Forcible Entry

There are many times as first responders when force must be used to gain entry and accomplish the mission.

As firefighters, when we approach a home that is on fire and the front door is locked, we may have no choice but to force our way inside. When lives are at risk and the fire is causing irreversible damage, we must do what is necessary to reach the seat of the fire and protect what matters most.

Some may ask, “Did you really need to break down the door to put the fire out?” Others understand why that door had to come down. They know that what is inside the home is valuable, and if we do not gain entry quickly, people may lose the things they love, or worse, the people they love.

We force entry because the mission demands it. Once inside, we announce who we are, begin our fire attack, and search for those who may need to be rescued.

In law enforcement, the use of forcible entry is often criticized and deeply misunderstood by those who do not see the full picture. When force is necessary to gain entry, it must be used to protect the public, the officers involved, and even the offenders themselves.

When serving a warrant, officers may knock and announce their presence. In other circumstances, depending on the known threats inside, they may be required to make entry without warning. 

It is not uncommon for those inside to respond with anger: “What are you doing? Why are you in my house?” Yet, in many cases, these individuals know exactly why law enforcement is there. They know what they have done, and they know why entry is being made. 

For first responders, force is never the mission itself. It is a means to accomplish the mission. We do not force entry just because we want to destroy something. We force entry because something more important is on the other side of that door, someone who needs to be rescued, someone who needs to be protected, or justice that needs to be served.

As believers, our mission is the same. When we stand for our faith in a fallen world and obey Christ’s command to share the Gospel and make disciples, our message can sometimes be perceived as forcing our faith on others. And at times, even with good intentions, our words can come across as judgmental, condemning, or lacking grace.

That is why, as we share the Gospel, we must remember who we were before the Holy Spirit through the Gospel saved us. We were no different from those we are called to reach. As first responders, we understand what it means to rescue someone. When we see someone trapped, we don’t stand by and wait for them to save themselves. We go to them. We enter the danger. We do whatever is necessary to bring them to safety. We are called to do the same with the Gospel, going to others with truth, grace, and love.

But as Christians we must remember this: we are only the first responders. The Holy Spirit is the true Rescuer.

Through the Gospel, the Holy Spirit opens blind eyes, reveals our sin, awakens us to our need for Christ, and brings us to faith in Him. We proclaim the message, but God does the rescuing.

By God's grace, our work as first responders can help us understand our role in sharing the Gospel. We are called to go where others may not want to go, to enter difficult places, and to faithfully deliver the message of hope. But salvation belongs to Lord. (Psalm 3:8)

The Bible clearly teaches that no one in human history by their own desire, will open the door of their heart and invite Jesus into their lives. We are naturally resistant to God, and it is only through the Holy Spirit breaking through our resistance and rescuing us that we are brought to faith in Christ.

Forcible entry by the Holy Spirit is necessary for salvation.

Romans 3:11 says, “No one understands; no one seeks for God.” These words, quoted from Psalm 14:2–3, reveal the condition of every human heart apart from God. Because of the Fall, sin has separated humanity from our Creator. We all have a problem, and that problem is us.

At the core of every human heart is a barricade. But the barricade isn't something outside of us. The barricade is us, our sin, our rebellion, and our desire to live life on our own terms.

The problem is not that we are unable to choose what we want. The problem is that, apart from Christ, we want the wrong things. We choose what we love, and because of our sinful nature, we naturally love what is opposed to God. We don't merely need better information or stronger willpower. We need a supernatural rescue. That is where the Holy Spirit comes in.

Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit does a supernatural work within us. He breaks through our hardened hearts, gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, and brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life. He replaces our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

This is at the heart of the Gospel: we bring nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary. Jesus accomplished our salvation fully through His finished work alone. As the Gospel is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth about Jesus and our desperate need for Him. By God’s grace, He awakens our dead hearts, and we believe. True saving faith is a gift from God, not something we can earn or produce ourselves. We are born again because of the saving work of Jesus Christ alone.

We were once spiritually dead and separated from God, but He rescued us, gave us new life, and brought us into relationship with Him (Ephesians 2:8–9). This is the power of the Gospel proclaimed (Romans 10).

Forcible entry may sound harsh, but when we understand the natural condition of the human heart, we realize the greatest tragedy would not have been for God to break through the door. It would have been for Him to leave us barricaded behind it.

We were dead in our sins and trespasses. We were not looking for God, nor were we trying to rescue ourselves. We were helpless, hopeless, and unable to save ourselves.

But God did not leave us there.

He came for us.

Like a firefighter who sees a home engulfed in flames and knows someone is trapped inside, God does not stand outside the barricade of our hardened hearts and leave us there. He breaks through the door to rescue us.

He enters the darkness, finds us dead in our sin, and brings us into new life rooted in Him. The forcible entry of the Holy Spirit is not an act of violence against us; it is an act of mercy toward us.

He breaks down the door because we are dying behind it.

He breaks through our resistance because He loves us.

He rescues us because we cannot rescue ourselves.

When we understand what we have been rescued from, we begin to grasp how amazing grace truly is. We were barricaded behind the door, unwilling and unable to come out. Yet our loving Father did not leave us dead in our sin. He broke through the door, rescued us from sin and death, and brought us into right relationship with Him.

Praise God for the forcible entry of grace. 

How is forcible entry grace?

• We must understand the barricade is us:  

  • And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:1-5)

• And in love, God comes and rescues us: 

  • For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. (Titus 3:3-8)

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