Thursday Thoughts

13"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

14"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

These two passages in Matthew were a part of our Bible study today and the end of verse 14 always makes me sad. I thought I would again look at why the gate is small, the way narrow and few find it.

Jesus has been speaking on the Mount of Beatitudes and in His sermon we see a contrast between two kinds of righteousness...a righteousness that does not satisfy God, and a righteousness that does. A religion that does not satisfy God and a religion that does.

And then in verse 13 an invitation - two gates, two ways, two destinations! It begins with a command, “Enter through the narrow gate.” It’s not going to happen apart from a commitment and a decision on your part. The gospel itself is a command, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to admire the gate, study the gate, or appreciate what the gate stands for. Hell is going to be literally filled with people who admired Jesus, who admired His teaching and His ethics and who may have particularly admired the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus says, “I am the Door, if any man tries to come in any other way, he is a thief and a robber.” In Acts 4:12 it says, “There is no salvation in any other name, for there’s no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” There’s only one way to be saved, there’s only one person who is the Savior and faith in that person is required for salvation.

Listen to 1Timothy 2:5, “There is one God, one Mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” No other Mediator, no other Savior, no other Way. Faith, saving faith, demands... Romans 1:17 says...hearing with faith the message of Christ. Faith comes by hearing the message concerning Christ. Christ and Christ alone is the gate. No Christ, no salvation. No Christ, no heaven. In that sense it is very narrow.

The narrow gate is like a turnstile, admitting only one person at a time. It is intensely personal. It is not a group experience. It doesn’t happen to everybody who joins a church, or everybody who is baptized, or everybody who is in a family of quote/unquote Christians. It isn’t something you inherit from your parents or your grandparents. It is totally individual. It is exclusive in that sense, intensely personal. It requires a break from the crowd. Jesus said, in fact, if you’re not willing to hate your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, your wife, you’re not worthy to be My disciple.

But, the two doors and the two ways lead to two destinations. First, the wide gate, the broad way leads to destruction. The pleasures of sin for a season, Hebrews 11:25, it’s easy, it’s crowded, everybody’s there, can’t be the wrong road, look how many people are there. No restrictions, it just doesn’t end up in heaven, it ends up in destruction. The religion of human achievement from humanism and atheism and any other ism in any other religion without Christ and without a gospel of grace and faith alone, ends up in hell.

What does destruction mean? Everlasting judgment, everlasting punishment. On the other hand, the narrow gate leads, verse 14, to life... life, eternal life, the fullness of life, the life of God, the glorious state of unclouded fellowship with God, the eternal satisfaction, unspeakable joy.

What road are you on?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

John 14:6