Choices
- Aug 9, 2024
- 5 min read
What’s clear from this passage is that Jesus is giving a command to enter a way of life through the ‘narrow gate.’ This is a way we should be walking as Christians that ‘leads to life.’ Sometimes we walk another way, and at times don’t even realise it! In today’s society and even in some Christian circles, you hear a saying, that as long as you’re a “good person” and appear “spiritual” that it’s still okay! Do YOU think this is true? Does it really matter what we believe or how we live our lives?
“Union with Jesus Christ is the origin and source of all spiritual blessings and all discipleship…discipleship to Jesus begins at the personal level of a relationship to Jesus as the King and Lord who saves and rules. Connection to Jesus unleashes the grace of God’s bounty.” – Scott McKnight
Jesus sets a choice before his disciples of two ways and two destinations. Above all else in this life, this is the most important choice you have to make, and only you can make it.
Remember Joshua, at the end of his life he presented people with a choice: “Choose this day whom you will serve” (Josh 24:15).
Peter knew “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Our text simply presents us with a picture of life and how it’s lived!
We are left with contrasts: the entrances; type of road; the choice will determine your companions but also your destiny. These are knowable now! In fact, you are already experiencing one of these.
Two Gates
To enter the "narrow gate," one must leave 'self' behind. The "narrow gate" is the selfless way. On the other hand, to enter the 'roomy way,' through the "wide gate" there’s no limit to the baggage of pride, envy, self-righteousness, selfish ambition that you can take with you!
Actually, you have already embarked through the wide gate, no decision is necessary. There are no restrictions, do as you please, anything goes. You carry everything with all your excess baggage and it gets greater and heavier as you go along.
Enter through the narrow gate, stop and look for this gate. It’s about being part of God’s kingdom. Please note, Christianity is a witness to certain facts, to events that have happened, to hopes that have been fulfilled, to realities that have been experienced, to a Person who has lived and died and been raised from the dead to reign forever - someone who is coming back again. To enter this gate, we leave everything behind and we enter one person at a time; we can’t get there on the back of another.
Two Ways
The narrow way is a way only a few people travel on, yet it’s the way of life with a capital L.
Listen, the narrow way is a way clearly defined by the will of God. The boundaries are clearly marked, through God’s word. Those who walk in this way do not walk aimlessly; the course is marked out (see Heb 12:1). Note the words of Jesus in John 14:6:“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”
Everything is new on this road - "if anyone is in Christ he is new a creation, the old has gone the new has come" ( 2 Cor 5:17).
The other way is vastly populated and the feeling is that because everyone else is going this way it’s the right way. It’s the Broadway of life. It’s broad in its thinking, where anything goes. It says, if it’s right for you, just do it! There’s no opposition from the world on the broad way.
W Hendriksen writes, “The signs along this wide avenue read, ‘Welcome to each of you and to all your friends, the more the merrier. Travel as you wish and as fast as you wish. There are no restrictions.'”
On this road you go where you like, do what you like and when you like. Sadly, it’s the preferred route for so many!
Two friends were talking one day. One was a Christian, the other was not, and after a while the Christian said to her friend, "There’s just one letter that separates us, one letter that makes all the difference. I love the Word, it directs my every step in life; you love the World and that has its effect on you."
Jesus gives us the choice – it’s demanding, it will cost you all you have, but it is deeply satisfying and has eternal value.
Two Destinations
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Egypt and the tombs and pyramids, study what was required to construct some of those monuments. Some studies reveal that it required the efforts of one hundred thousand workers for forty years to build one of the great pyramids. You can't help but ask why. Why so much effort? Why would somebody put that amount of emphasis on a tomb, on the afterlife? The answer is that the Egyptians understood they would spend a lot more time in the afterlife than they would spend in this life, so they prepared for it!
God has placed eternity in the heart of man. He longs for each of us to spend eternity with Him in glory. So, you need to make sure you are walking the right road, because only one of the roads leads to heaven.
Check the text, one road leads to destruction the other leads to life. Or looking at it another way, eternity without God or eternity with God?
We are clearly identified as those who live and are bound for glory: "And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:3).
Stop and reflect
Have you ever been there where you see a train or a bus, and you see the destination written on the front, but, when it stops, you get on and still ask, "is this going to..?"
You don’t get people on the wide way saying, "do you know where this leads to", but you do on the narrow way, where they are always talking about the place to which they are going – heaven!
"I set before you today life or death" (Deut 30:15-19).
There isn’t a third way, and there’s no place for fence-sitters, in fact there isn’t a fence.
We must stop and take the opportunity to ensure we’re going the right way, on the right road. For some today it may mean a new direction.
This opportunity is for everyone.
BTW, our English word 'opportunity' comes from a Latin word and means “toward the port.” It suggests a ship taking advantage of the wind and tide to arrive safely in the harbour.
Please take the opportunity seek God’s will and purpose for your life, and allow the wind of God’s Spirit to bring you onto the right way so you arrive safely at the heavenly port!
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13).
Too Late!
Jesus mentions that "only a few find" the small gate and narrow road that leads to life. Tim Keller calls this way,“narrow spaciousness.”
Today is the day of salvation. Do you have the assurance you’re walking the right way? Please don’t be ‘too late’ in finding it!
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…” (Jer 6:16).
Dallas Willard says “The greatest issue facing the world today with all its heartbreaking needs is whether those who are identified as Christians will become disciples, students, apprentices, practitioners of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence. That’s it. Jesus is not looking for converts to Christianity. He is looking for apprentices to the Kingdom of God.”
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