Matthew 7: The Narrow Gate, the Only Road to Life

Introduction

We all go through decisive moments. At the counter of an ice cream shop, you sometimes have twenty-four flavors to choose from. Life is not always like that: for the big decisions, there are often only two options, and each has its consequences. A student who picks the wrong course of study on a whim, against all the advice he received, can lose months before being able to turn back.

Jesus knew this. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, he speaks of two gates and two roads. He does not let people choose as if it did not matter: he calls them, he even commands them, to take one of the two. The preacher at Cleveland Baptist Church prays that his listeners will grasp not only the words of Jesus but also his tone and his sense of urgency. These warnings are not hidden: they are written in big letters, to get our attention.

The message stays on just two verses, Matthew 7:13-14, and follows a simple outline: the narrow gate, the wide gate and the easy road, then the narrow gate and the hard road once more.

Outline of the Message

1. A Call Made to the Crowds

At the start of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. You might think the whole sermon concerns only believers.
But at the end, Matthew reports that the crowds were astonished at his teaching (Matthew 7:28). There was far more than a small group of disciples there, and non-believers among them.
The preacher thinks Jesus is aiming mostly at non-believers in this passage. The images that follow, the diseased tree and the healthy tree, then the wise builder and the foolish builder, point the same way.
"Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)

2. One Command: Enter by the Narrow Gate

In these sentences there is only one instruction: "Enter in by the narrow gate." A call of capital importance. The rest is explanation and warning.
"Enter" is an imperative, a call to act. Nobody was going to carry these people to the other side. They were not going to fall asleep one evening and wake up the next day saying, "Well, look at that, I've crossed over." It is a choice, a conscious decision.
The stakes are life and death. It is not that option A is good and option B a little less so: Jesus contrasts life and destruction. There is no greater contrast.
Jesus speaks in images. There is no gate to look for on the hillside. Two gates open onto two roads that lead to two destinations. Not four, not twenty-five, not a hundred: two, life and destruction.
The word "gate" can also be translated "entrance." The preacher shows the India Gate in New Delhi: there is nothing in it that swings on hinges, it is a passage. That is why many translations say "enter by" the gate: you do not open it, you walk through it.

3. A Narrow Gate: Jesus Alone

Entering by the narrow gate stands for salvation: you have access to God only through Jesus. It means choosing Jesus, following his way and receiving everything he taught in the Sermon on the Mount. "He is the true rabbi. He is the Messiah. I look to him, I submit to him and I find salvation in him."
You do not pass through it without effort. Luke 13:24 uses strong language: "Strive to enter in by the narrow door."
It is narrow because it is not the popular way. Those who follow Jesus, who accept his teaching and who find life in him are fewer than those who follow their own path.
There is no back door, no third option, no other entrance. Everyone who was sitting on the hillside that day, men, women, young people and children, had to make this choice.
The preacher loves the St Helena tunnel, near Ballina, which he used to take when he made the longer trip to Wollongbar or Ballina: a double tunnel that he considers a masterpiece of engineering. If it were open to pedestrians, you could walk through it with ten people on each side. The gate of life, by contrast, is narrow, and Jesus repeats it in verse 14.
Shortly after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Peter says it boldly: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!" (Acts 4:12)
For the listeners that day, to enter was to say: yes, Jesus is the Messiah announced by Isaiah, Micah, Malachi and others. Yes, he tells the truth. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," I believe it. "Blessed are the gentle," I accept it. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," I believe it. "I receive what Jesus said and I respond to it."

4. A Message Against the Current of Culture

The gate is narrow because the entrance to life is faith in Jesus alone. "Have you placed your trust in Jesus alone?"
This message does not fit with postmodernism, which has many gates. The dominant idea today is that there are many paths to God. It seems new, but it has its roots in Hinduism.
Before quoting Gandhi, the preacher warns that what he is about to report is not true and will lead astray those who follow it. Gandhi said in substance that God is one and that there are many paths to reach him. In this view, God is like a high mountain that you can climb from any side. "You will not reach God this way."
Jesus, for his part, said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me." (John 14:6) It is a very narrow road, it is the only road.
Holding this position exposes you to rejection and criticism. A friend of the preacher shared his faith at work. A colleague asked him whether he really believed that we must come to God through Jesus, that it is the only way to be saved and that all other paths are wrong. He answered yes. She never spoke to him again.
Australian culture pushes us to choose what suits us. At the supermarket, there are many kinds of toothpaste, peas and canned peaches: we are spoiled for choice. "But salvation is not picking your favorite can of peaches off the shelf." There is no entry into heaven through open-mindedness, only through Jesus.
Agreeing is not enough. The preacher quotes Grant Osborne: those who approve of Jesus' teaching but do nothing about it are in great danger. You can be lost while acknowledging that there is only one way. Jesus expects a response: to enter.

5. The Wide Gate and the Easy Road

In verse 13, Jesus presents another gate, one that leads to a destination other than life. It is easier to go through, and those who were listening could choose it: we have the freedom to choose.
This is how most people live their lives. It attracts by its width, like the St Helena tunnel: people on the right, people on the left, laughing, joking, partying and even dancing through the gate. You tell yourself it must be the right road.
On the wide road, you are not persecuted for Christ, you have plenty of companions and public opinion goes the same way. The preacher imagines someone congratulating himself there: "I was right to take this road. I'm enjoying myself while those Christians are being persecuted on the narrow road. How clever of me!"
An easy road means little self-control. You do not need to repent, or to follow Jesus of Nazareth who carried his cross, or to change your way of life, or to "cut off your hand," the image Jesus has just used to speak of sin (Matthew 5:30). No need to humble yourself before God or to admit that you need a Savior. Pleasure can become your god, and your motto that of Frank Sinatra: "I did it my way."
The commentator Ralph Earle notes that the word translated "broad" is made of two terms, "wide" and "countryside." The broad road is therefore not just a wide road, it is a vast open countryside, with no fences or limits, where everyone goes wherever he wants.
It is the road of drunkenness, debauchery, living for pleasure, chasing wealth and worshiping material things, of blaring music, unrestrained films and wild parties. There you hear: "Come on, join us. As long as you don't hurt anyone, do what's good for you. My body, my choice." This is the unbridled lifestyle of twenty-first-century Australia, and everyone there encourages you: everything is fine.

6. Where the Wide Road Leads

"But is everything really fine?" Jesus says the road is easy, but it leads to destruction. He hides nothing. He loves people enough to tell them the truth.
He did not soften the message so as not to shock, nor lighten the demands to win more disciples. He did not widen the gate as Hinduism does. He said things as they are.
Destruction means ruin. It is not having a few problems or finishing second in life. It is an eternal ruin, with no return, the destination of those who do not repent. There is no party there, no drink with friends, no cloud to float on.
It is worse than if a man died, was buried like a dog and his existence simply ended. If a dog running tonight on Bloomfield Street is hit by a car, that is the end of its existence. If a human being dies the same way, it is only his physical death: he has an immortal soul that will spend eternity with God or separated from him.
There is no purgatory, no second chance, no reincarnation. "Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment." (Hebrews 9:27) The only hope of those on the hillside was to listen to Jesus while they were alive and to say: "I'm entering by the narrow gate."
The tragedy is that most take the wide road. Jesus is not speaking of a narrow majority: he contrasts the great number with the small number of those who find life. And many people who go to church are on that road.
According to the World Population Review website, 98% of Romanians would be Christian, the United States would have 230 million Christians, about two out of three inhabitants, Brazil 180 million and the Philippines 92 million out of 118 million inhabitants. "Do you believe it?" For the preacher, these are mostly people who tick "Christian" on a census because "my grandfather was Anglican."
He quotes J. C. Ryle, over a hundred years ago: if we can say nothing more than this, that we go where others go, that we worship where they worship and that we hope to end up where they end up, we pronounce our own condemnation. "Is that not walking on the broad road, the one whose end is destruction?"
Calling yourself Protestant, Baptist, Anglican or Presbyterian protects you from nothing. It is the decision to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that takes you through the narrow gate. It is a personal decision.

7. The Narrow Road That Leads to Life

In verse 14, Jesus returns to the narrow gate. He contrasts life with destruction and makes an offer: take this road and you will have life. You escape the destination of the broad road and you find eternal life. "What an offer!"
But he is honest: the road is like the pilgrim's journey. You pick up bumps, scrapes and bruises. Depending on the translation, it is "restricted," "hard" or "narrow."
In this same sermon, Jesus says: "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake" and "Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake" (Matthew 5:10-11). He speaks of cutting off the hand that causes you to fall and of loving your enemies (Matthew 5:44). It is not easy, and it takes discipline.
On this road there is also spiritual attack: because we are with Jesus and have entered the light, we become a target. We must expect spiritual warfare. Beyond the temptations of the world and the troubles of our own heart, there are attacks on our thoughts, arrows of doubt. "We must hold up the shield of faith" (Ephesians 6:16).
The preacher confesses that this week he examined himself on one point: not envying those on the broad road. "They look like they're having more fun than me. If I were over there, I would let myself go a little." Remember instead where they are going.
Rejoice that you are on the harder road with Jesus as your traveling companion. The author of the letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus, "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). We walk with him, with our eyes fixed on him.
Maybe you say: "I entered by the narrow gate in 1994, or in 2001." That is right: it is the decisive moment when you trust Jesus and receive salvation. But it does not stop there. The narrow road lasts for years: it is a long road of discipleship and sanctification until Jesus returns.
Those who walk on the narrow road need a narrow mind: not to slide into materialism and the love of money, not to fall in with the majority view to avoid persecution. "I chose to go through the narrow gate. No turning back."
How many people in heaven tonight regret having entered by the narrow gate? None. Not even the born-again Christians who died for their faith in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran or today in Nigeria. They are with Jesus and inherit eternal life.
Moses was already telling Israel, near the end of Deuteronomy: "Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil" (Deuteronomy 30:15). More than a thousand years later, Jesus takes up a similar teaching with his two gates and his two roads.
Those who heard Jesus that day could decide on the spot. So can you, whether you are in the room or online: "Jesus, I'm coming with you, I trust you for my salvation. I believe you died on the cross for me, and I accept the forgiveness and the eternal life you offer." God is merciful: he will welcome anyone who enters by the narrow gate.

Key Takeaways

Jesus leaves only two gates, two roads and two destinations: life or destruction.
The narrow gate is faith in Jesus alone. There is no back door and no third option.
Approving of Jesus' teaching is not enough, any more than a Christian label or a family heritage: you have to enter.
The wide road is easy and crowded, but Jesus loves people enough to say where it leads.
The narrow road is hard, but you walk it with Jesus, and nobody in heaven regrets having taken it.

Personal Application

Have you personally placed your trust in Jesus alone, or are you content to agree with him?
What do you rely on to call yourself a Christian: a personal decision, or a family, cultural or church affiliation?
In which areas are you tempted to follow the majority to avoid rejection?
Do you ever envy those who walk on the wide road? What helps you remember where it leads?
How can you, this week, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and walk joyfully on the narrow road?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to enter by the narrow gate?

For the preacher, the gate is an image of salvation: you come to God only through Jesus. Entering by the narrow gate means choosing Jesus, submitting to him and receiving everything he taught in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a conscious decision: nobody carries you to the other side.

Why does the wide gate attract so many people?

It is spacious and easy to go through. You find plenty of companions there, you are not persecuted for Christ and you can live as you please, without repenting. But Jesus says clearly where it leads: to destruction, an eternal ruin with no return.

Is it enough to agree with Jesus in order to be saved?

No. Quoting Grant Osborne, the preacher reminds us that those who approve of Jesus' teaching without doing anything about it are in great danger. Neither ticking "Christian" on a census nor a family heritage in a denomination saves you: you must personally place your trust in Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.