Road to Life
The Road to Life
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The Narrow Gate
“Enter through the narrow gate. Wide is the gate and broad is the road leading to destruction, and many enter through it. But how narrow is the gate and compressed the road leading to life! And few find it.”
The end of the Sermon on the Mount mirrors the beginning. Like the Beatitudes, it focuses on the characteristics of the citizens of the kingdom.1 But here, Jesus described the actions of those on the road to eternal life and contrasted them with the actions of four groups heading in the wrong direction.2
The first group makes no pretense about following Jesus. They’re simply unbelievers traveling through life on the easiest road possible. The wide gate allows them to enter with as much baggage as they want. The broad road allows many to travel together comfortably, creating a false sense of security. But it’s the wrong gate and the wrong road, and at the end, they lead to destruction.
In contrast, those who take Jesus’s words seriously enter through the narrow gate of repentance. To fit through the gate, they must remove and leave behind all baggage of sin and worldly desires. Then they walk a road described as “compressed” or “constricted.” The Greek word comes from the verb meaning “to persecute.” The compressed road is the road of oppression and hardship, where every step is treacherous. Yet the road that few would choose is the road that leads to life.
False Prophets
“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep but inside are thieving wolves. By their fruit, you’ll recognize them. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
“In the same way, every good tree bears quality fruit, but a worthless tree bears bad fruit. A good tree can’t bear bad fruit. Neither can a worthless tree bear quality fruit. Any tree that doesn’t produce quality fruit is chopped down and thrown into fire. So it’s by their fruit you’ll recognize them.”
Next, Jesus contrasted his followers, his true flock, with false prophets, who pretend to belong to his flock but are really wolves in disguise. They have no interest in Jesus or his teachings, yet they mimic the outward appearance of faith to fool the unwary. Since they pose as prophets, they even dare to speak for a God they don’t believe in and to exercise authority over his people. But the false prophets will inevitably devour those who listen to them.
Jesus warned his followers to judge those who claim to speak for him by the fruit their lives produce. Importantly, he says nothing about the amount of fruit produced. Only the quality matters. A diseased tree can still produce fruit, but it’s usually rotten or blighted. Chopping down and burning the tree prevents the disease from spreading. A healthy tree, on the other hand, may produce a small crop, but its fruit ripens and nourishes those who eat from it.
John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees to “produce fruit worthy of repentance3 Paul listed nine desirable qualities he called the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.4 These exemplify the “fruit” that true prophets must be known by. False prophets instead produce self-righteousness, hatred, bitterness, division, discontent, greed, immorality, infidelity, harshness, and self-indulgence. Following those who practice and teach such things will lead only to destruction.
Self-Reliance
“Not all who say to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do what my Father in heaven desires. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, in your name, didn’t we prophesy? In your name, didn’t we cast out demons? In your name, didn’t we perform many miracles?’ But I’ll declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, workers of lawlessness!’”
The first two groups Jesus compared to true believers don’t consider themselves his followers, though false prophets pretend to be. The third group, however, genuinely believes they are on the road to life. They call Jesus Lord and even perform amazing feats in his name. But Jesus warned that verbally acknowledging him wouldn’t gain anyone entry into the kingdom. The question isn’t whether we know Jesus but whether he knows us. And he will acknowledge as his only those who do what the Father desires.
On the day of judgment (often called “that day”), this third group will protest their exclusion from the kingdom, but their own words will testify against them. “Didn’t we prophesy?” “Didn’t we cast out demons?” “Didn’t we perform many miracles?” Their plea for inclusion relies entirely on their performance of wonders that impress humanity but do not impress God. They treat Jesus’s name like a magic word because they desire his power, but they have no relationship with him. At the same time, they ignore what the Father truly desires—treating others as you want them to treat you.5
In Romans 10:13, Paul quotes Joel 2:32, “everyone who calls on the Lord’s name will be saved.” Far from contradicting Jesus’s warning, this promise illustrates the difference between those Jesus knows and those he doesn’t. “To call on” refers to prayer.6 Paul promised that Jesus won’t fail to save those who cry out to him for help. Their humble reliance on Jesus’s mercy provides a stark contrast to the prideful self-reliance of those who act in Jesus’s name but then declare, “Look what we did!”
The Two Builders
“So anyone who hears these, my words, and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on bedrock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the wind blew, and they threw themselves at that house. Yet it didn’t fall because it had been founded on bedrock. But anyone who hears these, my words, and doesn’t act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the wind blew, and they fell against that house. It collapsed in complete ruin!”
Jesus made his final comparison between two groups sitting right in front of him. Those who heard “these, my words,” meaning the Sermon on the Mount, had a choice. They could act on his teachings or ignore them. To show the difference between the two groups, Jesus used an example from the normal lives of those living around the Sea of Galilee, where he preached.
Around the sea, a layer of sand and sediment covers the shore, washed down from the surrounding hills and from the Jordan, which runs straight through the sea. During the dry season, the sand dries out and hardens. But only a great fool would expect it to stay that way! The foolish builder built his house on this top layer of packed sand, while the wise builder dug down through the sand until he reached solid bedrock.7 When the rainy season returned, storms raged, and the water rose and overflowed its banks. So the wet sand crumbled, and the house that relied on it for its foundation collapsed in ruin.
The difference between the two houses has nothing to do with location. It’s all about whether the builder took action to prepare for the coming rains. The foolish builder considered only current circumstances. But the wise builder planned for the future, knowing the rains would return and acting accordingly. Likewise, Jesus had announced the coming of the kingdom, and his listeners needed to act accordingly by obeying his teachings. Those who did would stand firm in the kingdom. But those who failed to act on his words would come to sudden and complete ruin.
- See The Spiritually Poor.
- France, Gospel of Matthew, 286–287.
- Matthew 3:8.
- Galatians 5:22–23.
- See The Golden Rule.
- See The Beginning of Prayer.
- Osborn, Matthew, 53–54.