The Narrow Gate

“Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:12-14 (ESV).

In Luke’s account of the “narrow door” we read:  “He (Jesus) went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.  And someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’  And He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door.  For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say. ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and You taught in our streets.  But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from.  Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.  And people will come from east and west and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.  And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30).

“Do you want to go to heaven when you die?”  It would seem that any who have heard of heaven and its glory would answer yes to that question.  But Jesus taught that “the gate is narrow…the way is hard” that leads to (eternal) life and ‘those who find it are few.”  Jesus also taught, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:8).  Our modern day of errant teaching has not been the only time when people sought a different way to heaven than through faith in the one and only way, Jesus Christ.  We have only to consider how many religious systems have been and are taught and practiced to see why Jesus would give this teaching on the narrow gate.  The way to eternal life is narrow in that it is through Jesus Christ and Jesus alone.  Peter in his powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost stated: “”This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which became the cornerstone.  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 11:11-12). 

How do we find the “narrow” gate to life abundant here and life everlasting after death?  We find the way by turning to God, turning away from our sin (an action which we call repentance, genuine sorrow for our sin), believing and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as the revelation of God and the only way to personal salvation.  Following this deliberate choice on our part, we have then entered through what Jesus called the “narrow gate,”  the way to God and His forgiveness and His restoration of us to His favor.  We are then ready to launch upon the way of growth in godliness and holiness. We will want to take on the characteristics of Jesus and walk in this life as He taught us to do.  We do not create salvation by our actions, nor do good works save us.  But our actions and way of life reflect the change that has come in our life because we know and love Jesus and want to follow Him.  We might say that salvation is past, present and future.  The Christian has been saved from the penalty of sin (death and separation from God), is being saved from the power of sin (by living a victorious Christ-led life in the present), and we will be saved (completed, glorified) when God calls us to be forever with Him.  This is God’s plan of salvation, and it is available for anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Way.