by Jacob Ninan
"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. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matt.7:13,14). Life or destruction at the end of two paths. Each path begins with a gate. Narrow gate and narrow path, leading to life; wide gate and broad path, leading to destruction. Jesus taught this during what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, and asked us to take the way that leads to life. See what Luke writes, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able" (Lk.13:24). The extra ideas that we get from Luke's writings is that if we have to enter the narrow door, we will have to put in some effort, and that many who attempt to enter will be unable to enter it.
Which comes first, the gate or the road? Some think of it as a long way that leads to a gate, probably thinking of life on earth and the final entry into eternity. But I think it makes more sense to think of it as entering through a narrow gate first, representing our decision to repent from sin and turn to the Saviour for forgiveness, followed by the rest of our life here where we follow Jesus as He teaches us to walk closely with Him. Those who walk on the broad way also have effectively made a choice, probably without having thought much about it. They were, in fact, choosing to reject the narrow gate which would have led them to life.
As we can see, this is certainly a matter of life or death. Our whole eternity will depend on the choice that we make between these two roads. One would imagine that every preacher would make sure when he makes a presentation of the Gospel to people that they understand the choice clearly and also that the preacher would make every effort to encourage the hearers to enter the narrow gate. But the sad fact is, if we have listened to many evangelistic messages around us these days, what we see is that this is not mentioned at all! On the other hand, the emphasis now is on all the blessings people would get if they quickly decided to give Jesus a chance by accepting Him. As Jesus said in a parable, "An enemy has done this!"
Those who have studied the original Greek language in which the New Testament was written tell us that the word polos which is translated as 'many' can also mean 'most'. Just think of it, most people are travelling on the broad way and they do not realise that they are headed towards destruction. Many of them may even be people who consider themselves as Christians and assume that they are going towards eternal life. Isn't it necessary for us to know what this narrow gate and the narrow road really mean, and to ensure that we are walking on the right road? Don't we also need to make sure that the gospel we preach is clear enough so that no one who hears us can go away without having heard the truth and facing the challenge of having to make a decision?
To add to the confusion, many Christians explain the narrow gate and the road lightly. Since Jesus said that He was the Door or Gate to the sheepfold (Jn.10:9), they think that entering through the narrow gate is simply to believe in Jesus. This can explain why many Christians think that they have already entered through the narrow gate, and do not think any more about it. In the world that follows many gods and many beliefs, they think that choosing to believe in Jesus narrows down their choice, and that is all there is to it. Surely there is truth in that. But there is more to it than this, and that is what many Christians miss.
The narrow way
Perhaps, if we begin with the narrow way in which we have to walk all the days of our life after we have chosen to follow Jesus, it will become easier for us to understand the significance of entering through a narrow gate. What is it really for us to follow Jesus? It is so much more than going to church, reading the Bible regularly and praying to Him. We follow Jesus because He is the only Way to connect with God the Father, and also because we want to become like Him. We have seen a little bit of the life and character of Jesus, and we have become very much interested in becoming like that. That is what it means to become a disciple of Jesus, as one who learns from his Master in order to ultimately become like Him.The more we see the life of Jesus, the better we understand that it was very different from that of the people around Him, including that of the religious leaders and scholars of that time. On one side we see His holiness, righteousness, justice and impartiality. On the other side we are overwhelmed to see His mercy, love, kindness, compassion, tenderness, patience, etc., especially as we have begun to experience these in His dealings with us personally. Altogether we see that it is true that if we have seen Jesus, we have also seen God the Father (Jn.14:8,9;Col.2:9).
At the same time, when we see Jesus, we immediately become aware about how different we are from Him. And the more we get to know Him, simultaneously we begin to have more insight into the depth of sinfulness we have within us. So, in simple words, we learn that walking with Jesus and following Him involves putting away our old sinful ways of life, and choosing to walk like Him (Eph.4:21-24;1Jn.2:6). Some of us may have thought earlier that even though we have sinned, we were not as bad as some of the others we knew! It will be a shock for us in the beginning of our spiritual life to discover that there is so much sinfulness in us, that is in our flesh, that we had not imagined there was (Rom.7:18).
Slowly we also realise that our sinfulness is not something that we can put away in a moment through a prayer of consecration or commitment, or what we can be delivered from through someone's prayer or a spiritual experience such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When we are born again, God has taken away our old willingness to yield to sin and given us a new heart that does not want to sin (Ezek.36:26,27). In other words, God has made us dead to sin, who used to be dead in sin (Eph.2:1;Rom.6:11). With this new heart and direction, now as we walk through the long journey of our life along the narrow path, what we have to do is to learn to do the will of God, denying the sinful, selfish desires that keep coming up from our self.
The way that leads to life is not just talking about our life in eternity with God which He will give to us after we die. It is talking about the life of Jesus, or the divine nature, that we will be partaking of slowly, as we walk through the narrow way. The greatest promise that God has given us is that we can actually become like Him in our character (2Pet.1:3,4). Now we can see why we have to walk along the 'narrow way', not as we used to before we came to Jesus, not as the people of the world live. "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever" (1Jn.2:15-17). Our natural desires, the desires to follow what our eyes are attracted to, and our desires to feel great and important compared to others – all of these are what people of the world live by, and also what we used to follow earlier. When we give up such desires in order to do the will of God and to become like Him, we will begin to realise that we don't have much in common with other people as we used to have before, including many Christian friends, and also that others are also beginning to distance themselves from us or to talk against us. Suddenly we realise that the way has become very narrow, and that there are very few people who are walking in it. But what helps to sustain us all along this path is to know that this is the way that will make us more and more like Jesus, and that Jesus is waiting for us at the end.
In contrast, people walking on the broad way are under a delusion, imagining that they are 'free from the law', free to do what they want, and that they can enjoy life to the full! They think that they are not bound by the legalistic restrictions of God, the Bible and the church, and that they are the masters of their own destiny. They encourage one another to dream big, follow their dreams and throw restraints away. But this is actually a path that not only leads them to destruction at the end, but we can see them beginning to taste the consequences of their folly right here in this life.
The narrow gate
Now I hope you can see clearly the choice we have to make at the gate, when we choose to enter the narrow or the broad gate. It is a decision not just to ask for forgiveness of our sins so that we can get into heaven, but to choose to follow Jesus for the rest of our life. This involves considering the cost of giving up our old life and its pleasures, our old friendships, ambitions and dreams, and to do the will of God in every part of our life (Lk.14:28). This is how we choose to enter the narrow gate. In that sense, we are also making a decision to value Jesus as being more important to us that everyone and everything else (vv.26,33). Jesus has to find the top place, the most important place in our life, in every way. That is the choice we make to enter through the narrow gate. Of course, none of us can know at such a time, in the beginning of our journey, everything that walking with Jesus will involve. Still, with what little we may know, this is a time to choose our priorities in order to walk with Jesus and to become like Him.When a rich young ruler came to Jesus with a testimony that he had been keeping all the commandments of God from his youth onwards, Jesus did not tell him that it was enough, and how delighted He was with him. Jesus presented the cost of discipleship to him straightaway! The young man walked away, because he made the decision that his wealth was more important to him than Jesus. Just think of what would have happened if Jesus thought that He would bring up discipleship and such subjects later after the young man had settled down in his faith. That kind of attitude is what is causing problems to many believers and churches, because the entry conditions were not made clear to them in the beginning itself. That is why we see a mixture of believers and unbelievers and those want to be disciples of Jesus and others who only want to enjoy themselves. This is why we see many people getting offended and leaving the church after some time, when they start finding challenges along the way which they had not been informed about.
Conclusion
This is a call to individual believers to examine where they stand, to see if they have chosen the narrow gate and the narrow way. If you are on the broad way and did not know that, God is giving you the opportunity to come back to the narrow gate, enter though it, and start walking now along with the few people who are on the narrow road. This is also a call to all who have a ministry of inviting others to come into the kingdom of God, and I think that is for all of us who have come to know the Lord, to make sure that we share the Gospel with the others as clearly as Jesus Himself did.