Which evangelist mentions the narrow gate

Thank you Paul for clarifying! So often I find I think it all depends on me — and I am often told that! Awesome exposition. By the way, I love the analogy of the bouncer at the door called Religion. The message of trusting in our works instead of Jesus fig leaves is so applicable to everyday life. For example, I had treated some relatives very badly in the past.

And then I felt deep remorse about it, and attempted to fix the situation in my own strength and it only made everything worse. Praise God! I love this! This really helps drive home the point that the flesh is simply a reliance upon self. I need to be reminded of this daily. I think the greatest goal in life is to learn to simply trust Him with everything. I imagine that life would be absent of all anxiety, worry, or fear.

This is my goal at least! How do we receive His Grace and abide in the restful persuasion that Jesus got? Not clear to me and explain please! No worries. For receiving his grace, just accept and believe that Jesus died for you and rose from the dead so you can be redeemed from your past!

So many times we focus on fear, chaos, Bible questions, worldly stuff, measuring up, etc that we left Jesus in the dust. For practical tips, read the Bible especially John! It follows on from how one is to live. From my understanding, in 1st C they were unconcerned about what happened after death, unlike us to day who focus on it.

Life and death to them was in how they lived. You did things that lead to death or life. You bought into your life despair, disrepair and loss, or you bought blessing, abundance and health. Our choices either bring us life or death IN this life. Blessing or curse. It actually makes more sense in the context it has been written. Thanks a lot. Now I do. Why Jesus is called narrow gate is confusing as bible ,John whosoever that means many should reach to heaven whole world is preaching to believe Jesus is our savior ,Lord, redeemed, lamb of Godfor all so the gate must not narrow there is some misinterpration.

Joao, I can relate. This used to be a confusing Scripture for me as well. I think what it means is that there is only one way to life, so in that sense, the way is narrow. Few are those who find it because man so often chooses his own wisdom which comes in many different forms so in that sense the way to destruction is broad. But faith comes from preaching the gospel and illuminates the way to Jesus, the only Savior. He draw us because we are helpless at saving ourselves.

Thank you for incomplete answer, as our preaching is not according to the satisfaction of the Holy Spirit. Please clear this properly — was Jesus already lived up or we have to lift Him now explain how to achieve this command of Jesus. I wait for answer please! There is also the sense He is lifted up in us as we proclaim the gospel. My main point was that Jesus will draw men to Himself so that they can enter through the gate to life, rather than them having to find it out of their own efforts.

Both are true, the way is narrow and Jesus draws us to it. The point is not that God wants to make it difficult for us to come to him. He wants to make it difficult for us to not find him! The way is narrow because it is only through Jesus Christ that men can be saved. However, Holy Spirit along with believers are leading people through the narrow gate. Hope that makes sense.

As a basic rule, never use one scripture alone to form a doctrine. The rest of Scripture will help to make things clear. No lepers were told this. So why this guy? Religion hinders grace, but the cross offends the self-righteous. Instead it says Jesus loved him. I mean Jesus could have mentioned something else. He did not ask how to inherit eternal life. Soothing for sure but is it faith? Worship, service of God is godliness the real name of this game.

I believe that a good symbol of Christianity is the cross. For Jesus said, "If you would come after me, you must deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me daily. Packer is arguing that for some churches today, the best symbol for Christianity is that of a hot tub. I think that a hot tub religion is the perfect example of the wide broad gate and the right wide road. It's comfortable, it's easy, there's never any sacrifice, there's never any need to wrestle with sin or struggle with it.

It's tolerant and all views are accepted. So there is a false gate and we must be aware of it. What should we do with the true gate then?

The scripture says very plainly here we must search for it. You have to search for it. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. There's a searching for the true gate. You're looking for something. You're looking for salvation from sin. You're looking for true purpose in your life. You're looking for security after death. You're looking for things that only Jesus Christ can give you, but you must search for them.

They don't just happen — you must search for them. There must be a hungering and a thirsting, for if you're not needy, if you're not hungry, if you're not thirsty you will not look and if you're not looking, you will not find. That's the nature of this gate. But we must do more than search for it. Brothers and sisters, we must enter the narrow gate, "Enter the narrow gate. It's not an invitation. It's not a request and it's not a suggestion. It is a command. Did you ever think of the Gospel as something that we should obey?

The Gospel is a command from God that we should repent, and that we should enter, and that we should believe. Does God have the right to command us? He does have the right to command, and Jesus as the Son of God does have the right to come and say, enter, enter the narrow gate. We are not to stand outside the gate and admire it, look at its beauty or talk about its restrictiveness or its narrowness.

We are supposed to enter it, enter through the narrow gate. He does not beg, He commands and we must obey to be saved. Many people make a distinction between knowing Jesus as Saviour and knowing Him as Lord. But you know what you're going to find on the other side of the narrow gate? You're going to find a Lord. You're going to find a King.

For do you know what the narrow gate enters into? It enters into the Kingdom of God. You're entering into the Kingdom of God and every Kingdom has a King and God is ready to take your life and to guide you and to direct you as a King would, with love, with purity.

We do not separate out salvation from obeying Jesus as Lord. The very first thing we must do for salvation is obey His command that we enter the narrow gate. We are not called to admire the gate, to praise the gate, to talk about the gate or analyze it, we are called to enter the gate. What is the gate? It is Jesus Christ Himself and none other. It says in John , "I tell you the truth I am the gate for the sheep.

Whoever enters through me will be saved, he will come in and go out and find pasture. In another metaphor it says in Hebrew , talking about entering into the holy of holies it says, "Therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body, we should enter in, we should come close, we should be with God.

What is that entrance? It is the body of Jesus Christ; it is the blood shed for us on the cross. For Jesus takes all of our sin, that which has excluded us from the Kingdom of God. He absorbs it onto Himself, and He pays the penalty for our sin. Jesus died on the cross to give us that gate, that way of entry.

How are we to enter? First we enter through conviction of sin by becoming a spiritual beggar, by being convinced that we need to enter. That it's dangerous out here. If we stay out here we will be in danger but if we go in there there's safety, conviction of sin.

Then there is the search for salvation, that yearning and hungering and thirsting for freedom from condemnation, freedom from sin.

Like the Philippian jailer saying, "Oh what must I do to be saved? We enter by turning away from sin. A total desire to renounce sin, to be saved from sin's penalty. I'm convinced there's only two religions in the world— there's a religion of self-works and there's a religion of grace and none other.

I don't know any others. When I begin to talk to somebody and I say, "Why would God let you into heaven? They're still outside. When you enter the narrow gate you renounce forever the right to say, "I'm basically a good person. Basically, you are saved by God's grace. Basically, God has searched you and has known you and has forgiven you through the blood of Christ.

We are not basically a good person for Jesus said, "There is no one good but God alone. But we renounce forever and the way we do that is through repentance. We turn our back forever on sin when we enter the narrow gate.

Charles Bergen said this, "You and your sins must separate or you and your God will never come together. Not one sin may you keep. They must all be given up. They must all be brought out like Canaanite kings from the cave and hanged in the sun one by one. What an image. We turn our back forever on sin, that's what the narrow gate does. But we enter through faith and trust in Christ, through believing in Him as our Savior, that His death is sufficient for us even a sinner like me.

After the gate come two roads. We enter the narrow gate or we enter the broad gate. The narrow gate leads to a journey and the broad gate leads to a journey. With salvation, the moment you enter the narrow gate, you're free forever from the penalty of sin. But you know what? You're beginning a journey. Sometimes we're so concerned with justification by faith, getting people saved that we forgot that there is a narrow road after the narrow gate.

There is a road to be traveled. There is a journey to be made. Do you remember what Jesus said in John 14? When asked, somebody said to Him, "Lord, we don't know where You're going. How can we know the way? I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. You could say I am the road or I am the path. I'm the place where you travel along your journey.

It's a dynamic thing. It's not a static thing. We come into faith in Christ, and then we begin a long journey. John Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim's Progress understood that. You enter through the narrow gate, and then you begin the rest of the story. In the book, the narrow gate happens within the first few pages, and then Christian travels along his journey to the Celestial City through many toils, dangers, and snares.

There is a way, a journey, to be traveled. Each gate leads to a road like itself. The narrow gate leads to a narrow road, the broad gate leads to a broad road, a comfortable road, an easy road. There's no self-denial on that road.

All you have to do is, for example, profess Jesus, walk the aisle and then don't worry about anything else the rest of your life. That's the broad, comfortable road. God's Word is praised but not studied. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Matthew In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy what the devil does. They have been born from God. I appreciate this teaching, this is the kind of teaching we need to prepare us for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Is Smoking Marijuana Sinful? Privacy Policy. Why should God let you into Heaven? The way Jesus made for us through the cross requires a response, and our response determines our eternal destination. Gate represents an entrance into the wall of a city, to a palace, a town, the temple, a prison, and at the time James penned these words also referred to the gates of hell likened to a prison , or a metaphorical reference to an entrance.

Interestingly, the original Greek word for narrow can be defined as straight. The gate is narrow but assured. Whereas the broad and wide way is simple to find but confusing to navigate. Jesus warned of false teachers and a lack of discipline in the verses following. Matthew Entrance through the narrow gate is granted through believing in who Jesus is and what He came to earth to do for us.

He is the Son of God and walked the earth fully God and fully man; not just a good person who performed miracles. The Christmas and Easter stories are not just stories full of wonder; they are wondrous stories because they are true! God made a way for us to escape the punishment of death for sin, and belief in Christ Jesus is the only way to enter through the narrow gate.

Salvation cannot be earned by anything we do on earth; it is a gift freely given by a Savior who willingly left heaven to come to earth and die a ferociously unjust death on our accord. Yet many, as Jesus warns, will sadly choose not to believe. Jesus has already done the hard work of the cross. Sent here from heaven by the Father, but with the Father in the beginning, all things were made through Christ. He knows us, intimately.

God is after an inmate relationship with us.