Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
June 30, 1985
The Two Ways
Matthew 7:13-14, KJV
A week-and-a-half ago Celeste was coming home from visiting her parents and I was going to meet them half way in Pennsylvania. I'm a fantastic navigator. I take one look at my road atlas and the route is memorized. So off I went.
Things went fine until I got to Akron. They had torn up my highway so I ended up on a detour that sent me toward Cleveland. I didn't want to go to Cleveland, so I meandered down some back roads till I was on my way to Youngstown. Youngstown was a lot worse than Akron. The route was committed to my razor-sharp memory but the highway signs were all wrong. I changed lanes, whipped around some clover leafs and still couldn't find my route. Finally I steered with one hand and dug through my atlas with the other. I was going in the wrong direction. I decided to reverse directions at the next exit. But it was a strange exit - little booths were between each lane. "The Ohio Turnpike."
While semi-trucks hemmed me in, I desperately dug in my atlas once more. To my joy I discovered that the first exit on the turnpike was a mere thirty-seven miles away, which means I would have had to go seventy-four miles just to turn around. Just before I got to the dreaded booth I noticed the median divider disappeared. Only a summer flunky with a slow-down sign stood between me and a U-turn. I pleaded with him silently (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) and he let me through.
I lucked out. I had strayed onto the wrong road but I was able to get back. Part of my problem was the complexity of it all - there were a hundred roads going to a thousand places.
The Bible presents a situation which is much simpler. Instead of a hundred options there are only two.
One is wide, the other is narrow.
One is easy, the other is hard.
One is popular, the other is lonely.
One ends in destruction, the other is life.
At this very moment you are on one side or the other. There is no middle ground. To summarize this passage I would say there are:
2 gates
2 ways
2 destinations
and 2 crowds
First we have to decide which gate we will go through. I had never given it much thought before but one commentator I read mentioned that it is unusual the gate is mentioned before the road. You could expect it to be the other way around. We expect a gate at the end of the road, especially if this is a parable about life, which it is. There is a very important reason why Jesus starts with a gate. It is because salvation is a lot like a toll-road: First you make your decision, then you live by it.
This is a beautiful illustration of salvation as the free gift of God. If salvation could be earned you would live your life as best you could then the checkered flag would tell you if you made it. But since you hit the gate first, the way you live becomes a confirmation of the decision you made to begin with.
Salvation does not begin when you start to reform yourself or get rid of some of those bad habits. It can only begin when you accept Christ as your Savior. He is the only one who can make you acceptable to God. In John 10:9 Jesus himself said,
"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved."
Some people have no problem with this as far as it goes. Jesus is a gate and so is Buddha, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, etc. But Jesus never saw himself as one option among many, he saw himself as the only gate to heaven. In John 14:6 he gives one of his best known sayings -
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
What follows is less well known but just as significant:
"No one comes to the Father, except by me."
This is what makes the gate strait. Strait doesn't mean the opposite of crooked. It means narrow. We still use it to describe a narrow body of water that connects two larger seas such as the Strait of Hormuz bear Iran. Salvation narrows down to Jesus.
Jesus is the only way to God but there is one other option in life - do nothing. You are under no obligation to God. This second gate is so wide and inviting you can't miss it. You glide right through. You may not be aware of it but the wide gate also involves a decision, because if you have not decided to accept Jesus then you have rejected him.
The two gates lead to two ways. A way (or road) in the Bible always symbolizes your lifestyle. Each decision is supposed to have a corresponding lifestyle. The lifestyle of the world is very broad and getting wider all the time. Fewer and fewer limits are being placed on people. This month in Columbus, Ohio, homosexuals are going to have a Gay March. Ten years ago this was unheard of but today it barely raises eyebrows. To too many people this is a good trend. All of us should be more broadminded, they say. A great forum for broad-minded is the Phil Donahue show. If something is outrageous, controversial or perverse he'll discuss it.
Boy George was on the other day. Donahue made a couple of comments about his make-up but most of the emphasis was on accepting people who are different or bizarre. If you may attention you'll notice that Donahue is broad-minded in areas he supports but can get very testy with people he disagrees with, especially conservatives.
The opposite of an "anything goes" lifestyle is a Christian one. Jesus describes it as narrow or hard. This doesn't mean Christians are pig-headed or ignorant. We should keep a very humble and loving attitude when interviewing someone like Boy George. The expression "strait and narrow" means Christians live within boundaries. We are not saved by the way we live but if we are saved, we should live a certain way. This is why the Bible is filled with so many commands and rules and principles. If your life is not being conformed to these commands you may not be a Christian after all.
As one example, the Bible contains specific guidelines for sexual behavior. Within marriage, sex is beautiful and acceptable. Paul even calls it an obligation. But outside of the marriage covenant, sex is forbidden. If you love your boyfriend and are real serious maybe you've even discussed marriage - it doesn't matter: sex is forbidden. If your wife doesn't understand you and she's probably fooling around anyway, it doesn't justify having an affair. Pre-marital, homosexual or extra-marital sex is part of the broad easy way. Most people are going to go along with it. Those who practice them are not following Christ's way. And if you are not following Christ's way you probably don't belong to him to begin with.
The strait and narrow lifestyle is not limited to the avoidance of sexual sin or drunkenness or judging or greed. It also involves the positive practice of love; avoiding the pitfalls of the world is not enough. God wants us to stand out because we are so honest, balanced and happy that others can't miss us. All of this isn't easy. Disciplining your life is very hard but Jesus demands it of his followers.
There are two gates and two ways. There are also two destinations. The broad easy way leads to destruction. This does not mean the wicked are annihilated and cease to exist. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 talks about the punishment of everlasting destruction which is the same thing as the Lake of Fire in Revelation. It's not a pretty picture but Jesus never taught it any differently.
The other option is life - the eternal kind. This destination doesn't just plop in your lap. You have to seek it. You would think with such a clear choice that everyone would turn toward God but this isn't so. There will always be two gates, two ways, two destinations and two crowds. Jesus describes them as the many and the few.
Through the ages there has been speculation on the number of the saved. We wonder how many in our church are really saved or even in our families. In Luke 13:23 a person asked Jesus,
"Are only a few going to be saved?"
Jesus' answer is interesting. Instead of giving a number he says,
"Strive to enter in at the narrow gate."
The number of those who are saved is unimportant. Jesus calls them the few. John in Revelation says that those few will outnumber the sands of all the shores of all the seas. It doesn't matter how many are saved, just that you are one of them. Are you?
________
Typed on March 7, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Easily create Web Help sites