5. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959),
Jesus Explains His Gospel
John Stott says, "Jesus cuts across our easy-going syncretism."3 There are not many good religions; there is only one. And so the options are only two — the true and the false, the right and the wrong, God's way and humankind's way.
All this world's religions are based on human achievement. Biblical Christian ity alone recognizes divine accomplishment — the work of Christ on humankind's behalf — as the sole basis of salvation. Christ's death on the cross paid the price of our sin (1 Cor. 15:3), and His resurrection revealed that He had conquered death (v. 20). Salvation is not a merit system in which people can earn favor with God. No one could ever do enough good works to gain acceptance by God (Rom. 3:10 – 18). Even the law of Moses did not make people righ teous; it was given to show how sinful and disobedient we really are (v. 20). As we noted in chapter 19, God through His grace imputes to believers the righ teous ness of Christ (vv. 21 – 24). On that basis alone they can stand before Him.
And so the only choice is between the plethora of religions based on human achievement and the one religion of divine accomplishment. Scripture says, "Now to the one who works [whoever chooses a religion of human achievement], his wage is not reckoned as a favor but as what is due.4 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly [whoever submits to the religion of divine accomplishment], his faith is reckoned as righteous ness" (Rom. 4:4 – 5).
The narrow way and the broad way do not contrast religion with paganism. Jesus is not setting the higher religions against the lower ones, or even Christian ity against open immorality. The choice is between divine accomplishment and human achievement. Both systems claim to be the way to God. The wide gate is not marked "This Way to Hell"; it is labeled "Heaven," the same as the narrow gate. It just doesn't go there.
Satan is a master at religious deception. He disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He paints his gate so that it looks like the door to heaven, and "many are those who enter by it" (Matt. 7:13, emphasis added). But our Lord describes the right gate as narrow. In fact, many commentators say that the best contemporary expression of the narrow gate is a turnstile.5 Only one person can pass through at a time. No one comes into the kingdom of Christ as part of a group. Many Jews in Jesus' day based their hope of heaven on their national lineage. And many contemporary churchgoers base their hope on their denominational affiliation or their church membership. Here Jesus
3. John R. W. Stott, Chris tian Counter-Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1978), 193. 4. Th e wage that is due is death (Rom. 6:23). 5. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 2:221.
The Way of Salvation
refutes all those ideas. The gate admits only one at a time, for salvation is intensely personal. It is not enough to be born in a Chris tian family or to ride the coattails of a believing spouse. Believing is an individual act.
Entering the narrow gate is not easy. Luke 13 records that while Jesus was teaching in the villages, someone asked Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" (v. 23). His answer annihilates modern easy-believism: "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able" (v. 24, emphasis added). The Greek word for "strive" is agomnizomai, implying an agonizing, intense, purposeful struggle. It is the same word used in 1 Co rin thi ans 9:25 of an athlete battling to win a victory. It is also used in Colossians 4:12 of Epaphras laboring fervently, and in 1 Tim othy 6:12 of the Chris tian who "fights the good fight of faith." It is a struggle, a battle, an extreme effort. There is almost a violence implied. And appropriately so, because entering the kingdom is like going into battle. In Matthew 11:12 Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." Luke 16:16 says, "The gospel of the kingdom is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it" (cf. Acts 14:22). Peter wrote, "If it is with difficulty that the righ teous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?" (1 Peter 4:18).
How does that fit the modern notion that salvation is easy? What does it do to the popular teaching that becoming a Chris tian is only a matter of believing some facts, signing on the dotted line, walking an aisle, raising your hand, or praying some prefabricated prayer? Could it be that many of our "converts" are on the wrong road because they took the easy way through the wrong gate?
Salvation is not easy. "The gate is small . . . and few are those who find it" (Matt. 7:14). The implication is that unless a person is looking diligently for the gate, he or she is not likely to know it is there. In Jeremiah 29:13 God says, "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
The message of Jesus cannot be made to accommodate any kind of cheap grace or easy-believism. The kingdom is not for people who want Jesus without any change in their lives. It is only for those who seek it with all their hearts.
In fact, many who approach the gate turn away when they discover how narrow it is. Did you ever try to get through a turnstile with an armload of suitcases? That is the imagery Jesus' words evoke. The narrow gate is not wide enough for superstars who want to enter with all their valuables. The rich young ruler searched until he found the gate. But when he saw that entering meant he had to leave his baggage behind, he turned away. Whoever we are, whatever we treasure, when we reach the narrow gate, we can expect to have to drop everything. Extra baggage — such as self-righ teous ness, selfishness, sin, and materialism — will not make it through intact. The good news is that
Jesus Explains His Gospel
although the gate is narrow, it is wide enough to accommodate the chief of sinners (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15).
For those who insist on taking luggage, the broad gate may be more appealing. It is marked "Heaven" — it may even be marked "Jesus" — but it is not going to heaven, and it has nothing to do with Jesus. It is the gate for the religion of the masses, a wide-open gate through which anyone can pass without jettisoning self-righ teous ness, pride, material possessions, or even sin. But there is no salvation for those who choose this gate.
Receiving Christ does not mean we can merely add Jesus to the refuse of our lives. Salvation is a total transformation: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Cor. 5:17). What could be clearer than that? Old things pass away. Sin and selfishness and worldly pleasure are replaced by new things. This is the whole point of salvation: it produces a changed life.
Two Ways
The two ways are closely identified with the two gates. One is broad and open, and the other is hard and narrow (Matt. 7:14). Psalm 1:8 also speaks of these two ways: "The Lord knows the way of the righ teous, but the way of the wicked will perish." The choice is the same as it has always been: either the broad and crowded way of the ungodly, or the narrow way of the godly.
The broad way is certainly easier. There is no precipice. There is plenty of latitude for those who want to sample the moral smorgasbord offered by the crowd on this road. You can just stroll and roam. There are hardly any limitations, no curbs, no boundaries. There is tolerance of every conceivable sin — just as long as you say you love Jesus. Or as long as you are religious. Or whatever else you want to be.
This road requires no character. You can be like a fish floating downstream, carried by the current. This, in the language of Ephesians 2:2, is "the course of this world." It is the "way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Prov. 16:25).
God's way is a constricted road, a narrow path that leads to life. Here there is no space for any deviation. Then again, there is no room for the selfgoverned multitudes.
But Jesus does not seek multitudes; He seeks and saves only those who know they are lost. As we have noted, our Lord did not prompt people to make snap decisions to follow Him without counting the cost. Nor did He necessarily invite eager inquirers to jump on His bandwagon. In fact, He often seemed to encourage potential followers to turn away.
The Way of Salvation
In John 6:64, for example, Jesus challenged the faith of those who called themselves disciples: "There are some of you who do not believe." Verse 66 says, "As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore." Jesus turned to the Twelve, and said, "Will ye also go away?" (v. 67 KJV). He did not want casual followers, but people willing to give their lives for Him.
Luke 14 describes how Jesus handled the fawning masses that followed Him everywhere: "Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. . . . So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions' " (vv. 25 – 27, 33). The Lord makes the narrow path as hard as He possibly can, by demanding that those who really want to follow Him step out of the crowd and pick up a cross — an instrument of torture and death.
Try preaching that at the next "revival" meeting and see how many come down the aisle! But perhaps the people who would come might understand the commitment that is required.
Those on the narrow way should also expect persecution. "An hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering ser vice to God" (John 16:2). It is hard to walk this narrow way with bare feet. It is not a luscious meadow. The road is hard. But Jesus never presented Chris tian ity as a soft option for weak-kneed, feeble souls. When a person becomes a Chris tian, that person is then and there declaring war on hell. And hell fights back. Following Christ can cost your very life — it certainly costs your life in a spiritual sense. The fainthearted and compromisers need not apply.
Does that sound like a horrible road to travel? It isn't. Christ Himself leads the way and supplies the strength needed to finish the course (cf. Phil. 4:12 – 13). His yoke is easy and His load is light (Matt. 11:30).
Two Destinations
The choice between the two gates and the two ways is a choice for eternity. The broad road that starts out so easy gets curiously hard at the very end; it ends up in hell. What looks so inviting from this end only leads to destruction.
The narrow gate and the constricted path may not look very appealing, but they point the way to eternal life. This way that starts out hard opens up into the eternal bliss of heaven.
Jesus Explains His Gospel
Two Crowds
Finally, there are two groups of people traveling the different roads. Matthew 7:13 speaks of the crowds passing through the wide gate: "Many are those who enter by it." As for the narrow gate, "Few are those who find it" (v. 14). It is a tragic fact that multitudes of religious people are headed for hell, not heaven. Even in the Old Testament, true believers were only a remnant, never the majority. In Matthew 22:14 Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." In Luke 12:32 Jesus looked at His disciples and said, "Do not be afraid, little flock." The word translated "little" in that verse is micron, from which we get the prefix micro, meaning something very small. It is the same word used in Matthew 13:32 of the mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds. The believing remnant has always been a little flock, a few souls who labor in the power of God, knowing their own human inability, but willing to pay the price. The rest of humankind takes the broad road. But the majority is seldom right.
The broad way is the natural choice, from a human point of view. People prefer sin to righ teous ness. Jesus said, "Men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). It is easy to fall in step with the crowd. You can even add Jesus to all your treasured sins and possessions so you can feel religious. You can go to church and be as active or as passive as you desire. You never have to deny yourself or take up a cross. The only problem is that the natural way ends in disaster.
Someone sent me a clipping from a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. It is a letter to the editor written just after a Billy Graham Crusade:
Aft er hearing Dr. Billy Graham on the air, viewing him on television, and reading reports and letters concerning him and his mission, I am heartily sick of the type of religion that insists my soul (and everyone else's) needs saving — whatever that means. I have never felt that I was lost. Nor do I feel that I daily wallow in the mire of sin, although repetitive preaching insists that I do.
Give me a practical religion that teaches gentleness and tolerance, that acknowledges no barriers of color or creed, that remembers the aged and teaches children of goodness and not sin.
If in order to save my soul I must accept such a philosophy as I have recently heard preached, I prefer to remain forever damned.
A sad letter. But the truth is, that man understood the stark choices. He just made the wrong one. The great tragedy is that there are multitudes on the road
The Way of Salvation
with him — and most of them think they are heading for heaven. Instead, they will end in destruction and damnation, victims of satanic delusion.
I am convinced that the popular evangelistic message of our age actually lures people into this deception. It promises a wonderful, comfortable plan for everyone's life. It obliterates the offense of the cross (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 5:11). Though it presents Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, it says nothing of the small gate or the narrow way. Its subject is the love of God, but there is no mention of God's wrath. It sees people as deprived, not depraved. It is full of love and understanding, but there is no mention of a holy God who hates sin. There is no summons to repentance, no warning of judgment, no call for brokenness, no expectation of a contrite heart, and no reason for deep sorrow over sin. It is a message of easy salvation, a call for a hasty decision, often accompanied by false promises of health, happiness, and material blessing. This is not the gospel according to Jesus.
"The gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." How could Jesus be any clearer? This is the only path His gospel points to. It is not an easy road or a popular one. But it is the only one that leads to eternal glory.