The Narrow Gate

“There are many roads that lead to heaven”—an often heard expression. However, there is an old saying that goes like this: “Just because you believe something doesn’t make it true.”

The actual truth can be illustrated by using a straightforward analogy that is very simple to understand. The allegory compares a football stadium, and its owner, to God’s heavenly Kingdom and His requirements to enter heaven. Jesus is the King of heaven much like a businessman who owns a stadium and controls its use.

It goes without saying that the stadium’s owner wants everyone to come to his venue even though the seating is limited. He pays for billboards to promote a particular event, and he runs newspaper ads to bring people to his stadium—everyone is invited. Similarly, God wants every person to answer the call that He has placed upon his or her life and come to Him. Here is where most people have difficulty with God and His plan: you must come to God by the one way He has provided. God tells us in 2 Peter 3:9 that He is not willing that any should perish. But He also tells us that we must enter His Kingdom by a narrow gate—one that few will choose to enter.

In the same way, the businessman in my illustration only offers one legitimate way to enjoy his stadium. It is his stadium, so you must enter it his way! The stadium owner provides you a very narrow turnstile that you must squeeze through. You pay the price for admission, but you still have to follow stadium owner’s rules to get in. If you try to enter by any other means, you will be rejected. Does that sound familiar?

Yes, it does. The Bible plainly teaches that Jesus is the narrow gate. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus also said, “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.” (NKJV)  Jesus is the narrow gate; He is the only way to the Father and His Kingdom. Trying to bypass Jesus as the narrow gate, would be like trying to climb over the fence that surrounds the football stadium in my illustration.

Why do good people insist on a broader path to God? There is one primary reason: If Jesus is truly the only way to spend eternity with God, then these good people inherently know they must submit to an all-powerful God, and live according to His principles. In other words, if God is really who He says He is, then they will, by necessity, be responsible to Him.

There is Good News

Following the “broad way to destruction” is the default setting that every person is born to. However, there is Good News. God has provided a way to change your default setting that leads to destruction. Jesus tells us in John 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son (Jesus) so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus is the one and only path to heaven and eternity with God the Father.

If you would like to enter by God’s one and only narrow gate, then click here.

 

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