“Strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able!” Luke 13:24
This is the only gate which leads to pardon of sin, peace with God, and Heaven. Whoever goes in by this gate, shall be saved. Never, surely, was a gate more needed! Sin is a vast mountain between man and God. How shall a man climb over it? Sin is a high wall between man and God. How shall man get through it? Sin is a deep gulf between man and God. How shall man cross over it?
God is absolutely holy and pure! He cannot bear that which is evil, or look upon iniquity with approval. Man is a poor fallen worm, crawling on earth for a few years. He is sinful, corrupt, erring, defective! His imagination is only evil, and his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked!
How shall sinful man and the holy God be brought together? How shall man ever draw near to his Maker without fear and shame? Blessed be God, there is a way! There is a road. There is a path. There is a door. It is the gate spoken of in these words of Christ, “the narrow gate.”
This gate was made for sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ. In the fullness of time He came into the world, and made this gate by His sin-atoning death on the cross! By that death, He made atonement for man’s sin, paid man’s debt to God, and bore man’s punishment.
He built this great gate at the cost of His own blood! He made a door by which the chief of sinners may enter into the holy presence of God! He opened a road by which the vilest of men, believing in Him, may draw near to God and have peace with Him.
This gate is called the narrow gate, and it is not called so without cause. It is always narrow, and difficult to pass through to some people; and it will be so as long as the world stands.
It is narrow to all who love sin and are determined not to part with it. It is narrow to all who set their affections on this world and seek first its pleasures and rewards. It is narrow to all who dislike effort and are unwilling to take pains and make sacrifices for their souls. It is narrow to all who like worldly company and want to keep in with the crowd. It is narrow to all who are self-righteous and think they are good people, and deserve to be saved.
To all such, the great gate which Christ made is narrow and strait. In vain they seek to pass through; the gate will not admit them. God is not unwilling to receive them; their sins are not too many to be forgiven. But they are not willing to be saved in God’s way!
Thousands have tried to make the gate wider! Thousands have worked and toiled to get to Heaven on lower terms. But the gate never alters. It is not elastic; it will not stretch to accommodate one man more than another. It is still the narrow gate.
As narrow as this gate is, it is the only one by which men can get to Heaven. There is no side door;
there is no bye-path; there is no gap or low place in the wall. All who are ever saved, will be saved by faith alone, in Christ alone!
The best works that any man can do, are little better than splendid sins. When we have done all that we can, we are still poor “unprofitable servants.” It is a mere waste of time to seek any other gate to eternal life.
Proud men may dislike the gate if they will. Debauched men may scoff at it, and make a jest of those who use it. Lazy men may complain that the way is hard. But men will discover no other salvation, than that of faith in the crucified Redeemer!
Between us and Heaven, there stands one great gate. It may be narrow, but it is the only one. We must either enter Heaven by the narrow gate, or not at all!
-J.C. Ryle
The Fight of Faith 