Can you imagine hearing a sermon given by Jesus Himself? Today, we can—because one sermon He gave is recorded in chapters 5–7 of Matthew’s gospel. That sermon is popularly called “The Sermon on the Mount,” because Matthew’s account of it begins, “And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him” (Matthew 5:1).
Often, people do not understand what Jesus said. In this sermon, however, Jesus made a plain and easily understandable statement that most professing Christians today simply do not believe—even if they may say they believe in a “literal reading” of the Bible. They will try to explain away its plain language and meaning, because it conflicts with other beliefs to which they feel they must cling.
What is this easily understood but widely disbelieved statement of Jesus’? It is His command, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13–14).
This plain scripture teaches the opposite of what most professing Christians believe, and has puzzled many in the world. It especially confounds those who believe in some form of universal salvation. “How can Jesus’ statement be true?” they ask. After all, more than 2 billion people today profess Christianity—and that is many, not “few.” So, are only a few of the most righteous going to heaven, with the rest going to hell? Are hundreds of millions in professing Christianity doomed to an eternity of suffering because they were unable to squeeze through the “narrow gate?” And what about the idea that you will get into heaven if you just “believe in Jesus?” Jesus Himself said, “there are few who find it”—a statement that is hard to dismiss.
Wide vs. Narrow
Jesus presents us with two pictures in this scripture. Each contains a passageway. One is wide: “the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” The other is narrow: “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Christ called His Church a “little flock” for a reason.
One of the great lessons of Pentecost is that God is not calling the whole world now. The Church of God in this age is called the “firstfruits,” and Christ is the firstborn of many. We understand that all of humanity will in time have a full chance at salvation, but not all will be called in this age. The task of those called in this age is to follow Christ’s instruction to follow the narrow way and “enter through the narrow gate”!
To follow Christ’s instruction, it should be helpful to learn about that gate. What makes a wide gate wide? What makes a narrow gate narrow? Clearly, Jesus said the whole of humanity will not be able to enter, and is being sorted out at these “gates”—but is the Church of God also being “sifted” at the narrow gate? What can we do that will help us enter through that narrow gate?
There are many steps we can take to help us to enter through that gate, but a foundational step—one particular aspect for us to work on during the Pentecost season—is to hold on to God’s truth. We must do so, because that truth illuminates and guides us on the path God has set us on, which leads us to the narrow gate. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). That path is the “narrow” way of which Christ spoke.
What Makes the Wide Gate Wide?
A false sense of freedom is one characteristic of the wide gate. Lack of restrictions is another. Most people want as much freedom and as few restrictions in their lives as possible. So, millions seek the broader way—the way of this world that rejects God and His way of life. People assume they can benefit from doing what they want, rather than what God says is best. And yet: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).Apart from God’s way, we cannot have freedom of choice and freedom from death at the same time.
In God’s Church, we understand that God’s character is expressed in His definition of right and wrong. Therefore, sin amounts to a personal rejection of God. One Bible dictionary put it well: “The foundation and source of the moral law is God’s character. ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’ is the way the Decalogue [Ten Commandments] is introduced. The Heb. name here used (Everlasting Eternal Almighty) intimates that the principles of law have their standing in the character of God. ‘I am… thou shalt.’ That is the connection. And that is what makes the moral law so awful [awesome] in its unchangeable majesty. It is law because God is. It cannot be changed without changing the character of Jehovah Himself. Right is what it is, because God is what He is, and therefore it is as unchangeable as God” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Pg. 256–257, “Decalogue”).
God is building His own character in us, and His Spirit is a transforming power. If we are to become like our Father, we must be transformed inwardly so that we learn to choose as He chooses. Our will is our power to choose, and God is changing our wills so that we will choose as He does for all eternity. Converted people in God’s Church see God’s law not as restrictions on our lives, but rather as blessings in our lives. Because we are not yet complete, we still must make an effort, difficult at times, to submit our will to His and obey even when the flesh tells us not to. However, as we grow in our conversion, and gain more practice in yielding to God’s will, His Spirit changes our will, transforming it to make us more like Him.
For example, when my daughters were growing up, they often had a messy room after a day’s playing. My wife would tell them to put their things away and clean up their room. This was not necessarily something they were happy to do, but they would obey (perhaps after some grumbling)—and soon their room would be restored to a reasonable order.
Obedience occurs when we subordinate our will to someone else’s. When we obey, we are doing what someone else chooses—which is not necessarily what we would choose. It was not the girls’ will to clean up their room, but it was their mother’s will for them to do it—so they did. They had been taught to obey. Now that they are adults, they have their own homes, and they keep them neat as a pin! They choose to keep their homes clean and orderly, because their wills about it have changed. It is what they want, and no one has to tell them to do it. It is a true proverb that states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Our choices change us. This is why even our trials can be blessings. The broad way and the narrow way do not look the same to Christians as they do to the world. The world rejects the narrow way as limiting what they want to do, but it does not look restrictive to us—it looks inviting to us. It is what we choose. It brings us closer to our Savior and our Father.
What Makes the Narrow Gate Narrow?
Not everyone can go through the narrow gate. There are qualifications. Christians who have the Holy Spirit of God, and are led by it throughout their lives, will be resurrected to immortality and will enter the Kingdom of God. Nothing that is profaned by sin will be in that Kingdom—the Holy Mountain of God. Those who die as unrepentant practitioners of sin will not be resurrected to immortality. They will only have a physical resurrection—and, for physical bodies, death is inevitable. So, it is literally true that “the wages of sin is death.” The Apostle Paul instructed the Church in Rome, “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.For the wages of sin isdeath, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22–23).
So, what do you really want—God’s way of life or the world’s? We are far from complete now, so we can still be deceived and tempted. Paul warned the Church about this. He was constantly concerned about deception in the Church—and for good reason, since the narrow way is the path of truth, and once you are deceived, you are off the narrow way. He wrote the Church in Corinth, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, [and sinned] your minds may somehow be led astray [off the narrow way] from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:2–4, NIV).
The Way of Truth
God’s truth sets His begotten children apart. Jesus said, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:17–19).
God’s truth shows us the way, so deviating from “the faith once delivered” is tantamount to deviating from the path He has placed us on—the narrow way. And we see that the narrow gate has sifted out many in the past decades, just as in ancient times. One lesson we remember every Pentecost is that the Church is “a little flock” (Luke 12:32).
God said, through the prophet Ezekiel, “Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you,” says the Lord God. I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 20:36–38).
In biblical times, when the flock was tithed—with the tithed portion given to God—they were passed single file through a narrow gate, and every tenth one was separated out. Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong taught that this scripture is dual—applying both to physical and spiritual Israel. He used to say that he feared that only a tenth of the Church of his day would make it [through the narrow gate] into the Kingdom of God. Could he have been right?
Here is a familiar scripture: “For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved [GR. dokimas—genuine] may be recognized among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18–19). The ancient Greeks often used the word, dokimas, in the context of coinage—genuine vs. counterfeit. That description was applied to people as well.
We know that Jesus called the Church a little flock, and we usually think of that “littleness” in relation to the rest of the world. But were the genuine members of the Church of God only part of the whole Church? In the letters of Paul and John, we read that there were many false members in the first century Church, and this was certainly true in later centuries. Even a significant part of the ministry was false. Look at the Apostle Paul’s warning to the Church in Corinth: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). The Church had to contend with wolves in sheep’s clothing—and wolves in shepherd’s clothing as well.
“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28–31).
How do these deceivers lead others “off track”—away from the narrow way on which God had set them? Usually they divide the sheep away from their true shepherds by giving them resentments and false doctrines. Often the wolf begins by stirring up offenses to create a wedge separating the shepherd from those he is charged with protecting. But offenses can be temporary, especially in God’s Church, so a wolf likes to devise doctrinal differences to make the division more permanent. A faithful shepherd will try to defend the sheep, so division is always an essential part of the wolf’s tactics—“divide and conquer!” Wise sheep discern what is going on and reject the wolf.
So, as Christians, we must always beware of those who seek to exploit offenses and doctrinal disagreements. It is very instructive to note the verses immediately after the ones about the narrow gate. They concern wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesus first said that “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Then He gave a warning: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:15–21). Division is bad fruit!
“Itching Ears” Block Our Way
This is a matter of great concern for all of us. God has put us on the “narrow way,” which is characterized by His truth. We are told to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Some have lost their way and turned aside, because they had “itching ears” and always want to hear some new thing, on the Internet or elsewhere.
The Apostle Paul warned Timothy, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).
Why? Those who have “itching ears” do not value the truth they have. Such disregard is a sure way to find themselves in the market for a deception. Satan and his ministers gladly provide it, leading people to veer off the path that Christ illuminates for us in His word.
Pride, resentment and doctrinal error also put us at risk. God will often allow a member of His Church to continue down the narrow road for a while with these risks unattended, but sooner or later He will bring such a person to a fork in the road. The way they will choose will depend on their spiritual condition at the time. Those who are unforgiving will take the path of the person who can exploit their resentment. Those who are proud will take the path of those who feed their pride. And those who do not sufficiently value the truth they have been given will be exploited by others who satisfy their “itching ears.” People who leave God’s Church usually do so because they came to a fork in the road, and chose the wrong route. So we must not let ourselves become complacent, as hidden sin literally changes how we see things.
So, are you on the narrow way? Are you, or some of your loved ones, looking for the narrow gate in the wrong place? It is certainly not found at the end of the broad way—and it is not found by those who turn aside because of division, resentment or pride. We must be sure to use the Spirit that God gave us at baptism, and remain vigilant to stay on the narrow path that will lead us through the narrow gate, into the Kingdom of God!