Rediscover the Bible for Life
“The Narrow Road”
By Dennis Lee
It’s a good thing to know where you’re going. It’s a good thing to know your destination, because the last thing you want is to start off towards Los Angeles only to end up in Salt Lake.
It’s a good thing to have map in hand to plan your trip and reach your destination. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a navigational devise to prevent unnecessary detours.
Life is full of choices. Some of them are trivial and have little impact. Others, however are essential and significantly change our life’s course.
The most critical choice is about Jesus Christ and His kingdom, because it’s a choice that will determine our eternal destiny.
This choice is seen in the path we choose to take in this life.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV)
Which road will we take, the wide way leading to destruction and hell, or the narrow way that leads to heaven? There are only two.
Entering the wide way really takes no thought. It’s attractive and lots of people are on it. It’s the way of the world and nothing hinders entrance or travel.
It’s wide so people can carry as much baggage as they want. It allows people to keep all the junk from the past without having to deal with it. They just attach it and continue on their way.
It’s also wide so people aren’t inconvenienced. That’s why it has so many lanes. There’s the Substance Abuse lane, Pride lane, the lane of Materialism and Sexual Sin. There’s the lane of Hate, Anger, Bitterness, and Compromise. It even has a passing lane, the carpool lane of Religiosity.
But the Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).
The reason the wide way is so easy to accept is because it has no rules or restraints. It’s the road of permissiveness allowing people to believe and do whatever they want. It has no curbs, restrictions, or warning signs. It’s the way of fallen humanity.
The second way is the narrow road. It’s narrow because it doesn’t allow anything of the past or of this world upon it. The only thing allowed is the cross.
Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23 NKJV)
There’s no room for chasing worldly pleasures, unforgiving spirits, or self-righteousness. The narrow way isn’t easy, but Jesus tells us to enter upon it.
There’s only one way, one path, and one truth that leads to God. It’s Jesus.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV)
Jesus is the narrow gate and the narrow way, and whoever travels this path will be saved.
Life is all about choices, and we all have the freedom to choose.
The Bible says, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV)
