The Narrow Way To Life Wide Open

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13,14

A number of years ago, I came across someone teaching on this passage and I’ll never forget it. I say this even as I fail to remember who it was! I don’t remember them, but their teaching has stayed with me.

The narrow way, of course, is the gospel. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father accept through me.” Many people find that to be just too exclusive. They get upset that Buddha, Confucius, Mohammad and a host of others are excluded. But ALL others are excluded, because only Jesus was the Son of God, and only Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, and only Jesus has risen from the dead. He is the Way and the way is as narrow as One. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But that is a way too narrow for a lot of people.

Most will try to enter by virtue of their good works, or more so by trying to avoid bad ones … “I’m not that bad a guy”… I’m thinking that most of the people reading this post right now already know this. And I sure hope that anyone who might be reading and hasn’t put their hope in Christ won’t wait another minute. If that’s you, then stop reading right now and take 15 minutes that could change your life forever. Click here

For the rest, here’s the rest of the story that most people don’t understand. We must enter through the narrow way, but once we enter through the narrow way, life opens up from horizon to horizon! Because the narrow way leads to LIFE! Life is not narrow. The road to life is narrow, but the narrow road leads to wide open spaces in God’s great grace and unbelievable freedom in Christ.

In the case of the wide way, the result is exactly the opposite, as one should expect. The way to destruction is broad and spacious, but should you choose to travel that road you will find it getting narrower and narrower as your options become fewer and fewer until the day you have none. The wide road is a dead-end road and ultimately the road to nowhere but destruction. The wide road is the easy road with long term consequences that couldn’t be harder. But for those who are willing to trust and take the road less traveled, it’s life wide open, or as Jesus puts it - ‘Life to the full’.  

“Therefore Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’” John 10:7-10