“And he said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us,” then he will answer you, “I do not know where you come from.”’” (Luke 13:23b-25)
A popular view among so-called enlightened minds of 21st human beings especially here in America is that all religions, all ideologies lead to heaven, however that is defined. Therefore these words of Jesus trouble many people including Christians. This is because many reject God’s way in favor of making their own way, with their own rules and values. Choice and personal autonomy are their idols of choice. These are inviolable and sacred rights in our nation and in the west. This has resulted in a nation of ardent polytheists for each person is his or her own god.
Jesus teaches that ultimately there is only one correct choice, the narrow door of faith in Him. The other choice is wide and easy for it does not infringe on any one’s rights. There is plenty of room for diversity of opinion, competing views of morality, tolerance, permissiveness and political correctness. It has no boundaries of either thought or conduct. People who idolize choice reject God’s authority in order to follow their own thoughts, inclinations, and opinions about what is right and wrong. They are governed by the desires of the human heart in its fallen nature: superficiality, self-love, hypocrisy, greed, false spirituality, ambition, harshness, violence. Such things do not have to be learned or cultivated for our default setting is sin from the very beginning. It controls and affects everything we do. Thus we can see that from birth we all travel the wide road. On this road we can take as much baggage as we like: there is no limit. We can take everything along with us including our sins, self-righteousness, and pride.
The door leading to the hard way, on the other hand, is narrow. In order to enter this narrow gate we must leave everything behind: fleshly desires, selfish ambition, pride, self-sufficiency, covetousness, and, perhaps, even family and friends. We must deny ourselves to enter that way so our default setting must be changed. This involves a total change of the operating system, a total change of life, a new way of looking at it and a totally new set of values than are preset on pleasing God and not ourselves. We can’t do this, only Jesus can. He Himself is the door, the entry way, the access to this narrow way. He said in John 10:9. “I am the door, if anyone enters by me he will be saved”. He also said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” That means there is only one way, one gate. Jesus is that one way. We enter this narrow door only by faith in His atoning sacrifice of the Cross.