8. The Gate Of Salvation Series

The Gate of Salvation

Introduction

There stands at the intersection of eternity a gate. Not a metaphorical construct of religious imagination, but the living reality of God's provision for fallen humanity. When Jesus declared in John 10:9, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture," He was making an exclusive claim that would either offend or save every person who heard it.

The ancient psalmist wrote in Psalm 118:20, "This is the gate of the LORD, through which the righteous shall enter." For centuries, God's people wondered about this gate. They passed through temple doors, they observed ceremonial entrances, they followed ritual prescriptions for approaching the Holy One. But the gate remained a mystery wrapped in shadows and types until one day in Jerusalem when the Word became flesh and announced, "I am the door."

This morning, we stand before the most consequential truth in all of Scripture. There is a gate to salvation, and that gate is a Person. Jesus Christ is not showing you the way; He is the Way. He is not pointing to the door; He is the Door. The question before every human soul is simple yet eternal: Will you enter through this gate, or will you seek another entrance that does not exist?

The religious leaders of Jesus's day had constructed their own gates. They had built elaborate systems of righteousness based on heritage, ceremony, and human effort. When the Shepherd stood among them and declared Himself the only door to the Father's house, they stumbled over the scandal of particularity. The same stumbling continues today.

I. The Narrow Gate

Before Jesus revealed Himself as the Door, He taught about two gates in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:13-14, He said, "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." This was not mere illustration. This was diagnostic truth about the human condition and prophetic warning about eternal destinies.

The narrow gate stands in stark contrast to the wide gate. These are not two sections of the same entrance. They are two completely different portals leading to two completely different destinations. One opens to life eternal; the other opens to destruction. The choice between them is the most significant decision any human being will ever make, yet most people sleepwalk past the narrow gate without ever recognizing what they have missed.

A. Two gates, two destinies

The reality of two gates and two destinies runs throughout Scripture like a crimson thread. Moses put it before Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." The choice has always been binary. There is no third option, no middle ground, no neutral territory where the uncommitted can wait out eternity.

Proverbs 14:12 warns us, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." This is the deception of the wide gate. It appears reasonable, inclusive, tolerant of all paths. It makes no uncomfortable demands. It requires no death to self, no surrender of autonomy, no acknowledgment of sin. The wide gate celebrates human potential and dismisses divine standards. It is paved with good intentions and lined with the approval of crowds. But its destination is destruction.

Jesus Himself confirmed these two destinies in Matthew 25:46 when He said, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." There is no annihilation of the wicked, no second chance after death, no universal reconciliation that overrides human choice. The gate you enter determines your eternal destination, and that choice is made in this life, not the next.

The narrow gate leads to life because it leads through the death of Jesus Christ. Every person who enters this gate must come by way of Calvary, where the Son of God bore the judgment that sinners deserve. The gate is narrow not because God is exclusive by temperament, but because there is only one sacrifice sufficient to satisfy divine justice. The blood of bulls and goats never could take away sins, as Hebrews reminds us. Only the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, can cleanse us from all sin.

B. Why few find the gate

When Jesus said that few find the narrow gate, He was making a sobering observation about spiritual reality. Why do few find it? Not because it is hidden or because God has made salvation difficult to obtain. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 explains: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."