Matthew 7:14

Matthew 7:14

I. The faithfulness of a holy God is the meaning which lies on the surface of the text. Sin has separated man from God, and the whole world lies in an outer darkness. The way that leads down to destruction is broad and easy. It requires no exertion, no self-denial, no crucifying of sinful desires. But to turn from this broad path into the narrow way of life is difficult. The gate unto life is strait.The compassionate Redeemer of men has told us that it is strait.He will not make it wider that the carnal may get through. Although a whole world should remain without and perish because it is strait, God will not make the entrance easier. The terms are clear and fixed. There is no ambiguity, and will be no change.

II. The tenderness of a merciful Father. (1) There is a gate. When a window is opened in heaven to display a terror, the gate is strait, we see within and read the mercy. There is a gate. While the ostensible announcement is, Your corruptions must be excluded, the covert intimation is, Yourself may go in. In form the text is a stroke directed against a sinful man; but in nature it is intended to take effect only on the man's sin, to destroy it, and so permit the emancipated man to enter into the joy of the Lord. (2) The gate leadeth unto life. If the passage is dark, narrow like the grave, the mansion in which it issues is as bright as heaven, and as large as eternity. If the pleasures of sin must be left behind, the pleasures of holiness await you at God's right hand for evermore. (3) Those who enter neither make nor open the gate; they only find it. It is not written, Few there be that can force their way through it; but, "Few there be that find it." Men spend their strength for nought in efforts to escape from condemnation when God has not made a way. All the delay and all the loss occur through the error of trying to make a gate, instead of seeking the gate that is already made. (4) He who made the way, and keeps it open now, is glad when many "go in thereat."

W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life,p. 237.

I. In proportion to the importance of any kingdom is the stringency of the conditions of entrance. (1) Here is the kingdom of human learning knowledge, critical acquaintance with letters, ample and accurate information about history, all that is known by the name of learning and over the gate of that kingdom I find this inscription, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way." (2) Here is a man who wishes to excel in authorship. You read his book. You don't see all that lies behind the book. You don't see the rough outline which he first sketched blotting and interlining and erasing. What is it that is written over the man's study and over the man's desk? This, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way." (3) We are thus enabled to say that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is necessarily the straitest, narrowest of all. What are other kingdoms to the kingdom of life? As this is the highest kingdom of all, where is the unreasonableness of making the conditions of entrance into this kingdom the most exacting and stringent of all?

II. There are two gates, and only two; two destinies, and only two the way leading to destruction; the way leading to life. The question now is, Will you have life according to the interpretation of the Son of God, or will you not? He that believeth shall be saved.

Parker, City Temple,1871, p. 169.