“Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad to The way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” — Matthew 7:13, 1413Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13‑14).
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house hath risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying Lord, Lord, open unto us, and He shall answer and mar unto you, I know you not, whence ye are.” — Luke 8:24, 2524And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him. (Luke 8:24‑25).
I have put these two passages together because of their evident similarity, and because this connected they throw light upon each other, and help to explain some things much misunderstood, from error as to which mischief has resulted.
The words are figurative, plainly. The, time was not yet come when the full Gospel could be spoken out. Yet, now that that time is come, it should, not be hard to read the counsel and the warning, which the Lord is giving in them. Let us ponder them seriously, beloved reader, and God give us eyes to see, and ears to hear.
The last passage is an answer to one of those questions with which men perplex themselves; or which they bring up sometimes as objections to the “narrowness,” of Scripture truth. “Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved?” The Lord answers it with a home-thrust at the questioner himself. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; “to which He adds, that many would” seek to enter in, and not be able.” It would have been too much to expect that so solemn a warning, joined with the figure which He uses as to the entrance into the state of salvation, should not be taken to imply some hardness of the terms of admission, some effort to be needed to overcome the difficulties in the way. Yet the Lord mentions none. He urges on men indeed to “strive,” but the reason for this appeal for earnestness is evidently based upon another motive altogether, than that of there being difficulties in the way. The need for urgency is this: “when once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door.” That might take place at any time. But the straitness of the gate was not at all in question there. It was a shut gate that was to be dreaded, not a strait one.
This also explains as simply as possible, how “many would seek to enter in and not be able.” It was not because the gate was strait, but because it was shut. “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door.” Then it is, therefore, they seek to enter in — too late, if the gate were ever so wide; and He says, “depart from me.”
In like manner the passage in Matthew exhorts to “enter in at the strait gate,” but there is still less even the appearance of any one being excluded by its straitness. “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The difficulty, it is true, is of another sort from that in Luke. It is not the door being shut, but men mistaking which it is: the broad way of destruction being taken for God’s narrow way of life.
This makes the picture of that “broad way” exceedingly solemn. Many have, no doubt, the thought of its representing the way of vice, and open irreligion, as opposed to the narrow way of holiness. But closer consideration will convince us that it is not so. For no one expects, though he may be careless about it, the way of sin to lead heavenward. Whereas the Lord plainly intimates this to be what the writer of Proverbs speaks of, — “a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (14:12). The question is of finding the way of life. Hence the solemn warning to “beware of false prophets,” which follows hereupon; men who would lead those listening to them upon the broad way of death.
“Few there be that find it.” The great company of heavenward wayfarers, as they would consider themselves are thronging another road, congratulating themselves even, it may well be, upon the number and respectability of their companions. As they said in the days in which these words were uttered: — “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed.”
One stood among them whom they knew not; the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not; He came unto his own, and His own received Him not. To as many as received Him, to them gave He authority to become sons of God, even to those who believed in His name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. — (John 1:5, 10-135And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:5)
10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10‑13)).
And who received Him Alas, not they who, like those Pharisees, following after the law of righteousness, and seeking it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, stumbled at that stumbling stone. (Rom. 9:3232Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; (Romans 9:32)). They inquired about God’s works that they should work. They knew not that this was the work of ‘God, that they should believe on Him whom God had sent. (John 6:28, 2928Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. (John 6:28‑29)). And if we listen to His own declaration concerning Himself, who is He? “The WAY and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Him.” And again, His own words are, “I am the DOOR of the sheep; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” — (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)).
Thus, if there are not two “ways” to life, and He says there are not, — the “narrow way” is Jesus Christ Himself; and if the “gate” and the “door” are not dissimilar in what they represent, the “strait gate” is Jesus also. And men miss salvation, not because the terms upon which it is to be had are so hard, nor because He is so unapproachable, but because, alas, men slight Him still, and seek out other ways of approach to God by which they may glorify themselves as good moralists and keepers of the law; and “the publicans and the harlots,” as He told the Pharisees of His day, “go into the kingdom of God before them.”
If you will but look a little further down the page, both in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, you will find the truth of this interpretation brought out fully. For in each place we find the many, so strangely (to themselves) excluded from salvation, standing face to face at last with the Saviour-Judge, and what is the point whereupon, that exclusion hinges. Here we leave the Pharisees of the Lord’s own time behind, for they were plain rejectors and enemies of His, and there could be no doubt in the minds of the disciples to whom He was speaking of the rejection of such as these. No, it is a home-thrust once more for professed followers, people who call Him “Lord,” as in this Christian day they do, and it is of these He says: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name have done many wonderful works?” Thus they have fruits of their pression too, which might seem to show even the most vigorous and lively faith, and these are the things they build on as their ground of confidence in presence of the Judge. And what says He? Not that they had not done these things. There is not the least hint dropped, that what they say is not perfectly true. That is not the point. It is here: “and then will I profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
“Few there be that find it.” Look again at the echo of this in Luke. They stand without and knock al the shut door, and say “Lord, Lord, open unto us.” And again from within comes the answer, “I know you not, whence ye are,” and they begin to say, “we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets.” But again he replies, “I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity.”
Now in all this it is quite unmistakable, that the missing the way of salvation for these unhappy men was just the missing the real knowledge of the Saviour. They knew Him doubtless in a certain way. It is evident they were professed disciples too. But as “the door” and “the way,” they knew Him not. They had not come by Him to God. It is in this way all real knowledge of Jesus is obtained. They were like the crowd on one occasion thronging and pressing around the Lord, in the midst of which one needy woman came and touched though but the hem of His garment, and He, said at once, “Somebody hath touched Me.” In that very moment a link of mutual knowledge had been formed between Him and that woman never to be broken.
Reader, do you know Him so? Is there any peculiar link, think you, between your soul and Him? Have you used Him for your need? Have you come by Him to God?
But perhaps you are still asking, “Why then a strait gate, if Jesus be the gate? Why a narrow way, if Jesus be that way I answer, not because there is narrowness in the heart of Jesus; not because His terms are hard! They are all here, reader: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Who can say that those are hard conditions? There is not even a stipulation as to how you are to come. Come as you are; come with all the burden of your sine upon you; come with a hard and stony heart you cannot change or soften. Come; only come to Him; all the rest is His responsibility, not yours. “By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”
Why then “a strait gate”? Just because, and only because it is “BY ME.” Those two words, so gracious and so assuring, are yet the most rigidly exclusive — “narrow” as men would, aye and do say — that it is possible to conceive. “By Me,” — no other way, absolutely none other. Sincerity will not do; earnestness will not do trying one’s best, or doing one’s best; ordinances; good works; whatever else you please: all is excluded by those two simple words — “By Me.”
And that is strait enough for souls so legal, so full of self, so proud. “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” That submission is required, then, and until all human righteousness has come down in the presence of a righteous God, Christ will not be known or trusted in, as door, and way, and life.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate.” Yet at that gate so strait, so mean, so little esteemed in human eyes, all that you need of rest and peace, and everlasting righteousness is freely and absolutely yours: all the value of the work of the Son of God; all the love of one who could give His Son for you.
What a happy people we should be if we were mirrors reflecting Christ, in the perfect consciousness of our weakness, but looking at Christ in Heaven, bearing up amidst all the evil that is coming in like a flood, because He is up there.