Will I Fit Through The Narrow Gate?
While this cartoon might be intended to be funny or light-hearted about the matter of a narrow gate, there are some threads of great theological truths interwoven within.
John MacArthur warns of those who teach that the gate is wide and of the importance of examining ourselves prior to attempting to enter the narrow gate:
The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 wasn’t willing to do that [cast himself on the mercy of God]. He wanted to enter the Kingdom but on his terms. However, that’s like trying to put a camel through the eye of a needle. The only way into the Kingdom is by becoming broken in spirit, mournful, and eager for a righteousness that you can’t attain and don’t deserve.
Most people don’t want to meet those conditions. They want to do things their way. They resemble a man with four pieces of luggage–worldliness, sin, Satan, and self–trying to get through the turnstile into the Kingdom. They want in so they can have happiness and stay out of hell, but they want in on their terms. However, the Lord said, “Enter in at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in that way” (Matt. 7:13). Many people enter through the wide gate because they can take their baggage of good works and self-righteousness with them. Verse 14 continues, “Narrow is the gate, and hard is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The Greek word translated “hard” literally means “compressed.” You have to strip yourself of everything to go through the narrow gate.
Momento Mori reminds me that there are no trailer hitches on hearses.
