Narrow and Wide gate

Narrow and Wide gate

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has been teaching us what it looks like to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God, but as He brings the sermon to a close, He shifts His focus slightly. He ends His sermon with a four-part conclusion about entrance into the Kingdom of God. 

His conclusion is made up of four parts – and each part reveals a contrast.  First, He speaks of two different paths (7:13-14) and then two different kinds of fruit (7:15-20). Third, He addresses two different professions of faith (7:21-23) followed by two different kinds of builders who build on different foundations (7:24-27).

While each of these contrasts emphasizes something slightly different, they all tell us something about entrance into the Kingdom of God, who will be welcomed and who will be excluded.

The Call: Enter by the narrow gate (7:13a)

In this small paragraph Jesus emphasizes that there are two paths and only two paths. Every person will either take the path toward destruction or the path toward life. Jesus begins this important discussion with this call: Enter by the narrow gate. This is a call from Jesus to enter the gate and follow the path that leads to life.  

The First Path – Entering by the wide gate (7:13)

• A wide gate – The first path is entered by a wide gate. This is an entrance that everyone sees and that most people choose.

• An easy way – The wide gate leads to an easy path. That’s not to say that life is always easy, but it’s a path that doesn’t require repentance, self-denial, sacrifice or suffering in the way the other path does.

• A well-travelled way – Jesus says that many (most) enter the through the wide gate and travel the easy way. This is the path we are all born on and most never leave.

• Leads to destruction – This is where we recognize the weight of this teaching from Jesus. This is the path that most are following, and yet it’s a path that leads to eternal destruction. While we may not like to think about this kind of judgment, the Bible is clear – there is eternal judgment for all who die apart from Christ (Matthew 25:31-41; Revelation 14:11; Ephesians 2:1-3). 

• Psalm 73:13-20 – Consider the story Asaph and how his perspective changed when he remembered the fate of the wicked.

The Second Path – Entering by the narrow gate (7:14) 

• A narrow gate – What we learn from Scripture is that the narrow gate is Christ Himself. It is only through Christ and His work on the cross that we can be forgiven and welcomed onto the path toward life (John 14:6; Acts 4:10-12).

• A hard way – The path toward life is a way of repentance, self-denial, sacrifice (Luke 18:18-30; Mt. 16:24-26) and suffering (John 15:20-21).

• A less-travelled way – Because the narrow way is hard, there are few who will find and follow this path. Most will not choose to humbly repent and submit to following Christ (Matthew 22:14; Luke 13:22-30). 

• Leads to life – While the way is narrow and hard, the end of this path is eternal life (John 3:16). This reality should motivate us to follow Christ and compel us to tell others about their need to trust Him.

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Prophecy about Christ in Old Testament

 Words spoken through God’s prophets, as recorded in the Old Testament, foretold every significant event in the life of Jesus in accurate detail. When each one of these prophecies came true, the Bible says that it happened “that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Here are eighteen specific events in the life of Jesus as predicted in the Old Testament and shown to be fulfilled in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life.

His birth of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:24–25).

His birth at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:4–7).

His flight into Egypt (Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15).

His being anointed by the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 3:16).

His ministry in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1–2; Matthew 4:15–16).

His healing of the sick (Isaiah 61:1; John 5:1–9).

His use of parables (Psalm 78:2; Matthew 13:34–35).

His being betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9; John 13:18).

His being forsaken by His disciples (Psalm 88:8; Mark 14:50).

His being hated without a cause (Psalm 35:19; John 15:25).

His being rejected by the Jews (Isaiah 53:3; John 1:11).

His being condemned with criminals (Isaiah 53:12; Luke 22:37).

His garments being parted and divided by lot (Psalm 22:18; Matthew 27:35).

His being offered vinegar for His thirst (Psalm 69:21; Matthew 27:48).

His body being pierced without His bones being broken (Psalm 34:20; John

19:36; also Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37).

His being buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57–60).

His rising from the dead on the third day (Hosea 6:2; Luke 24:46).

who can be saved?

 

Jesus clearly taught in John 3:16 that He will save anyone who believes in Him: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This “whoever” includes you and every other person in the world.

The Bible says that, if salvation were based on our own efforts, no one could be saved: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Psalm 143:2 adds, “No one living is righteous before you.” Romans 3:10 affirms, “There is no one righteous, not even one.”

We cannot save ourselves. Instead, we are saved when we believe in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8–9 teaches, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” We are saved by God’s grace, and grace, by definition, cannot be earned. We do not deserve salvation; we simply receive it by faith.

God’s grace is enough to cover all sin (Romans 5:20). The Bible is filled with examples of people who were saved from sinful backgrounds. The apostle Paul wrote to Christians who had formerly been living in a variety of sinful conditions, including sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, thievery, greed, and drunkenness. But Paul tells them that, upon salvation, “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

The apostle Paul himself had been a persecutor of Christians, approving of the death of Stephen (Acts 8:1) and arresting Christians and throwing them into prison (Acts 8:3). He would later write, “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:13–15).

God often chooses to save unlikely candidates to serve His purposes. He saved a thief on a cross with only minutes to live (Luke 23:42–43), a persecutor of the church (Paul), a fisherman who had denied Him (Peter), a Roman soldier and his family (Acts 10), a runaway slave (Onesimus in Philemon), and many others. There is no one beyond God’s ability to save (see Isaiah 50:2). We must respond in faith and receive His free gift of eternal life.

Who can be saved? One thing is for certain—you can, if you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior! If you are not certain you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you can respond right now in prayer. Saying a prayer is simply a way of declaring to God that you are relying on Jesus Christ as your Savior. There are no magical words that result in salvation. It is only faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection that can save us. If you understand that you are a sinner and in need of salvation through Jesus Christ, here is a prayer you can pray to God:

“God, I realize I am a sinner and could never reach heaven by my own good deeds. Right now I place my faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son who died for my sins and rose from the dead to give me eternal life. Please forgive me of my sins and help me to live for you. Thank you for accepting me and giving me eternal life.”

Have you, in faith, received Jesus Christ as your Savior because of what you have read here? If so, please let us know by clicking on the “I have received Christ today” button below.

How can I be saved

This simple, yet profound, question is the most important question that can be asked. "How can I be saved?" deals with where we will spend eternity after our lives in this world are over. There is no more important issue than our eternal destiny. Thankfully, the Bible is abundantly clear on how a person can be saved. The Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Paul and Silas responded, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

How can I be saved? Why do I need to be saved?

We are all infected with sin (Romans 3:23). We are born with sin (Psalm 51:5), and we all personally choose to sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1:8). Sin is what makes us unsaved. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin is what has us on the path to eternal destruction.

How can I be saved? Saved from what?

Because of our sin, we all deserve death (Romans 6:23). While the physical consequence of sin is physical death, that is not the only kind of death that results from sin. All sin is ultimately committed against an eternal and infinite God (Psalm 51:4). Because of that, the just penalty for our sin is also eternal and infinite. What we need to be saved from is eternal destruction (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:15).

How can I be saved? How did God provide salvation?

Because the just penalty for sin is infinite and eternal, only God could pay the penalty, because only He is infinite and eternal. But God, in His divine nature, could not die. So God became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ. God took on human flesh, lived among us, and taught us. When the people rejected Him and His message, and sought to kill Him, He willingly sacrificed Himself for us, allowing Himself to be crucified (John 10:15). Because Jesus Christ was human, He could die; and because Jesus Christ was God, His death had an eternal and infinite value. Jesus’ death on the cross was the perfect and complete payment for our sin (1 John 2:2). He took the consequences we deserved. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead demonstrated that His death was indeed the perfectly sufficient sacrifice for sin.

How can I be saved? What do I need to do?

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). God has already done all of the work. All you must do is receive, in faith, the salvation God offers (Ephesians 2:8-9). Fully trust in Jesus alone as the payment for your sins. Believe in Him, and you will not perish (John 3:16). God is offering you salvation as a gift. All you have to do is accept it. Jesus is the way of salvation (John 14:6).

Have you, in faith, received Jesus Christ as your Savior because of what you have read here? If so, please let us know by clicking on the “I have received Christ today” button below.

What is sexual immorality?

In the New Testament, the word most often translated “sexual immorality” is porneia. This word is also translated as “whoredom,” “fornication,” and “idolatry.” It means “a surrendering of sexual purity,” and it is primarily used of premarital sexual relations. From this Greek word we get the English word pornography, stemming from the concept of “selling off.” Sexual immorality is the “selling off” of sexual purity and involves any type of sexual expression outside the boundaries of a biblically defined marriage relationship (Matthew 19:4–5).

The connection between sexual immorality and idolatry is best understood in the context of 1 Corinthians 6:18, which says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” The bodies of believers are the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Pagan idol worship often involved perverse and immoral sexual acts performed in the temple of a false god. When we use our physical bodies for immoral purposes, we are imitating pagan worship by profaning God’s holy temple with acts He calls detestable (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).

Biblical prohibitions against sexual immorality are often coupled with warnings against “impurity” (Romans 1:24; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 4:19). This word in the Greek is akatharsia, which means “defiled, foul, ceremonially unfit.” It connotes actions that render a person unfit to enter God’s presence. Those who persist in unrepentant immorality and impurity cannot come into the presence of God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8; cf. Psalm 24:3–4). It is impossible to maintain a healthy intimacy with God when our bodies and souls are given over to impurities of any kind.

Sexuality is God’s design. He alone can define the parameters for its use. The Bible is clear that sex was created to be enjoyed between one man and one woman who are in a covenant marriage until one of them dies (Matthew 19:6). Sexuality is His sacred wedding gift to human beings. Any expression of it outside those parameters constitutes an abuse of God’s gift. Adultery, premarital sex, pornography, and homosexual relations are all contrary to God’s design. That makes those things sinful.

The following are some common objections to God’s commands against sexual immorality:

1. It’s not wrong if we love each other. The Bible makes no distinction between “loving” and “unloving” sexual relations. The only biblical distinction is between married and unmarried people. Sex within marriage is blessed (Genesis 1:28); sex outside of marriage is “fornication” or “sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 7:2–5).

2. Times have changed, and what was wrong in biblical times is no longer considered sin. Most of the passages condemning sexual immorality also include evils such as greed, lust, stealing, etc. (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21). We have no problem understanding that these other things are still sin. God’s character does not change with culture’s opinion (Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 13:8).

3. We’re married in God’s eyes. The fallacy of this idea is that the God who created marriage in the first place would retract His own command to accommodate what He has called sin. God declared marriage to be one man and one woman united for life (Mark 10:6–9). The Bible often uses the imagery of a wedding and a covenant marriage as a metaphor to teach spiritual truth (Matthew 22:2; Revelation 19:9). God takes marriage seriously, and His “eyes” see immorality for what it is, regardless of how cleverly we have redefined it.

4. I can still have a good relationship with God because He understands. Proverbs 28:9 says, “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” We fool ourselves when we think that we can stubbornly choose sin and God does not care. First John 2:3–4 contains a serious challenge for those who persist in this line of thinking: “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.”

Hebrews 13:4 makes God’s expectation for His children crystal clear: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” Sexual immorality is wrong. The blood of Jesus can cleanse us from every type of impurity when we repent and receive His forgiveness (1 John 1:7–9). But that cleansing means our old nature and all its practices, including sexual immorality, are put to death (Romans 6:12–14; 8:13). Ephesians 5:3 says, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”

what happens after death?

Within the Christian faith, there is a significant amount of confusion regarding what happens after death. Some hold that after death everyone “sleeps” until the final judgment, after which everyone will be sent to heaven or hell. Others believe that at the moment of death people are instantly judged and sent to their eternal destinations. Still others claim that, when people die, their souls/spirits are sent to a “temporary” heaven or hell to await the final resurrection, the final judgment, and the finality of their eternal destination. So, what exactly does the Bible say happens after death?

First, for the believer in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that after death believers’ souls/spirits are taken to heaven, because their sins were forgiven when they received Christ as Savior (John 3:16, 18, 36). For believers, death means being “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6–8; Philippians 1:23). However, passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:50–54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 describe believers being resurrected and given glorified bodies. If believers go to be with Christ immediately after death, what is the purpose of this resurrection? It seems that, while the souls/spirits of believers go to be with Christ immediately at death, the physical body remains in the grave “sleeping.” At the resurrection of believers, the physical body is resurrected, glorified, and reunited with the soul/spirit. This reunited and glorified body-soul-spirit will be the state of existence for believers for eternity in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21—22).

Second, for those who do not receive Jesus Christ as Savior, death means everlasting punishment. However, similar to the destiny of believers, it seems that unbelievers also go to a temporary holding place to await their final resurrection, judgment, and eternal destiny. Luke 16:22–23 describes a rich man being tormented immediately after death. Revelation 20:11–15 describes all the unbelieving dead being resurrected, judged at the great white throne, and cast into the lake of fire. Unbelievers, then, are not sent to the final “hell” (the lake of fire) immediately after death; rather, they are rather sent to a temporary realm of fiery judgment and anguish. The rich man cried out, “I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24).

After death, a person resides in either a place of comfort or in a place of torment. These realms act as a temporary “heaven” and a temporary “hell” until the resurrection. At that point, the soul is reunited with the body, but no one’s eternal destiny will change. The first resurrection is for the “blessed and holy” (Revelation 20:6)—everyone who is in Christ—and those who are part of the first resurrection will enter the millennial kingdom and, ultimately, the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). The other resurrection happens after Christ’s millennial kingdom, and it involves a judgment on the wicked and unbelieving “according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:13). These, whose names are not in the book of life, will be sent to the lake of fire to experience the “second death” (Revelation 20:14–15). The new earth and the lake of fire—these two destinations are final and eternal. People go to one or the other, based entirely on whether they have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation (Matthew 25:46; John 3:36)

Jesus three days, Jesus 3 days

After Jesus said, “It is finished,” on the cross, “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). His dead body remained on the cross until it was taken down and placed in a nearby tomb (John 19:40–42). His spirit, however, was elsewhere. Three days later, His body and spirit were reunited, and He rose from the dead (John 20). There is some speculation about where Jesus was—that is, where His spirit was—for the three days between His death and resurrection.

The clearest indication we have in Scripture of where Jesus was between His death and resurrection comes in His conversation on the cross with one of the thieves crucified next to Him. The believing thief asks to be remembered when Jesus comes into His kingdom (Luke 23:42), and Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (verse 43). So, after His death, Jesus went to the place of blessing where God is—heaven. And that’s where the believing thief went, too.

In the discussion of where Jesus was for the three days between His death and resurrection, another passage is often mentioned. First Peter 3:18–20 says, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared” (ESV). Some take this to mean that Jesus, sometime between His death and resurrection, went to hell/Hades and made an announcement of some type to the “spirits” imprisoned there. Within this interpretation, the spirits Jesus addressed could be either demonic or human.

If the spirits mentioned in 1 Peter 3:19 are fallen angels, then those spirits were probably imprisoned because they were involved in a grievous sin before the flood in Noah’s time—Peter mentions Noah’s flood in verse 20. Peter does not tell us what Jesus proclaimed to the imprisoned spirits, but it could not have been a message of redemption, since angels cannot be saved (Hebrews 2:16). If these were fallen angels, what Jesus proclaimed was probably a declaration of His victory over Satan and his hosts (1 Peter 3:22; Colossians 2:15).

But there is another interpretation of the 1 Peter passage. In this interpretation, the “spirits” are people currently in hell, but Peter is not saying Jesus made a special trip to Hades/hell to preach or proclaim anything. Rather, Peter is giving parenthetical information about something Jesus had done previously in history, namely, that He had “in spirit” preached to the people of Noah’s day while they were still living on earth. That wicked generation heard the message, rejected it, perished in the flood, and are now in prison. The word now in 1 Peter 3:19 is provided for clarity in the Amplified Bible and the New American Standard Bibles of 1977 and 1995, and it contrasts with the “long ago” (NIV) and “formerly” (ESV) of 1 Peter 3:20.

According to this alternate interpretation, Christ was in Noah (spiritually) when Noah preached to his doomed neighbors. To better explain, here is a paraphrase of 1 Peter 3:18–20: “Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but He was made alive in the Spirit (it was through this same Spirit that Jesus long ago preached to those who are right now in prison—those souls who disobeyed during the time of God’s great patience when Noah was building the ark).” According to this view, Jesus preached spiritually to the people of Noah’s time, and He did this through the prophet Noah, in much the same way that God speaks through us today when we proclaim God’s Word.

Ephesians 4:8–10 is another passage used in the discussion regarding Jesus’ activities in the three days between His death and resurrection. Quoting Psalm 68:18, Paul says about Christ, “When he ascended on high, he took many captives” (Ephesians 4:8). The ESV puts it that Christ “led a host of captives.” Some say this refers to an event not elsewhere described in Scripture, namely, that Jesus gathered all the redeemed who were in paradise and took them to their permanent dwelling in heaven. That is, after securing their salvation on the cross, Jesus brought Abraham, David, Joshua, Daniel, the beggar Lazarus, the thief on the cross, and everyone else who had previously been justified by faith, and led them from Hades (the abode of the dead in general) to their new spiritual home.

Another view of Ephesians 4 is that ascended on high is a straightforward reference to Jesus’ ascension. Christ returned to heaven victoriously, as God. In His triumph, Jesus had defeated and taken captive our spiritual enemies: the devil, death, and the curse of sin.

All of this is to say that the Bible gives scant information about what exactly Christ did for the three days between His death and resurrection. The only thing we know for sure is that, according to Jesus’ own words on the cross, He went to paradise. We can also say with confidence that, His work of redemption finished, Jesus did not have to suffer in hell.