“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. “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14, NKJV).
It is easy to follow the crowd, far easier than not following. Sometimes you can get caught up in the press of traffic and get carried along without any real volition; it just seems to happen. The more voluminous the crush of people, the harder it is to resist. It takes an act of will to do otherwise. It takes a desire to determine for yourself where you want to end up. It takes at least one look ahead with eyes and heart open.
Jesus speaks here of two gateways, One gaping wide, obvious, and easy to reach. The other narrow, inconspicuous, and difficult to find. The wide, crowded pathway leads to destruction. The other, sparsely used, leads to life.
What this says about the ultimate destination of most human beings is quite stark and disturbing. The crowd is headed for destruction. Only a disproportionate few enter into eternal life.
Conformity to popular wisdom, or the majority opinion, is a deadly pursuit. While it may make life easier on this side of eternity, the price is far too costly. What seems right to a man, without reference to the truth of God, is a guarantee of everlasting separation from light and life.
It has been this way since the Fall. And while the Lord has taken every measure to show the right way, even to the extreme of sending His only begotten Son to live that perfect revelatory life, and suffer that singular, substitutionary atoning death on behalf of sinners, most human beings will not be shown or saved. They will insist on living life according to the dictates of their own sinful natures, rather than submit to God's merciful will.
The way into life is difficult to find and follow because it involves taking our eyes off ourselves and the world, and focusing on Christ. It takes putting away pride and self-reliance, and taking up submission to the Savior. It takes living a life of faith, rather than sight.
Some who travel the broad way think that Christianity is too narrow and intolerant of other views, too filled with toxic guilt and shame, and too much "pie in the sky by and by" for it to make sense, or be appealing, or intellectually satisfying. They squeeze it through their own preconceptions and ignorance, without taking the time or effort to become fully informed. They make an ill-formed summary judgment without all the facts, and in doing so, join the masses who live life on this earth refusing to honestly consider the truth that God has so lovingly and carefully revealed in His Word.
All who enter into Hell will do so willingly. None will be able to say that they sought the truth but did not find it, for God promises repeatedly that if you seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him. The way into life is hidden and narrow, not because God is some cosmic trickster who obscures the correct path, but because, in comparison to the vast foolishness willfully devised by men, truth itself is overshadowed. Those who practice evil hate the light and do not come to the light precisely because it will reveal their evil deeds. It is only by approaching the Light of Christ that truth and life is revealed.
From Creation onward, God has offered choice to man. Obey and live, or rebel and die. Enter eternity through the popular pathways, or through that one Way that leads to life. It is not for nothing that Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6, NKJV).
Christ is that narrow gate and difficult way. He trod it before us as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He gave Himself in payment for our sin so that entrance into Heaven is assured, IF you "…confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead…" (Romans 10:8, 9, NKJV). There are no bypasses, detours, or alternate routes. It is through Him, and Him alone, that we can enter into life.
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15, NKJV).
