Sons of Galilee​

The Way is Narrow

 

 “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 7:14

 

Since Eternal Life is a gift from God, this Scripture can be easily misunderstood. The road to life is a life that is intimately bound to God. It consists of authentic repentance, regeneration, discipleship, and a fruitful life. Each of these subjects will be explored more in depth on their own, and in independent articles.

 

But I believe this is very important to understand. That salvation is only by grace through faith in Christ. As explained in Ephesians 2:

 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10

 

There are 3 basic principles to the fact the way is narrow.

 

1 is that Jesus is the narrow way Himself.

 

2 is that the cost of discipleship is high, and many are unwilling to pay the price.

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3 is that we are prone to rely on our own self-righteousness

 

Let’s establish beyond all contradiction the first principle through Scripture. Starting with John 14:

 

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.”

 

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”

 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

-John 14:3-6

 

So Jesus Himself is the narrow way to life. His person, His identity, His life in a person is that very way. Now to another in John 10:

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.”

 

So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

 

All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

 

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:1,7-9

 

So we find incontrovertibly that Jesus is saying that He Himself is the narrow way. But let us explore this in more detail.

 

What men will always do when there is a lack of substance to their spiritual life is fill it with symbolism and form. And you will see they will end up trusting in the form and symbolism and not in the substance. What the truly converted heart sees is its own sinfulness. Its own desperation and need for salvation apart from one’s own self.

 

In Ezekiel 36 God declares the effect of rebirth on a human heart, and it has several markers. “I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules.” Ezekiel 36. Then the effect: “Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations.” Ezekiel 36:31.

 

Recognize this is what Jesus speaks of in 3 of the first 4 beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5:

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

 

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

 

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

 

Poor in spirit means spiritually poor, without the necessary resources to make it to heaven. But this means something more as well. They will mourn because of their sin, and desperately hunger and thirst for righteousness, that is, a righteousness outside of one’s self.

 

Are you not so bad? Don’t recognize the depths of your depravity? You work hard for religious things and have earned some merit before God through religious ceremony attendance, birthright, or ‘good deeds’. Well you are middle class in spirit, or maybe even rich in spirit. You need nothing from God because you don’t recognize your own poverty of spirit. Yours is not the kingdom of heaven.

 

Want to know how religiously bankrupt you are? What if I told you that not only were all your bad deeds held against you in the divine court of law but also all your ‘good deeds’? Why? Because deeds are inherently tied to motive. So things you have not done out of a pure heart not only don’t count to get you to heaven but instead are against you. Here is some news for you, you have never ever done a good work in God’s eyes unless you are someone who has been born of God.

 

How do we know this?

‘the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

-Genesis 6:5.

 

Think that only applied to the pre-flood earth? Think again: “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth”

-Genesis 8:21.

 

So now, everything an unconverted person thinks is evil. Why? Because its not for the glory of God. The unconverted even shrink from that standard and hate it. Because their entire mind is alienated from the life of God in Christ Jesus. Think you have some good works?

 

‘For all of us have become like one who is unclean,

And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;

And all of us wither like a leaf,

And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

-Isaiah 64:6

 

One more to emphasize the full sin of mankind:

 

“The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men

To see if there are any who understand,

Who seek after God.

They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;

There is no one who does good, not even one.”

-Psalm 14:2-3

 

Now think of the danger of relying on the righteousness of Jesus in conjunction with righteousness from us in order to save us. That is pure blasphemy. Because God demands perfect righteousness all the time every day. This is why Jesus came, because we needed God to pay for all our sins, become our full righteousness, and deliver us from the power of sin (and subsequently death).

 

Think in this way: You are standing over a chasm burning with lava and have a strong chain that can pull you to the other side. Now imagine this is a 100-link chain. 99 are made from unbreakable steel (analogous to Christ’s righteousness) only 1 link is made from yours and its made from pewter. Problem is you need 100 links made as strong as one another because the whole chain is only as strong as the very weakest one. As soon as weight is placed on the chain its snaps easily. But 99 were perfect, only 1 needs to be imperfect. This is why you need full righteousness from Christ.

 

Consider another, this is the analogy God brought to my mind when He was bringing me to Himself. I had turned from my sinful ways, but I couldn’t get into heaven! I was busier than anyone I knew doing religious acts and reading and giving and volunteering and writing. I didn’t know anyone who was doing more, seriously. But God showed me that I was trying to build a tower to heaven (good works), on a bottomless pit (my previous deeds and misdeeds), with a pail of wet sand (imperfect works). In fact, I believe I was born again and saved when Christ showed me that I needed to “renounce” (from Luke 14:33) all my own righteousness so that I could have His. This was after a long journey and is best told in context with my testimony found on this website.

 

This is exactly what the Scripture means when it says in Matthew 13:44

 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

 

I felt this was the best news I had ever heard, I felt joy unspeakable, gratitude, relief, a new heart, a full heart, and I believe the Spirit of God took over my life.

 

Let's say it like this: Salvation is nothing less than Christ alone, nothing more than Christ alone.

 

So in order to fully be covered with Christ’s perfect righteousness we must abandon all hope in our own, count it as dung like Paul in Philippians 3.

 

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

 

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

 

and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

 

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

-Philippians 3:7-11

 

This is a brief explanation of why we must find all our righteousness in Jesus Christ, and not religious ceremony or activity that points to Jesus Christ.

 

But there is a second element and more simple that makes the way narrow. Most people are unwilling to pay the price of discipleship, this is best explained by Jesus Christ Himself:

 

“Now large crowds 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.”

 

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.”

 

“So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

-Luke 14:25-33

 

And clarified in another Scripture:

 

"Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”

And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many,

I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

 

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 

 

‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’

and He will answer and say to you,

‘I do not know you, where you are from,’

 

then you will begin to say,

‘We ate and drank in Your presence,

and You taught in our streets.’

 

But He will say,

‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from.

Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’" -Luke 13:22-27

 

Only in Jesus' blood is eternal life, and only by completely trusting Him can we enter Heaven. However, the narrow way involves a life with Christ, intimately bound to The Lord who made us, and then bought us with His own blood. It is a life that is surrendered to Him in gratitude for everything He has done for us. Not the other way around, by somehow trying to become Holy enough to earn heaven. That is just another manifestation of works-based salvation.  

 

"And He told them many things in parables, saying:

“A sower went out to sow.

 

And as he sowed, some seeds

fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

 

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

 

Other seeds fell among thorns,

and the thorns grew up and choked them.

 

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain,

some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

He who has ears, let him hear.”

 

“Hear then the parable of the sower:

When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and

does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches

away what has been sown in his heart.

This is what was sown along the path.

 

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one

who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,

yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word,

immediately he falls away.

 

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears

the Word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful.

 

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it.

 

He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

-Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23