Which Way to Heaven?

by Dave Jenkins on September 14, 2012

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Here is the appeal to which Jesus has been moving through the whole sermon. He gives the call to decide now about becoming a citizen of God’s kingdom and inheriting eternal life, or remaining a citizen of this fallen world and receiving dammnation. The way to life is on God’s terms alone; the way to dammnation is on any terms a person wants, because every way but God’s leads to the same fate.

Jesus has been giving God’s standards throughout the sermon, standards that are holy and perfect and diametrically opposed to the self-righteous, self-sufficient, and hypocritical standards of man—typified by 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 full of decisions—what to wear, what to eat, where to go, what to do, what to say, what to buy, whom to marry, what career to follow, and on and on. Many decisions are trivial and insignificant, and some are essential and life-changing. The most critical of all is our decision about Jesus Christ and His kingdom. That is the ultimate choice that determines our eternal destiny. It is that decision that Jesus here calls men to make in Matthew 7:13-14.

In perfect harmony with His absolute sovereignty, God 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 wooing His creatures back to Himself. He has provided and shown the way, leaving nothing to man but the choice. God made the choice in 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 in Deut. 30:19-20, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.””

After Israel came into the Promise Land, Joshua confronted the people again with a choice; of continuing to serve in Egyptian and Canaanite gods they had adopted or of turning to the Lord who had delivered them from Egypt and given them the land promised to Abraham. “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve,” Joshua pleaded (Josh. 24:13-15).

On Mount Carmel the prophet Elijah asked the people of Israel, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). The Lord commanded Jeremiah to set the choice again before His people: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death’ (Jer. 21:8).

In John 6:66-69, Jesus called for a choice, “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” That is the call that God has been making to men since they turned away from Him, and it is the supreme appeal of His Word.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus presents still again that great choice of choices. This sermon therefore cannot be simply admired and praised for its ethics. Its truth will bless those who accept the King but will stand in judgment over those who refuse Him. The one who admires God’s way but does not accept it is under great judgment, because he acknowledges that he knows the truth.

Nor does the sermon apply only to the future age of the millennial kingdom. The truths Jesus teaches here are truths whose essence God teaches in the Old Testament and throughout the New Testament. They are truths for God’s people of every age, and the decision about the gate and the way has always been a now decision.

The choice between the one and the many—the one right and the many wrongs, the one true way and the many false ways. As John Stott points out, in Matthew 7:13-14, “Jesus cuts across our easy-going syncretism” (Christian Counter-Culture {Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity, 1978}, 193). 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 or 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 but two systems of religions 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 religions 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. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20). 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.

But when self-righteous, ego-centered man saw that he was sinful by the law’s standard he simply set the law aside and devised standards of his own. He invented new religions that accommodated his shortcomings and that were humanly achievable. By meeting his own attainable standards, man therefore considered himself righteous. That is what the rabbis and scribes had done in regard to their traditions. They lowered God’s standards, raised their own estimates of themselves, and felt they had achieved right standing with God (Rom. 10:3). And that is exactly the type of self-ascribed righteousness that Jesus declares will never bring a person into the Kingdom of god (Matt. 5:20).

From here through the rest of the sermon (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 the verdict. Jesus makes the choice crystal clear.

Jesus has already by way of implication, pictured entrance into his kingdom as being both inviting and difficult, that is, as attended by circumstances both favorable and unfavorable. Favorable, for those who enter are signally blessed. They are the possessors of the kingdom they have entered, are comforted, inherit the earth, shall be fully satisfied, etc. Unfavorable, in the sense that they will be persecuted, insulted, and slandered; and that they are burdened with heavy obligations, for example they must practice a righteousness that excels that of the scribes and Pharisees; must love even their enemies and pray for their persecutors; must not be hypercritical but must nevertheless be discriminating, etc. Such things are unfavorable in the sense that they clash with man’s natural tendencies.

In order to enter by the narrow gate one must strip himself of many things, such as a consuming desire for earthly goods, the unforgiving spirit, selfishness, and especially self-righteousness. The narrow gate is therefore the gate of self-denial and obedience. On the other hand, “the wide gate” can be entered with bag and baggage. The old sinful—as it contains and its entire accessory can easily match right through. It is the gate of self-indulgence. So also even in the case of the person who ahs already spiritually entered the narrow gate, whatever still remain of the old nature rebels against laying aside propensities and habits. This old nature is not completely conquered until the moment of death. So, a bitter struggle develops which Romans 7:14-25 describes. But total victory is assured, for the narrow gate has been found and entered, and the way of sinners is assured, for the narrow gate has been found and entered, and the way of sinners has been exchanged for the way of the righteous (Ps. 1); that is, a conscious choice has been made, a good decision.

Basic conversion, in turn, has become daily conversion, or if one prefers, sanctification. On the other hand, the way to which the wide gate admits is broad and roomy. One might call it Broadway. The signs along this wide avenue read, “Welcome to each of you and to all your friends, the more the merrier. Travel as you wish and as fast as you wish. There are no restrictions.” However, “The way of the wicked shall perish.”

The contrast is clearly between “the way of life” and the “way of death.” The first way was constructed according the specifications of the Supreme Architect (Heb. 11:10). The building directions are found in his holy law. The other way was built by the devil and his followers travel on it.

Secondly there are two kinds of travels. Those who have chosen the wide gate and the spacious way are called the man.; those who have entered the narrow gate and are traveling on the constricted way are called the few. This corresponds with Matthew 22:14, “Many are called, few are chosen,” and with such remnant passages as Rom. 9:27; 11:25, etc. Nevertheless, the entire company of the chosen ones are spoken of as an innumerable host (Rev. 7:9).

The conclusion must not be drawn that the tremendous crowds streaming throughout the wide gate and now traveling on Broadway are free and happy while on the other hand, these individuals who have found the narrow gate and are now proceeding on the constricted way are to be pitied. Actually this freedom and happiness of the majority is of a very superficial nature. “Everyone who is living in sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). He is as truly chained as is the prisoner with the iron band around his leg, the band that is fastened to a chain which is cemented into the wall of a dungeon. Every sin he commits draws tighter the chain, until at last it crushes him completely. Since the wicked have no inner peace (Isa. 48:22), how can they be truly happy?

On the other hand, “great peace have they that love the love” (Ps. 119:165; Isa. 26:3; 43:2). Though, as has been pointed out, entering by the narrow gate and walking on the constricted way implies self-denial, difficulty and struggle, pain and hardship, this is especially true because the sinful nature has not been completely conquered. For “the new man” (the regenerate nature) there is joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). The “few” who have entered through the narrow gate are “Afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing” (II Cor. 4:8), “sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing all things” (II Cor. 6:10). And in addition to the treasure which they possess even now, they know that riches greater by far await them for “Our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory, far beyond all measure and proportion” (II Cor. 4:17; Rom. 8:18).

Thirdly, the two destinations. Those who have entered through the wide gate and are now walking upon Broadway are headed for destruction, that is, not for annihilation but for everlasting perdition. On the contrary, “The way of the cross leads home.” It is the way of self-denial that leads to life in its full eschatological sense. A) Fellowship with God in Christ, first in heaven, subsequently in the new heaven and earth; plus b. all the blessings resulting from such fellowship.

A two fold reason is given for the exhortation “enter by the narrow gate.” A twofold reason rather than two separate reasons, for basic for the entire argument of verses 13 and 14 is this unifying thought: men should choose the gate and the way that leads to lfie, that is, the narrow gate and the constricted way, not the gate and the way that ends in destruction, that is, not the wide and broad way. Constantly bearing this in mind note two subordinate arguments: a) it is natural to prefer what is wide and broad, easy of access, to which is narrow, and constricted; and b) it is also natural to follow the crowd than the few. Beware!

The exhortation is an earnest plea, a very tender invitation issuing from the most loving heart of all. It is substantially the same as that found in 4:17, “Be converted, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It will be repeated in the words of Matthew 11:28-30; John 7:37 and II Cor. 5:20. It was anticipated or foreshadowed in Isa. 1:18; 55:11, 6-7; Ezek 33:11; Hos. 11:8, and is climaxed in Rev. 22:17b. And the wooing heart from which it proceeds was laid bare in matt. 23:37, on the cross, really through Christ’s earthly sojourn, and even before (II Cor. 8:9; John 1:14). That heart is still beating still.

Every person who will come to Jesus can come to Jesus Christ. John 6:37, 40, “ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”