Are You On The Narrow or Broad Road?

There are times when we face a decision that is black or white, for which there are only two choices. The choice you make will determine your destiny. When a person is born in the world he/she is born into sin, and because of sin we are alienated (cut off) from God. We all need to go to God for forgiveness as we are all sinners.

Imagine we are walking along a path and we come to two gates. There are only two gates. We must go through one or the other. One of the gates is wide and the road leading from it is easy. Many people are walking along that road because most people think that, because so many people are on this road, they cannot be mistaken. They think this must be the right road. The people who are following this road are carrying heavy burdens of sins, worries and fears. The wide gate is noticeable, it is easily seen and it is not difficult to enter, but it leads to destruction, which is hell. People going through the wide gate and the broad way really believe they are going to end up in Heaven. On the broad way, you make your own decisions. You don't have to listen to anybody, you just live to please yourself.

In order to follow Jesus it is necessary to leave the crowd, even if our friends and relations are walking through this wide gate. We must separate from them. 'All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way;' (Isaiah 53:6)

The second gate is narrow and the road leading on from it is also narrow. Very few people are walking on this road. Those that are walking on this narrow path don't have any burdens - Jesus is carrying them. Jesus said: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6)

Jesus said, 'if you want to follow me, you must pass through the small gate and walk on this narrow road'. In order to pass through the small gate we must recognize that we must stop going our own way, turn around and start going Jesus's way. Jesus said to everyone: 'Enter through the narrow gate' (Matthew 7:13-14). It is not enough to listen to Jesus' teaching. We must obey it and enter through the narrow gate. One day each of us has to face God alone. If we want to enter Heaven, we must leave the crowd and follow the narrow road.

Jesus gives each of us a choice - to follow Him or not to follow Him. Jesus said an amazing thing: 'For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?' (Mark 8:35-36). Worldly life and spiritual life are opposed to one another. We cannot seek after Christ and seek after worldly blessings at the same time.

Preachers don't always tell you how to find the narrow way. People are being told that all they have to do to be 'saved' is to believe in Jesus. Jesus did not teach this. The bible tells us what the Gospel is - 'Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you - unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures'. (1 Cor 15:1-4)