That SEEMS Right.

TLAR, is an acronym for "That Looks About Right". It is usually used by someone who is not interested in taking the time to be accurate, when only a close enough is good enough to get by. If it looks about right, then it will be okay. 

Proverbs 14:12 says: "There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof is destruction." Well that certainly would lead you to think that accuracy is of utmost important in this case! No room for error there! The question then becomes if you end up in destruction from just going the way that seemed right to you, then  how do you know what right way to go so that you don't end up in destruction?

What about the verse in Matt 7:13-14  where Jesus says  “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

That is usually preached in such a way as to mean, that it is the way of the world that seems right to a man. As a way to separate from living the life of a Christian rather than living the life of the world system. But the truth is that the way of the world does not really seem right at all even to the world. In fact if you asked someone if worldly ways of sin etc seem right even if they were not saved, would have to agree that it doesn't seem right. Even the worst criminal has some sort of standards of right and wrong, though there is a line even they won't cross. 

So if the wide gate is not the way of the world, then what is Jesus saying? This verse is within the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is not preaching to a bunch of Gentiles, He is speaking with people who are Jews, and who are very familiar with the Scriptures, and who would already be living their lives by the laws separated from the world, so it would not make sense to warn them to not do what they are not doing anyway. 

So what He is telling them is that the way they are living that DOES seem right is the way of following the LAW. But following the law was NEVER meant to make them right with God. It was always meant to be self proof that you cannot by your own works make yourself righteous! It was to constantly remind them of their sin consciousness! To keep them always aware of their need for forgiveness. Sacrifices and rituals and prayers were a daily reminder of their sinfulness. Thus they placed the emphasis on the sacrifices as if that is the point God was making, which is why Psalm 50:12  If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: For the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?" Heb. 10:8 "Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law"

So what is going on here? Wasn't it God who gave the Law to Moses, and laid out the whole sacrificial system? Yes. But the point was not for the same reason pagans would sacrifice to their gods. The pagans would do it to receive favor in exchange for the sacrifice to appease their gods. Instead the God of Israel wanted the Israelites to sacrifice as a reminder of the Covenant He has with them to become the ultimate sacrifice for their sin in the person of Jesus Christ. They lost the point of what Hosea writes in 6:6 "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."

The Pharisees were a group of religious leaders that believed that the Messiah would come when everyone started becoming as righteous as they saw themselves. That is why they had so much disdain for "publicans and sinners". The Pharisees blamed them for preventing the Messiah from coming. They also berated Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners, claiming that he endorsed their lifestyle and was part of the problem why the Messiah isn't coming, never believing for a moment that the Messiah had come and it was Him; Jesus, who they were condemning! They were promoting a "way that seems right to a man..."

"Wide is the gate and many there be that find it, and it leads to destruction." Well, Jesus did not say that it leads to eternal torment in hellfire! But that is what gets preached in order to scare people into churches! But the fact is that preaching the law IS the invitation to the wide gate. Rom.6:23 " For the wages of sin is death,... Oh how we like to preach that to put sinners under condemnation (Notice that it does not say the wages of sin is eternal torment in the fires of hell!) ...but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Speaking of condemnation, Paul addresses that in Rom. 8:1-2 "There is therefore now NO condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." 

 Paul is teaching that the outcome of the Mosaic Law could only produce sin and death. But now since the sacrifice of Jesus, we now live under a NEW LAW of the Spirit of LIFE! We are a NEW creation, and therefore have entered into the narrow way of abundant life in Christ! We are now free from a conscientiousness of sin. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Definitely; once your eyes have been opened by the Spirit of God, then looking with the new eyes of the Spirit, you will now see the path of truth. Now: That SEEMS Right.