MATTHEW 7:13-29
HASN'T SCIENCE DISPROVED most of the basic claims of Christianity, including God’s being the Creator of the universe? If God is so great, explain why the history of organized religion is so terrible. Isn’t religion to blame for most wars, hatred, and terrorism in the world? How could an all-loving and all-powerful God allow senseless suffering? Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions as well as historical, scientific, and moral errors? How can anyone believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to God?
Those are some of the questions people are asking today. As I traveled to various small groups, asking which of the questions above are most often asked, the overwhelming majority said that the last question is first. Theological exclusivity is the issue of the day! When we read Jesus’ words, “Enter by the narrow gate” (v. 13a), an array of questions might come to mind, such as: What is this narrow gate? How does one enter in? Why is it narrow in the first place? Why do so many people not enter it? How can anyone believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God?
In our examination of 7:13-29 we'll look at some answers to these tough questions of theological exclusivity. We will start with the shortest and easiest one: What is the narrow gate?
What Is the Narrow Gate?
The narrow gate is more of a who than a what. The narrow gate is Jesus. I say this because of what Jesus himself teaches in John 10:9, where he calls himself “the door” (cp. v. 3 “gatekeeper”) or “the gate” (niv). In a context similar to what we have here in Matthew (as Jesus is talking about false teachers who try to steal and harm the sheep), he says in John 10:9, “I am the door [i.e., the
gate through which the sheep enter safely]. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” This same sort of imagery and language in John 10:9 is used in 7:21, where Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Enter what? The kingdom of heaven. How? Through the narrow gate (i.e., Jesus). Jesus teaches, “Not everyone who says to me...” He is the gate into the Kingdom, the way into life, the way into eternal fellowship with God (cp. John 14:6).
How Does One Enter In ?
So if Jesus is “the gate,” how does one enter in? That’s our second question. To find the answer we can stay in verse 21, where Jesus again instructs, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
In Scripture, the concept of God’s will covers much territory—from his providence over every detail of this universe (not a sparrow falls to the ground unless he wills it) to ethics (it is God’s will that you avoid immorality) even to Jesus’ death on the cross (Jesus gave himself for our sins according to the will of God). Also included in God’s will is faith in Christ. Listen to what Jesus says in John 6:38, 40: “I have come… not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me... For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” It is God’s will that we believe in Jesus.
So, getting through the gate here in Matthew 7 is trusting in Jesus, and then walking on the way (down this hard path) is our “ethical endurance.” So although one is saved by faith alone in Christ alone, that saving faith is never alone. It works. It loves. It obeys. It endures. It perseveres, not perfectly but persistently. What is taught in James 2 is likewise taught here. It is not enough to say “I believe in God” or even “I believe in Jesus”. We must walk the talk. A saving faith is a doing faith. Therefore, the word “does” does matter! “The one who does the will of my Father...” Our Lord is not separating our faith from our ethical endurance (the perseverance of the saints).
Why Is the Gate Narrow?
So, according to Jesus, there is this narrow gate and there is this way of getting through. That claim then raises another question: why is the gate narrow in the first place? Put differently, why is it that faith alone in Jesus alone is the only way?
Let me start by saying that while we are all opposed to narrow-mindedness we are not as opposed to exclusivity as we might at first think. For example no one is opposed to a supermarket or a restaurant—a place where food is handled and sold and consumed—having an exclusive sign on the front glass that reads, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.” No one is opposed to the Spanish Club at your local high school being comprised only of members who have an interest in and a basic knowledge of the Spanish language. No one is opposed to Woman’s Workout World having a policy that men are not allowed to work out there. And nobody thinks that if there is only one vaccine that will cure polio, that is too narrow, that we should be able to take whatever drug we want to cure polio.
Thus intellectually we are not completely opposed to the concept of narrowness, except (nowadays) when it comes to religion. “There can't be only one way to God” or “There shouldn’t be only one way to God” are views frequently expressed. However, can you hear what is beneath such questions? The questioners assume that God is unjust. They also assume that we somehow see things better than God does. But those are absolutely wrong assumptions. Perhaps for this reason this question of exclusivity is not found in our text. It does not arise from this text, and it is not answered in this text.
We wouldn’t question the justice and goodness of the scientist who found the one cure for the Great Plague. So why do we question God when he has provided only one cure for our Great Plague? Thus, the question “why so narrow?” is a question of ingratitude and insubordination. It is as contemptible as pulling Sir Alexander Fleming on trial for only giving us penicillin. Therefore, in this courtroom I throw out this case against God. Instead I do what God does here in his Word. He puts us on trial. We must stand before him and give an account for our choices.
Why Do So Many People Not Enter It?
The question raised and answered here in the text is not, why is God’s gate so narrow? but rather, why do people go so wide? Expressed differently, why does the majority of humanity not look for the narrow gate, not find it, and not walk through it? We now turn our attention to that important inquiry.
Chapter 7 gives us three answers. The first answer is that we are all evil by nature. This is taught in many places in Scripture, including verse 11, which we discussed in the last chapter. Note that in verse 11 Jesus is talking not to the scribes and Pharisees, the Roman officials and soldiers, or the pagans and blasphemers, but to his followers. He says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children... Stop there. Rewind the tape. He says, “If you then, who are evil...” What a claim!
Can you imagine someone making that claim today the way Jesus does? Let’s say you are serving on the local school board, and you’re in a meeting, discussing new curriculum, and one of the ladies on the board says, “Well, since we are all evil and our children are all evil, I advocate that we...” What would happen?All the heads in the room would quickly turn and stare at this woman whom they are now quite certain is an alien.
But how out of this world is that claim? Gather a toddler from every country in the world, put them in a room together, and tell them, “Only one of you gets this piece of candy.” See then if they are naturally selfish or not. I’m sure you can think of a better example. Why? It is because we all have experienced regularly the truth of our fallen nature. In the United States our very form of government is based on the assumption of inherent evil—that all people, even the best of us, if given too much power for too long, will act corruptly. So the claim that people are fundamentally evil is not unthinkable. Rather, it is simply not thought about today. It is not that it's not true. Rather, it is not thought about, and thus it’s not taught.
However, everything in the faith hinges on this reality. If people are not evil, fallen, and rebels against God, then Jesus is not necessary, and God’s plan of salvation makes no sense. But if you take a careful look at your own inclinations, attitudes, and actions, you might just see that Jesus’ accusation is accurate.
The Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev wrote, “I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like, and it is terrible.” In some professions seeing evil is an everyday reality. I often see people at their worst. But I’m not talking about my brothers and sisters at their worse; I’m talking about me at my best. If you looked at me from a distance, it all looks nice enough. Here is a man who spends his whole week studying the Bible and preparing to teach it; look at him up there, teaching away. But what you don’t see is that in this heart there is always (at least) a touch of pride, ambition, and worry. I care too much about what the congregation thinks of me. So, although the satellite view can’t detect anything wrong, the microscopic camera picks it all up.
God has that little lens on us all the time. You don’t fool him. I don’t fool him. I know that the heart of that bad man and this fairly good man are both terrible! I agree with verse 11. I’m evil, and so are you. That is the first and most foundational reason people choose the wide gate. Due to the fall, we are naturally inclined to do so.
The second reason is closely related to the first. Evil is the first. Ease is the second. Look at verses 13, 14, where again we read, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to file, and those who find it are few.”
Why go wide? It’s the same reason why Division 1 college athletes major in general studies rather than astrophysics. It’s easy. And it’s easy to live under the lordship of our own rules, like the made-up legislation in our head that says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere” or "How can it be wrong if it feels so right?”
Here’s how I picture what’s going on in verses 13, 14. You are on a journey, and you have some luggage with you—holding all the stuff of earth that you like and want to take with you forever. You have your suitcases packed full of vices and a huge mountain backpack filled with money and all the things money can buy. You come up to this big, wide, and beautiful gate. Behind the gate you see what looks like a lovely and easy road to travel. On the posts of the gate are engraved in gold the words FREEDOM and FUN.
You notice off to the side, however, a little sign stuck in the ground that tends, “This way to find the narrow gate to life.” You think, “Hmm... I wonder what that is.” But a fellow comes along and says, “Oh, you don’t want that gate. Trust me, it is so narrow. You have to give up freedom and fun, and you wouldn’t be able to carry that backpack and those suitcases through. It’s far too narrow. And do you know what is written in blood on its gateposts? On one is written ‘DEATH—death to self’ and on the other ‘SORROW—sorrow over sin.’ You have to die to self, and if you want to go through there, you have to repent of sin."
“Well,” you say to yourself, “let’s see. Do I choose this narrow gate, which I have to go and find, and which I can’t go through with all this stuff, and which speaks of death and sorrow? Or do I choose this other gate?” Easy decision, isn’t it? You choose ease along with so many others. So many have chosen the highway to the grave where on the back of these golden gateposts, which no one can read until it’s too late, are not the words FREEDOM and FUN but DEATH and SORROW (eternal death, eternal sorrow).
Why do people go wide? Why does the majority of humanity make the wrong choice? Evil and ease are the first two answers our Lord provides. The third and final answer is false prophets, mentioned much in verses 15-23.
In the last chapter I described 7:1 as the world’s new favorite verse. Anytime we make a distinctive judgment about theology or ethics, that verse is thrown in our faces. Yet, Brothers an Sisters too have taken up the un-Biblical notion that anytime a Christian leader talks against other so-called “Christian” leaders, churches, or ministries he is being judgmental. But that is the absolute opposite of what Jesus is saying here. He says, “Beware.” Beware of whom? Beware of those new atheists who attack Christianity ? No, we can recognize them for who they are. Beware of bizarre cult leaders? No, they are obvious also. Rather, we are to beware of men and women who look like Brothers and Sisters (who come to you in sheep’s clothing), who talk like Brothers and Sisters (“Lord, Lord”), and who act like super Brothers and Sisters (preaching and doing mighty miracles).
So if I tell you from the platform or in private that a certain person is a false teacher, do not think I’m acting un-Christlike. On the contrary, I am never more like the Good Shepherd than when I’m protecting you from wolves (see Titus 1:9)—when I’m looking for and pointing out to you diseased trees and their poisonous fruit. A good tree will produce good fruit, and a bad tree will produce bad fruit (vv. 16-20). Therefore, we are to do a fruit check with every tree that comes along, looking for “anyone [who] teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3; cp. Titus 1:16). We are to look for ungodliness or “lawlessness,” which according to verse 23 is Christ’s accusation against these false prophets, his reason for turning them away. We are to look for lawless teaching and living.
Thus, to contemporize our Lord’s teaching, it’s as if Jesus says, “I teach self-denial; they teach look great, feel great. I teach the dangers of materialism; they teach live your best life now. I teach that there is only one way to God; they teach love wins—that the wideness of God’s mercy is so wide that everyone is eventually included in his kingdom. I teach humility and dependence upon God; they teach if it’s to be, it’s up to me.”
Look carefully at verse 22. Look at what these false speakers will say on Judgment Day. “On that day many will say to me...” Say what? They will say with great devotion and correct Christology, “‘Lord. Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Lord, don’t you have my spiritual resume?” Indeed he does, and he views it as being as impressive as Judas’s.
Do you see how they give their “christocentric-charismatic credentials”? They list the gifts of the Spirit but not the fruit of the Spirit. They boast of great religion but not true religion (James 1:27). How very different than the unwittingly (or unpresumptuous) “righteous” of 25:37-39, who say:
Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?
Do not underestimate the influence of bad theology and false teaching. So many people choose the wide way to destruction because of these clanging cymbals, these showy charlatans who teach ‘“Peace, peace,’ when there is no piece" (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11), who deliver moving talks and work wonders (24:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:8,9; cp. Deuteronomy 13:1-3), yet who preach a “different gospel” that is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6, 7)—the gospel of “a God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
Take him at His Word
Having laid that groundwork, finally, we come to THE BIG question: how can anyone believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God? What is our answer to that? Based on this text, our answer is quite straightforward. We can believe that Jesus is the only way because we take Jesus at his word. In other words, because he says so!
Basically this is an issue of authority. We all make judgments about who is an authority on certain matters. Then if we believe that someone is an authority, we trust his or her view on that particular issue. If the world’s most renowned heart surgeon tells us we need heart surgery as soon as possible, we take her at her word. If our company’s top computer guru tells us the problem with our computer is related to a certain virus and he explains how to remove it, we heed his advice. The argument that the Bible gives for theological exclusivity uses the same line of logic. If Jesus is the unique Son of God, who performed miracles (especially rising from the dead), and if what he taught and did was predicted by the prophets and attested to by apostolic eyewitnesses, then what he says about entrance into the kingdom of heaven is trustworthy.
So taking him at his word and saying, “I believe Jesus is the only way because he says so” is not a trite or superficial answer. The issue of exclusivity is an issue of authority. The ultimate question of the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus is not just “What do you think of my teaching?” but "What do you think of me?” “Who do you say that I am?” (16:15). Do we recognize Jesus as his first audience did, “as one who had authority” (7:29), or do we recognize him as that and much more, as the one who has all authority over Heaven and earth (28:18)?
Jesus says, “Everyone... who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man... And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man” (vv. 24a, 26a). Jesus claims that human wisdom and human folly will be assessed based on one’s reception or rejection of the Sermon on the Mount! What a staggering claim!
But that’s not all he claims. Listen afresh to verses 21-23 and notice Jesus’ self-focus:
• “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 21a).
• “On that day many will say to me...” (v. 22a).
• “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me’” (v. 23a).
Me, me, I, I, me! Just who does he think he is? There is nothing indirect or modest about the final verses of the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus gives what might just be the boldest claims in the history of the world. The prophet Isaiah writes, “For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). That is what Jesus claims here of himself. He is judge. He is lawgiver. He is king. He is the only one who can save us. Ultimately salvation is in his hands. He will judge whether we come into his presence or not based on how we respond to his words—“these words of mine” (7:24, 26). He will decide and declare our destinies.
Think about what Jesus says. Let me put it into perspective. If today I ran into a young man who had no job or formal education and who after he gave a short lecture on the top of some hill came up to me and said, “You, my friend, will one day stand before me, and I will determine your eternal destiny based on your response to what you have just heard,” I would say, “Oh that’s nice” and dismiss him as a self-deceived lunatic. How is it then that when Jesus claims that he will be the judge before whom we all will stand and that whether or not we get into the kingdom of heaven will be judged based on what we did with his words, I find him so very believable? And why I am not alone in my assessment? Millions of others from every imaginable country and culture believe the same.
Why is this? Is it that his message is so universally applicable? Is it that he, unlike any other teacher ever, seems to know intimately the mind of God and yet intimately the ways and needs and desires of man, touching every possible line of relationship with which you and I deal on a daily basis—everything from whom we should worship to what we shouldn’t worry about? Is it that his claims—as lofty and seemingly egocentric as they are—somehow come across as the words of the humblest man ever to walk the face of the earth? Yes, I suppose it is those three reasons and more! His message is otherworldly but down-to-earth. His claims and character collide in a most convincing way. Whatever it is, he has me (and I’m not a gullible person) by the, heart and won’t let go. He demands my life, my soul, my all. And I say, “You have it. Here it all is. Into your hands I commit my spirit. You are the Lawgiver. You are the Judge. You are the King. You are my Savior.”
But what about you? Where are your feet today? Are they sifting through sand or are they solidly placed upon the Rock? Our loving Lord is warning you today. Beware of false prophets. Beware of the wide gate and easy path. Beware of building your house on the wrong foundation. Beware of the coming judgment. Beware lest your house crumble and fall to the ground (v. 27), and your seemingly carefree walk through this world ends in destruction (v l3), and your very body and soul are banished from Christ’s presence (v 23) and are thrown into the fire (v. 19). “Beware,” Jesus warns.
However, he also graciously invites you to “Choose life,” to “enter by the narrow gate.” It doesn’t look like it leads to much of anything, but believe Jesus (take him at his word) that it actually does lead to true life, freedom, and joy... both now and forevermore!
(R. Kent Hughes. and Douglas Sean O'Donnell., 2013; edited Carl Hinton., 2020)