We are often confronted by choices in our lives. To choose one option is to deny the other(s). As the saying goes: “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” 1 Jesus taught of a specific binary choice: The narrow, difficult way that leads to life vs. the wide, easy way that leads to destruction.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew 7:13-14 (See also Luke 13:24, or for full context, Luke 13:22-30)
In that specific passage, Jesus does not describe either of those ways. So we turn to other passages, and to Biblical teaching as a whole, to understand what He meant by the two choices.
God = Life
Back toward the beginning of Israel’s history, Moses gave a similar binary choice in his final address to the nation before his death. He had led the people from slavery in Egypt and through forty years of wilderness wanderings. Now they were finally on the doorstep of their Promised Land, and he was counseling them on how to prosper once they settled there.
I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity…life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life…
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
What made the difference between good results and bad ones? Their relationship with God: “walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments…by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.” Psalm 16 also describes how God will “make known to me the path of life” (verse 11) as opposed to “sorrows of those who have bartered for another god” (verse 4).
Jesus = Entrance
The message of the Gospel, the essence of what defines Christianity, is that Jesus is the means by which we can have the relationship we need. Further, the Bible teaches that Jesus is not simply one way among many alternate paths to God. Instead, He is the only way that succeeds; all other attempts to earn a right relationship with God will fail.
That is what makes the gate “narrow” or “small”. It’s not that He is small, of course, or that He is restrictive about those whom He will accept. On the contrary, He is anxious to save everyone who comes to Him. However, the range of choices is narrowed down to one: Jesus. Being carried by Him is the only way to set foot on the path that leads to life.
I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
John 10:9 (context John 10:1-18)
I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
John 14:6 (context John 14:1-6)
Default = Destruction
A common assumption in our society is that most everyone is pretty much OK, and that’s good enough. Per this fascinating report from the Pew Research Center, done in November 2021:
- 39% of U.S. adults say that someone who does not believe in God can still go to Heaven vs. 32% who say they can’t (and 27% who don’t believe in Heaven at all).
- Even among Christians, 45% say “can” while 44% say “can’t” (and 8% say “no heaven”!)
- Evangelical Protestants come the closest to understanding the narrow way, but even 21% of them say that it’s possible to go to Heaven without believing in God (vs. 71% who say No).
Note that the question is phrased as “believe in God”, not as “accept Jesus as Savior”. I feel quite sure that the percentages would be even more skewed if the question were asked in a more Biblically-accurate manner.
Sadly, the majority of our culture thinks that Heaven is the default afterlife destination. Another study, by Barna in 2003, found that 64% of Americans expect to go to Heaven while only one-half of 1% expect to go to Hell. That is a very broad way, with lots of company…and it leads to destruction.
The Bible is adamant that — without Jesus — the default destination of all humans is Hell. Ick! I know that is hard to read; it was hard to type. But what else can you make of the statements we are evaluating? Or others such as “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18) and “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23)?
Life Way = Narrow
Once through the Jesus-gate and on the road to Life, there is still a sense in which that way continues to be narrow. It is sure, and joyful, and wonderful…but Jesus also promised that it would include tribulation (John 16:33) and a cross to bear (Matthew 16:24-25). There are two obvious things that narrow the way:
First, it is a counter-cultural minority. In America, we have become accustomed to thinking of ourselves as a “Christian nation”. It’s come to the point where Christians are derided as being the powerful oppressors imposing our beliefs on others. But even here, those who truly follow Jesus (as opposed to “cultural Christians” who have not personally accepted Jesus for themselves) are the outliers 2. That is certainly the case in most of the world, and throughout most of history.
Second, and much more important, it is under attack. Those who travel the narrow way are in constant danger from God’s enemy, Satan. He can’t prevent those under Jesus’ protection from arriving safely to Heaven. But he does his best to make the trip uncomfortable! That is why God has provided armor — such as the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit — to help us withstand those attacks.
The Choice
In presenting the choice as He did, Jesus was not threatening destruction to those on the broad way. It is precisely the opposite: He was offering — even pleading — for everyone to turn aside to the narrow and life-giving way. His purpose in coming to Earth was to become the open door making possible an alternative to destruction.
All that remains is for each individual to make their own choice: narrow-but-life or broad-but-destruction.
