Preached on January 18, 2009, by the Rev. Dr. S. Randall Toms
At St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matt. 7:13-14)
One day I must purchase one of those GPS systems, because I am very well known for choosing the wrong roads, the wrong highways. One time we were on a family vacation in Wyoming, and we were trying to get back to our motel room for the night. For some reason, I chose the Prince Joseph highway as the one that would get as back. After we had been on it for a few minutes, my wife and daughter were sure that I had chosen the road that leads to destruction. It was a road on the side of a mountain, it was as rough as corduroy, and we were driving in pitch darkness. We were all petrified, Bettyna was hiding on the floorboard between the seats, and we all wished that I had chosen a different road.
Jesus tells us that there are two roads in life upon which we can travel. One of the roads leads to life and the other leads to destruction. If that is the case, then why do so few travel the road that leads to life? One of the reasons appears to be that the road that leads to life is so difficult to find. On the other hand, it is not difficult at all to find the road that leads to destruction. You will notice that when our Lord speaks of the strait gate and the narrow way, he says “few there be that find it.” The word “find” seems to indicate that a search was necessary in order to discover this gate and enter it. On the other hand, when describing the wide gate and the broad way, he doesn’t say that many people find it. He merely says that many people enter it. One of the reasons that the wide gate and the broad way is so easy to see is that there are so many people entering it. If you want to know where the wide gate and the broad way is, just look for the crowd. Jesus said, “many there be which go in thereat.” As the saying goes, “Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.” There will be millions and billions of people entering the wide gate and the broad way. In other words, it will be the most popular way to live your life. Just live like the rest of the world is living. On the other hand, so many people are going in at the wide gate and the broad way, you might not even notice that there is another gate, another road—a gate that is strait, and road that is narrow.
Jesus said that this gate is “strait,” not “straight.” We very rarely use the word “strait” anymore. The word that is translated as “strait” is “stenos” which means strait, or narrow. We often use this word in medical terminology to express a narrowing of blood vessels or other tubular portions of the body. For example, we speak of coronary artery stenosis, carotid artery stenosis, and renal artery stenosis. All of these conditions referring to a narrowing of the particular blood vessel involved. So, the gate that we must enter that leads to life is a narrow one.
We might wonder why Jesus would describe this gate as being narrow. After all, isn’t there a wideness to God’s mercy. Doesn’t he invite all to come to him? Why then, would he say that the gate is narrow.
First, the reason the gate is so narrow is that the gate, and the road, as well, are a person, one person, and only one person, and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the gate, for we read in John’s gospel: “Then said Jesus unto them again, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep…. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:7, 9). If you want to be saved, there is only way. You have to enter by the one door. So, this gate is so strait, so narrow, because there is only one way to get through it, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”
But not only is Jesus the gate; he is also the way. In John 14:6 he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This is the central message of the Christian faith: the only way to be saved, the only way to go to heaven and live for ever and ever, is by faith in Jesus Christ. This makes the gate and the way very strait and narrow, especially in our culture. There is no Christian truth that the world hates more than this one: Jesus Christ is the only way to God. I was watching a video clip of one of the Oprah Winfrey programs where she argues with someone in the audience who said that Jesus is the only way. There is no Christian doctrine that Oprah seems to hate more than that one. Of course, in our culture, whatever Oprah says is gospel. Oprah, and most of the people in this country believe that there are many paths to God. The majority believe that he Jews have their way, the Muslims have their way, the Buddhists and Hindus have their way. But the Christian message is that faith in Christ is the only way. I know that if you believe this you are called narrow-minded, but this a criticism that we gladly accept without making any apologies. One of the reasons our church is so small is that we do not make it a secret here that we believe that Christ is the only way.
Now, unfortunately, one of the things that the Church has tried to do through the years is to make the gate wide and the road broad. We expect the world to make this attempt, because the people in the world have a natural hatred for Jesus Christ and his gospel. But the Church knows how unpopular this message sounds, and it seems to make us appear to be very cruel to believe that our way is the only way. So, even Church leaders have tried to take the sting out of this truth and find a way for people of other religions to make it to heaven though they don’t believe in Jesus Christ. How many times do we hear people, who call themselves Christians, say things, especially at funerals, like, “Well, he didn’t believe in Jesus, but he was a good and kind man, so I am sure he is in heaven.” Even large religious bodies have made this same assertion that if people follow the teachings of their religion faithfully and live a good moral lives, they will go to heaven as well. The Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church stated:
In the first place we must recall the people to whom the testament and the promises were given and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh [the Jews]. On account of their fathers this people remains most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues. But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohamedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things, and as Saviour wills that all men be saved. Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.
Well, that makes the gate very wide. Evidently Peter and the rest of the apostles wasted their time trying to get the Jews to believe in Jesus because they were going to heaven anyway. Jesus himself looked at the Jews and said, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). This statement from the Second Vatican Council goes so far as to imply that a belief in a supreme being is sufficient for salvation. That makes the gate so wide that everyone, I guess, except absolute atheists is going to heaven. Then why did the apostle Paul give his entire life to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world and suffer death for the sake of the gospel if those people were going to heaven anyway? Paul, Peter, and the rest of Christian missionaries just didn’t realize that the gate is quite wide after all. Few there be that miss it!
In more recent times, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts-Schori has made it well known that she doesn’t believe that Jesus is the only way. In an interview in Time magazine, she was asked point blank, “Is belief in Jesus the only way to heaven?” She replied, “We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.” In other words, Jesus is the way for Christians to come to God, but other people can come to God another way. In a later interview on NPR with Robin Young, she was asked to clarify that answer she gave to Time. Jefferts-Schori said, “Christians understand that Jesus is the route to God. Umm– that is not to say that Muslims, or Sikhs, or Jains, come to God in a radically different way. They come to God through… human experience… through human experience of the divine. Christians talk about that in terms of Jesus.” Then Robin Young said, “So you’re saying there are other ways to God.” Jefferts-Schori replied:
Uhh… human communities have always searched for relationship that which is beyond them…with the ultimate… with the divine. For Christians, we say that our route to God is through Jesus. Uhh.. uh.. that doesn’t mean that a Hindu.. uh.. doesn’t experience God except through Jesus. It-it-it says that Hindus and people of other faith traditions approach God through their… own cultural contexts; they relate to God, they experience God in human relationships, as well as ones that transcend human relationships; and Christians would say those are our experiences of Jesus; of God through the experience of Jesus.
So, the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church says that Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Hindus come to God through human experience: what they are experiencing is the same thing we experience by faith in Jesus. Well, that makes the gate very wide and the way very broad. It is absolutely incredible that someone who believed such heresy, such nonsense, would even call herself a Christian, much less the bishop of an entire denomination. She’s certainly not in agreement with the Thirty-nine Articles at the back of the Prayer Book: “They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.” (Article 18). Our own articles of belief state that if you believe there are others way to be saved other than Jesus Christ, you are accursed. Not only are those non-Christians accursed, but if you believe that non-Christians can be saved by some other way than Jesus Christ, you are accursed. If you believe that there are other ways to God than through Jesus Christ, that is your right. It’s a free country. But please, don’t call yourself an Anglican, an Episcopalian, or even a Christian. A Christian is one who believes that there is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ.
Why would our articles state that if a person believes that there are other ways to be saved other than Jesus Christ, that that person is accursed? Well, first, such a belief is a damning deception. If someone teaches that a person can be saved in a way other than Jesus Christ, he is leading them to eternal destruction. Paul said, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8-9). The belief that a person can be saved by some other way than through faith in Jesus Christ is another gospel, it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, and such a person who teaches it is accursed.
Furthermore, if a person believes that there are other ways to God than through Jesus Christ, it shows that that person has not understood one single thing about the Christian faith. I mean it—not one single thing. That person is still dead in trespasses and sins. For the Christian faith is this: We are all sinners, doomed to everlasting hell because of our sins. But God who is rich in mercy sent his only son to die on the cross for our sins so that if we believe in him, we can escape hell and enjoy eternal life with him forever. This is the only way for our sins to be forgiven. If you believe that people can be saved in some other way, then you are saying that Jesus died for nothing. St. Paul said, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21). In other words, if people could have been saved by keeping the law, if people could have gone to heaven just by being good and decent people, then there would have been no need for Christ to die. God would have just said, “Try harder to obey the commandments. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and you will be saved.” But since we are all breakers of God’s law, and deserve the eternal wrath of God, Christ had to die for us so that we would not have to endure that penalty. I hear people say all the time, “Well, I know people who aren’t Christians, and they are good and decent people, so I know they are going to heaven.” We are not saved by being good and decent people! We are saved by faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If you don’t believe Jesus is the only way, then you have never understood that you are a sinner, and that there is no other way for you, or for any other human being to be saved except through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Bishop Ryle put it like this:
Narrow as this door is, it is “the only one by which men can get to heaven.” There is no side door; there is no side road; there is no gap or low-place in the wall. All that are ever saved will be saved only by Christ, and only by simple faith in Him–Not one will be saved by simply repenting. Today’s sorrow does not wipe off yesterday’s score. Not one will be saved by his own works. The best works that any man can do are little better than impressive sins. Not one will be saved by his formal regularity in the use of the outward means of grace [going to church, reading his Bible, praying, taking the Lord's Supper, and honoring the Lord's day]. When we have done it all, we are nothing but poor “unprofitable servants.” Oh, no! it is a mere waste of time to seek any other road to eternal life. Men may look to the right and to the left, and weary themselves with their own methods, but they will never find another door. Proud men may dislike the door if they want. Depraved 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 blood and righteousness of a crucified Redeemer. There stands between us and heaven one great door: it may be narrow; but it is the only one. We must either enter heaven by the narrow door, or not at all.
To get through this strait gate, you must admit that there is no way for you, or anyone else to be saved, except by going through that gate, and you will have to live the rest of your life holding on to that belief. For this very reason, many people balk at the gate, and reconsider whether they would like to enter after all. Do you really want to be part of a group that believes that Christ is the only way of salvation? Isn’t that embarrassing? Aren’t you ashamed to be a part of a such a bigoted, narrow- minded group? Wouldn’t you rather be one of those nice, charitable people that everyone likes, one of those who can sweetly smile and say, “Well, we’re all going to the same place, and everybody has their own way of getting there.” Jesus once looked at a crowd and said, “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (John 5:44). We all want to receive honor from one another, don’t we? We want everyone else to love us and respect us. It is so difficult for us to believe that Jesus is the only way because that makes us look small in the eyes of the world.
Now, let me ask you my question: Have you gone through this strait gate? And if you haven’t, will you go through it now? Will you admit that there is no other way for you to be saved except by believing that Jesus Christ is the only way you can be saved? Will you admit that all your good deeds, your good works will not save you? As a matter of fact, if you want to get through this gate, you are going to leave all your good works behind you, all your self-righteousness, every good thing that you have ever done that you thought would make you acceptable in the sight of God. All your righteousness, all your good works, are as filthy rags in the sight of God. All that has to be stripped off in order for you to enter. You must say with Augustus Toplady in his hymn, Rock of Ages, “Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling.” Alexander MacLaren, talking about the opinion we must have of ourselves if we are going to pass through this gate said:
There must be consciousness of our own emptiness, weakness, and need; there must be penitent recognition of our own ill-desert and lamentation over that. These two things, the consciousness of emptiness, and the sorrow for sin, make, I was going to say, the two door-posts of the narrow gate through which a man has to press. It is too narrow for any of his dignities or honours…. All my self-confidence, and reputation, and righteousness, will be rubbed off when I try to press through that narrow aperture. You may find on a lonely moor low, contracted openings that lead into tortuous passages–the approaches to some of the ancient “Picts’ houses,” where a feeble folk dwelt, and secured themselves from their enemies. The only way to get into them is to go down upon your knees; and the only way to get into this road–the way of righteousness–is by taking the same attitude…. And that is not easy. Naaman wanted to be healed as a great man in the court of Damascus. He had to strip himself of his offices, and dignities, and pride, and to come down to the level of any other leper. You and I, dear brother, have to go through the same process of stripping ourselves of all the adventitious accretions that have clung to us, and to know ourselves naked and helpless, before we can pass through the gate.
Have you come to the gate in this manner? Have you come as an empty-handed sinner? Have you ever come to that gate realizing that you deserve nothing but the eternal wrath of God? Have you come, not bragging about your accomplishments, not boasting about your good deeds, but as someone who has nothing at all to be proud of? Can you get down on your knees as the one of the unclean and plead for mercy?
Let me quote Bishop Ryle again:
Narrow as this door is, it is “a door always ready to open.” No sinners of any kind are forbidden to draw near: whosoever will may enter in and be saved. There is but one condition of admission: that condition is that you really feel your sins and desire to be saved by Christ in His own way. Are you really aware of your guilt and vileness? Have you a truly broken and contrite heart? Look at the door of salvation, and come in. He that made it declares, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). The question to be considered is not whether you are a great sinner or a little sinner–whether you are elect or not–whether you are converted or not. The question is simply this, “Do you feel your sins? Do you feel burdened and heavy-laden? Are you willing to put your life into Christ’s hand?” Then if that be the case, the door will open to you at once. Come in this very day. Why are you standing out there?
Again, our form of worship as Anglicans is perfectly suited for such an attitude. If a person comes to this church, really prays these prayers in the sincerity of his heart, he enters through the narrow gate. How many times in each service do we plead for the mercy of God? How I wish that it would finally dawn on Anglicans, Episcopalians, that when they say, “Lord, have mercy upon us,” they are saving “Lord, have mercy on me, a hell-deserving sinner, entirely dependent upon your grace.” Every Sunday in the Prayer of Humble Access, we pray, “We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.” That is the attitude we must have to enter through this strait gate. In the prayer of confession before communion we say, “Have mercy upon us; have mercy upon us; most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus’ Christ’s sake.” Pay close attention to those words. Can’t you hear the pleading, the begging, as it is said twice, “Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us”? And why should God have mercy upon us? Do we say “Have mercy upon us, because I have done some good things. Have mercy upon us, because I’m better than some people I know.” No. “Have mercy upon us; most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus’ Christ’s sake.” Have mercy upon us, not because of what we are, or what we have done. Have mercy on us because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me. That is how low you must bend to get through this narrow door. How we hate to take that posture! No wonder The Episcopal Church didn’t like the 1928 Prayer Book. They said it was too penitential. Of course, people consider it too penitential! No wonder so few are saved. No wonder so few find the strait gate. People are not willing to be stripped and bent low in order to go through it. Again, this is one of the reasons why so few people come to our church. They don’t want to go to a church where repentance is the focal point, where pleading for mercy is emphasized, where humility in worship is demanded. What fun is that?
This should be the great strength of growing up Episcopalian, of living the Christian life in the Episcopal Church, for every day, every single day, from the day they are born, we place before our children, the narrow gate of faith and repentance. From the time they are able to understand anything, the one great truth they are faced with is that they are sinners and the only way to be forgiven is through the mercy of Jesus Christ. In the baptismal service, the priest says, “We receive this Child into the congregation of Christ’s flock; and do sign him with the sign of the Cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner, against sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end.” Notice that it is emphasized “that he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified.” Why bring that up? Because the great temptation that child will face will be to be ashamed of the strait gate and the narrow way. So, we confront our children when they are two, three, four, from the time they are old enough to understand, “You are a soldier of the cross. Never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel. It is the only way to heaven.” It is the duty of the family and the church to always place before our children the strait gate and the narrow way.
For us, repentance and faith are not one-time things that happened years ago when we made a “decision” for Christ. For us, we wake up every morning, and there is that narrow gate of faith and repentance, and we enter it new and afresh every day. Every morning, the first thing the devil says to me is, “You don’t really believe all this stuff, do you? You don’t really believe Christ is the only way do you? You aren’t really going to continue in this, are you? Why don’t you join one of the liberal denominations and be sweet so that everyone will like you?” So, I have to turn a deaf ear to that temptation and enter that strait gate once again. Every day, either by the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed we express our faith in Jesus Christ, and every day, at the beginning of every day and at the end of every day, we bow, bent low, stripped of all self-righteousness, and say those words that are second nature to us, that have been burned into our souls through discipline and the power of the Holy Spirit:
Almighty and most merciful Father; we have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is your duty to enter that strait gate and narrow way every day. It is your responsibility as a Christian parent to put before your children each and every day the strait gate and the narrow way. It is your responsibility to show them, by precept and example, how to enter that strait gate and narrow way; and if you don’t, don’t be surprised if you find them one day on the broad path that leads to destruction. For the Episcopal child, and for the Episcopal adult, we face the strait gate of repentance and faith every day, and know that the only way to heaven is through that gate.
So today, if you have never done so before, will you accept the shame that is associated with believing that this is the only way of salvation? You may say, “I’m not sure if I’ve ever entered before.” I don’t care about your previous experiences or previous decisions. Have you entered today? Because if you haven’t entered today, what does it matter? You need to do today what you will be called upon to do tomorrow and for the rest of your life. Enter the strait gate of faith and repentance. It’s an agonizing decision to make, and that is why Jesus said, “Agonize to enter through the narrow door.” It’s an agonizing moment to realize that you have been wrong all your life; it’s agonizing to let go of everything you have ever believed; it’s agonizing to say good-bye to the favorable opinion of friends, relatives, and the rest of the world. But if you are going to go through this gate, that is the agonizing decision you must make. God give you the strength to agonize to enter the narrow door even now.
On the first Sunday of this new year I preached on prayer and how important it was to pray. I know that many of you are concerned about church growth and want to see the church grow. If you really want to see the church grow, you are going to have pray in a very determined, constant, and powerful way, because no one is going to come to this church who does not want to enter the strait gate. The only way anyone ever desires to come through that narrow gate is by the miracle of the Holy Spirit revealing to them that they are sinners and there is no other way of salvation but this. We can argue this point with people all we want, but it will never sink in unless God, by the Holy Spirit reveals to men and women that they are vile sinners deserving the wrath of almighty God. When people realize this truth, then they will agonize to enter the narrow door. We are not going to get people to come by offering them games and activities. Other churches offer bigger and better games. What we are offering people here is the strait gate and the narrow way. St. Paul’s Church exists for one reason—to constantly set before believers and unbelievers the strait gate and the narrow way. That strait gate and that narrow way are going to frighten people away unless the Holy Spirit opens their eyes so that they can the glory and beauty of this way of salvation through Jesus Christ. If you really want people to attend our church, you are going to have pray as you have never prayed in your life, “Merciful Lord, open the eyes of men and women in this city that they may see their wretched sinfulness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, grant them this agonizing desire to come in through strait gate.”
Amen.
