As you’ve highlighted, the greatest question anyone will ever answer is, “Which way leads to heaven?” Life on earth is but a brief moment, a preparation for an eternity that will be spent in either eternal joy or eternal punishment. While we make countless decisions every day, none is more critical than the one that determines our eternal destiny.
Throughout history, God has confronted His people and challenged them to make this very decision. From Moses and Joshua to Elijah, the call has always been the same: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Now, at the climax of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus issues this same challenge to His listeners. After hearing a full exposition of His kingdom’s principles, there can be no neutral response. To remain neutral is to continue on the broad path to destruction. The time for decision is now.
Two Roads, Two Destinations
Jesus’s words present a stark contrast: two gates, two roads, two destinies, and two crowds.
- Two Gates: A wide gate and a narrow gate.
- Two Roads: A broad way and a difficult way.
- Two Destinies: Destruction and life.
- Two Crowds: Many and few.
It is crucial to understand that these two roads are not a contrast between true religion and false religion. Rather, as you explained, they represent two ways of approaching what appears to be the same religion. Both roads are marked, “This is the way to heaven,” but only one actually leads there. One is the way of self-righteousness, and the other is the way of divine righteousness.
The Pharisees, for example, followed an outwardly righteous religion, but their hearts were full of pride and sin. They believed they were good enough to get to heaven on their own terms. This is the broad way, a path where you can adjust God’s law to accommodate your sinful nature.
In contrast, the narrow way is the path of those who, after hearing the Sermon on the Mount, recognize their deep depravity. They see themselves as spiritually poor, mourning over their sin, meek, and hungering for a righteousness they cannot achieve on their own. They abandon all self-righteousness and cast themselves completely on the mercy of God through Christ.
The Command to “Enter”
The first and most important command in this passage is “You must enter.” This is an absolute command, not an option. It demands an immediate and decisive action. It’s not enough to admire the Sermon on the Mount’s ethics; you must enter its way of life.
Jesus has spent the entire sermon narrowing down the way to God, exposing our sinful hearts and calling us to a new, disciplined life. This is a very prescribed and difficult way, and Jesus makes it clear: “If you’re going to be in My kingdom, you’ve got to come on these terms.” The narrow gate requires us to abandon our darling sins, pluck out our spiritual eye, and cut off our hand. It requires a genuine repentance and a complete surrender to Christ’s terms.
The tragic reality is that hell will be full of people who admired the Sermon on the Mount but refused to enter through the narrow gate.
“Enter through the narrow gate.” This command from Jesus is a central theme of the Sermon on the Mount, and it reveals profound truths about what it means to be a true follower of Christ. A “strait” or narrow gate is a constrained, cramped, or difficult entrance. It serves two purposes: it allows some to enter while it shuts others out. This gate is the only way to the path that leads to life. All who do not enter through it are eternally barred from the presence of God. This gate is illustrated in the parable of the ten virgins, where the door was shut to those who were unprepared (Matthew 25:10).
Jesus does not give us an alternative; He commands, “You must enter.” This is a determined act of will and faith, where we choose to enter on God’s terms through His prescribed gate. But what does it mean to enter this narrow gate?
Six Implications of Entering the Narrow Gate
Entering the narrow gate implies six things about our approach to salvation.
1. You Must Enter Humbly
The narrow gate is low as well as narrow, so you cannot enter with arrogance. You must bend very low, in a state of deep humility and spiritual poverty. This humility is the first step to accepting Jesus’s teachings, even when they seem impossible to a sinful heart. We must believe everything Christ says, leaving behind all false teachings, our own thoughts, and traditions. We must accept that we are totally depraved and fall prostrate before Him. It is by relinquishing error and receiving the truth that we pass through the narrow gate.
2. You Must Enter Alone
The term “narrow” implies that only one person can go through at a time. It is like a turnstile where you cannot “tailgate.” You don’t come into the kingdom of Christ in groups. The Jews believed they were saved as a group because they were descendants of Abraham, but Jesus made it clear that family, tradition, and rituals are not enough. There are no groups coming through the turnstile; it’s an intensely individual decision. While one person’s faith may influence another’s, salvation is a personal and exclusive act. You can go to hell in groups, but you enter heaven alone. Each of us is personally responsible for our own soul.
3. You Must Enter with Great Difficulty
Some people are shocked by this, because they’ve been taught that salvation is easy: just believe, walk an aisle, or say a prayer. But Jesus said, “Few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14), which implies that you have to be looking for it. The Old Testament says you will find God “when you search for Me with all your heart.” Nobody accidentally slips and falls into the Kingdom of God. This “cheap grace” and “easy-believism” are a pervasive lie of modern evangelism.
In Luke 13:24, Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate,” and He uses the Greek word agōnizomai, from which we get the English word “agonize.” This word is used to describe an athlete who undergoes self-denying discipline to win a race (1 Corinthians 9:25) or a fervent, intense struggle (Colossians 4:12). It is a spiritual warfare against all opposition—Satan, our sinful flesh, and the world—that resists us.
Matthew 11:12 says, “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” This “violence” is not an unlawful assault but a holy, industrious intensity of desire and effort. It is a determination to master all difficulties and surmount every obstacle. In Luke 16:16, Jesus says, “Everyone who comes into the Kingdom presses his way into the Kingdom.” Salvation is not for the weaklings or compromisers. It’s for those whose hearts are shattered over their sinfulness and who long for God to change their lives. It’s difficult because the love of the world closes our hearts against Him. The rich young ruler went away sorrowing because he loved his possessions more than he loved the Kingdom.
This isn’t a religion of human achievement. When you come to the brokenness and realize you cannot do it on your own, Christ pours His grace into you to strengthen you for the necessary agonizing to enter.
4. You Must Enter Simply
You cannot go through a turnstile with luggage. This gate is a gate of self-denial. It does not admit the proud, arrogant, or those who want to carry their prestige, wealth, or sin. You must strip off all of yourself and all of your self-righteousness.
The rich young ruler came to the gate with the baggage of his riches and self-righteousness. He was unwilling to kill his “darling sin,” so he went away sorrowing. He sought, but he wasn’t willing to strip himself naked to enter. Saving faith is not just an act of the mind; it is a stripping of the self, with a humble heart that says, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
5. You Must Enter Repentantly
You cannot come through the narrow gate unless your heart is repentant over sin, turning from sin to serve the living God. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “You and your sins must separate, or you and your God will never come together.” We must abandon all our idols and the pleasures of sin. Repentance is the preparation God sends before us.
6. You Must Enter in Utter Surrender to Christ
Salvation is not just adding Jesus to your carnal life; it is a transformation. If you are truly saved, it will manifest itself in a changed life where sin is confessed, obedience is characteristic, and love is made manifest (1 John). There may be people who claim to be Christians but show no signs of obedience. They may think they are on the right road, but they are deceived. Salvation is marked by a complete surrender of ourselves to God through Christ.
The Contrast: The Wide Gate
In contrast to the narrow gate, there is a wide gate that leads to a broad road and destruction. You can enter the wide gate in groups, without any self-denial. You can bring all your baggage—your pride, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, and sin—and still be welcomed. This is the danger of modern evangelism, which often makes salvation seem cheap and easy, promising a wide gate at the beginning of the road. But Jesus says the gate itself is narrow.
This is a sobering warning. Many people believe they can reach heaven on much easier terms than Christ prescribed, without denying themselves, taking up their cross, and following Him. They believe they can serve two masters and “make the best of two worlds.” But Jesus, in His love and honesty, gives us the correct picture. He says the gate is narrow, and the road is narrow, and therefore, only a few will be saved.
Jesus is not disappointed; He knows His chosen ones will be a multitude that no man can number. However, compared to any church, generation, or group, only a few will find the narrow gate and walk the path of biblical holiness.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 