13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt. 7:13-14)
We often hear that the Christian life is a narrow way, which becomes narrower and narrower as we progress in our walk with God. This is often associated with the thought that we, as Christians, increasingly “clip our wings” and must walk along an ever-narrowing path, until there is hardly any space left for our own personality. Certainly, there is a truth that the further we progress in our walk with God, the more it is He who determines our lives. However, we have been misled regarding what the “narrow gate” and “narrow way” really mean.
Jesus has called us to a life of freedom, not to a life where we can hardly dare to do anything without worrying about whether we have abandoned the narrow way.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Gal. 5:1)
Religion has a “long arm.” Once we have experienced the freedom of the Gospel, religious spirits are not far away to – if possible – draw us back under the yoke of slavery, in the form of legalistic Christianity. But God wants us to stand firm in the freedom of the Gospel, without allowing ourselves to be ensnared by the burdens of the law.
The Christian life is not a walk along a narrow path, but along a broad highway, as Isaiah prophesied:
“A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray.” (Isa. 35:8)
The highway that Isaiah prophesied referred to the path we as Christians are called to walk. It is a broad path, a paved highway. The fact that it is called “the Highway of Holiness” and that no unclean person should travel on it—while at the same time, that way is for the unclean—refers to how believers have come to God as sinners and have been cleansed in the blood of Jesus and saved by grace through faith. Those who walk on this broad highway shall not go astray, even if they are fools!
Within God’s kingdom, there are all kinds of people; highly educated and intellectuals, low-educated and people without significant intellectual capacity. The door is open to all, regardless of background, nationality, economic and social status. Among believing Christians are found “fools”—people who are not particularly smart, yet do not risk going astray. Why? Because all born-again Christians—regardless of how far they have come in their Christian walk—can hear God’s voice and are under His protection.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. (Jn. 10:27-28)
If what Jesus said about “the narrow gate” and “the narrow way” is not to be interpreted as us believers having to walk along an ever-narrowing path—what did He mean? In the context when Jesus spoke about “the narrow gate” and “the narrow way,” He warned against false teachers.
15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits…. (Matt. 7:15-16)
In the Gospel of John, we read:
7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (Jn. 10:7-10)
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'” (Jn. 14:6)
Jesus is both the door and the way!
When He talked about being the door of the sheep in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus compared Himself to “all who came before Him”—i.e., all advocates of other religions, philosophies, and worldviews. Those who came before Jesus—and even those who have come after Him and preached a different message—are thieves and robbers! We have often heard that the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy is the devil, but that is not the whole truth. The thief also refers to false teachers, who—whether they are aware of it or not—are inspired by the devil.
The gate is narrow and the way is difficult because salvation and eternal life only apply to those who believe in and receive Jesus! Not all paths lead to heaven, despite what some false prophets and various false teachers preach. There is only one way—Jesus Christ!
To find eternal life, we must lay down our own ideas, including trust in our good works and efforts, which is essentially what all other religions, philosophies, and worldviews advocate in one way or another. The gate is far too narrow and the way too constricted for us to come to God in any other way than by grace through faith in Jesus!
But once we have found Jesus, the narrow gate and the narrow way, we have come to an expansive land and a paved, broad highway. On this road, we have great freedom to make our own choices, develop our gifts and talents, and become all that God has called us to be, without comparing ourselves to others or allowing ourselves to be clipped by religious obligations.
