why we speak. This is why we care. This is why we keep pointing people to Jesus.