Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. 14For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.

Jesus has been giving God’s standards throughout the sermon, standards that are holy and perfect and that are diametrically opposed to the self-righteous, self-sufficient, and hypocritical standards of those of the scribes and Pharisees. He has shown what His kingdom is like and what its people are like-and are not like. Now He presents the choice of entering the kingdom or not. Here the Lord focuses on the inevitable decision that every person must make, the crossroads where he must decide on the gate he will enter and the way he will go.

Our lives are filled with decisions, but the ultimate choice that determines our eternal destiny. It is that decision that Jesus here calls men to make.
In perfect harmony with His absolute sovereignty, God has always allowed men to choose Him or not, and He has always pleaded with them to decide for Him or face the consequences of a choice against Him.

Since mankind turned their backs on Him in the Fall, God has bent every effort and spared no cost in bring His creatures back to Himself. He has provided and shown the way, leaving nothing to man but the choice. God made His choice by providing the way of redemption. The choice is now man’s.

While Israel was in the wilderness the Lord instructed Moses to tell the people, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him” (Deut. 30:19–20).

The choice is between the one and the many-the one right and the many wrongs, the one true way and the many false ways. There are not many roads to heaven, but one. There are not many good religions, but only one. Man cannot come to God in any of the ways that man himself devises, but only in the one way that God Himself has provided.

The contrast Jesus makes is not between religion and irreligion, or between the higher religions and the lower ones. Nor is it a contrast between nice and upright people and vile and degraded ones. It is a contrast between divine righteousness and human righteousness, all of which is unrighteousness. It is a contrast between divine revelation and human religion, between divine truth and human falsehood, between trusting in God and trusting in self. It is the contrast between God’s grace and man’s works.

There have always been only two systems of religion in the world. One is God’s system of divine accomplishment, and the other is man’s system of human achievement. One is the religion of God’s grace, the other the religion of men’s works. One is the religion of faith, the other the religion of the flesh. One is the religion of the sincere heart and the internal, the other the religion of hypocrisy and the external. Within man’s system are thousands of religious forms and names, but they are all built on the achievements of man and the inspiration of Satan. Christianity, on the other hand, is the religion of divine accomplishment, and it stands alone.

Even the law given through Moses, though divine, was not a means of salvation but rather a means of showing man’s need for salvation. “By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight,” Paul explains; “for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). The law came to show us our sinfulness and guilt before God, and to show us that we are incapable in ourselves of keeping God’s perfect law. Mt 5;48,

From here through the rest of the sermon (vv. 13–27) Jesus repeatedly points out two things: the necessity of choosing whether to follow God or not, and the fact that the choices are two and only two. There are two gates, the narrow and the wide; two ways, the narrow and the broad; two destinations, life and destruction; two groups, the few and the many; two kinds of trees, the good and the bad, which produce two kinds of fruit, the good and the bad; two kinds of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, the sincere and the false; two kinds of builders, the wise and the foolish; two foundations, the rock and the sand; and two houses, the secure and the insecure. In all preaching there must be the demand for a verdict. Jesus makes the choice crystal clear.

Jesus says, “Blessed is the man who goes in at the narrow gate, on the straight path. Not many go in that way, but there’s life at the end of it. Cursed is the one, in effect, who goes in at the broad gate, the very broad way. Many be that go in there, but that is the way to destruction.” You think, “Well, I don’t want either of them. I mean, that’s really lascivious and dirty over there, and that’s a bit narrow and fundamentalist over here. I’d like a sort of medium-size gate.” Jesus doesn’t offer that, either.

“Jesus, that one is a bit destructive. This one is a bit sort of narrow fundamentalist. How about a medium-size gate? I could make do with that.” I am not as bad as Otis over there, what I do is really not sin.

1 John 1:5 to 2:2 “If you say that you don’t sin or that haven’t sinned, you’re a liar. You’re calling God a liar. God tells you that you do sin. Don’t deny it. You’re a liar. The truth isn’t in you. You’re kidding yourself.”

THE TWO GATES

Enter is in the aorist imperative tense, and therefore demands a definite and specific action. The command is not to admire or to ponder the gate but to enter it.

“Enter through the narrow gate.”

Yet, as the law itself provided something of a threat, so also Jesus still here concludes with a threat.

Deuteronomy, 30:15-20. verse 19. Moses speaks to the people of Israel and says, “I call heaven and earth to witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life, in order that you may live.”

The person who enters the narrow gate must enter alone. We can bring no one else and nothing else with us. This narrow gate allows only one person through at a time, with no baggage. People do not come into the kingdom in groups, but singly. The Jews had the mistaken notion that they were all in God’s kingdom together by racial salvation, signified by circumcision.

God’s gate is so narrow that we must go through it naked.

It is the gate of self-denial, through which one cannot carry the baggage of sin and self-will.
When we sing, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling,” we are testifying to the way of the gospel. The way of Christ is the way of the cross, and the way of the cross is the way of self-denial. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:24–25)

The narrow gate demands repentance. Many Jews believed that simply being a Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham, was sufficient for entrance into heaven. Many people today believe that being in a church qualifies them for heaven. Some even believe that simply being a human being qualifies them, because God is too good and kind to exclude anyone. God does offer the way to all, and His greatest longing is that everyone enter, because He does not desire “for any to perish but for TWO WAYS

The gate that is wide leads to the way that is broad; and the narrow gate, which is small, leads to the way that is narrow. The narrow way is the way of the godly, and the broad way is the way of the ungodly-and those are the only two ways in which men can travel.

The godly person delights “in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season,” whereas the ungodly “are like chaff which the wind drives away” (Ps. 1:2–4).

The way that is broad is the easy, attractive, inclusive, indulgent, permissive, and self-oriented way of the world. There are few rules, few restrictions, and few requirements. All you need do is profess Jesus, or at least be religious, and you are readily accepted in that large and diverse group.

On the broad road, Sin is tolerated, truth is moderated, and humility is ignored.

God’s Word is praised but not studied, and His standards are admired but not followed. This way requires no spiritual maturity, no moral character, no commitment, and no sacrifice. It is the easy way of floating downstream, in “the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).

It is the tragic way “which seems right to a man,” but whose “end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).

We can pay nothing for salvation, yet coming to Jesus Christ costs everything we have. “If anyone comes to Me,” Jesus says, “and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross [a willingness even to die if necessary] and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). God’s way is not spacious but confining.

There is the joy of the Lord, of course, and there is the freedom that is in Christ Jesus, freedom from sin and free to do right. On the other hand, the entrance to it and to any man who feels the oppressive weight of sin, as all Christians must, is in that sense, confining. It is a narrow road. It is a straight road. That is why the very first beatitude demands poverty of spirit.

On the broad road sin is tolerated, truth is moderated, and humility is ignored. God’s Word is praised but not studied, and His standards are admired but not followed. This way requires no spiritual maturity, no moral character, no commitment, and no sacrifice. It is the easy way of floating downstream, it takes no effort

The wide gate is appealing because it attracts you with its company, many travel this road.

God’s way cannot be established by appeal to majority opinion.

Paul, a Christian says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” If someone then asks directly, “If everybody else is going the other way, does this mean there are only a few who are saved?” Indeed, someone asks Jesus this question specifically in Luke 13.

Luke 13:22, “Then Jesus went through the cities and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, ‘Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?’ He said to them, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, “Sir, open the door for us.” But he will answer, “I don’t know you or where you come from.”

Then you will say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” But he will reply, “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!” There will be weeping there, and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.’ ”

These were Strong words spoken preeminently to the Jews of his own day who were rejecting their own Messiah.

The narrow way cannot be pursued as long as we are motivated by a desire to please the mass of men. The mass goes that way. The narrow is a little lonelier. Again, we can see how Jesus is summing up the Sermon on the Mount. In the very first part in the Beatitudes, there is this constant reference to blessing. “Blessed is the one who does this and blessed is the one who does that.”

Matthew, chapter 6, the very essence of religious hypocrisy according to Jesus is the effort to please men rather than pleasing God even by our outward acts of piety.

The Christian way is a narrow way. It’s not popular. You’re not going to be hailed as a great leader of mighty moments, certainly not in the world, not if you live righteously. It is unpopular, so you find men like Joshua standing up and saying, “Choose you this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

There are also eternal prospects in view.

It is easy to look for a wider gate instead of going through the trouble to get through the narrow one.

all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.”

There are only two ways.

It’s not just a question of being for Jesus or pretty much for him but with a few reservations or for the occasion, especially on Sunday, or dead-set against him. It’s a question of either for or against. There are only two ways. In other words, passive resistance is still the broad way. Nonchalance and apathy? These are still the broad way.

This means the habits we establish now in walking the narrow way will either bless us or haunt us as long as we live, but there are only two ways.

There is a feeling among some, especially in North American evangelism that you sort of approach Christ in a way as if you’re almost doing him a favor and you receive his certified check for eternal life against which you pay in a certain amount of commitment, without overdoing it.

From the perspective of someone standing out and looking at it, it’s a narrow way, and Jesus demands the whole commitment be thought of in these terms. This means a person does not sort of drift along the Christian pathway. He doesn’t just happen to become holy or happen to become more prayerful or accidentally become a little more spiritual.

Be careful, don’t be fooled.

There is nothing here to indicate that the broad way is marked “Hell.” The point our Lord is making is that it is marked “Heaven” but does not lead there. That is the great lie of all the false religions of human achievement. The two very different destinations of the two ways are made clear by the Lord .

The broad … leads to destruction, whereas only the narrow … leads to life. Every religion except Christianity, the only religion of divine accomplishment, follows the same spiritual way and leads to the same spiritual end, to hell. There are many of those roads, and most of them are attractive, appealing, and crowded with travelers. But not a single one leads where it promises; and not a single one fails to lead where Jesus says it leads-to destruction.