There are two ways to live, but there is only one way to eternal, abundant and true spiritual life: “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Psalm 1 describes two people, two ways to live, and two destinies. A person cannot do both. We make a choice.
1. The Way of Destruction (verse 13)
The gate is wide. You don’t have to do anything to enter the gate. If you are alive, you are there; not only that, you are living on the broad way. The broad way is filled with diversity, differing ideas, philosophies, religions, concepts of God, or atheism. The irony is that, on the broad way, you will find a philosophy, a psychology, or a religion that feels right. But it is a deception. That is why the broad way is so dangerous. Proverbs 4:12 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” The broad way separates us from God, and if we die on that road we will forever be separated from God in Hades. Destruction does not imply annihilation, but loss and pain.
2. The Way of Life (verses 13-14)
The entrance to life eternal and abundant is narrow and small. It is limited and very precise. There is only one way. In John 10:9, Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” In John 3:3, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
Entrance into God’s kingdom is through the new birth alone. It is all by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
“Narrow” comes from a Greek word that means to groan or be under pressure. Jesus said to His followers in John 16:33, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” Tribulation means stress or pressure. This narrow way may have stress and pressure, but it is the most blessed and most rewarding way to live. It is the only way that leads to true life, eternal and abundant.
Few are those who find the narrow gate and live the narrow way. Narrow implies specific. James M. Boice wrote about the narrow way to heaven: “The way to heaven is as narrow as Jesus.”
The Great Commission does not mean that a majority will respond with real faith. But some will. The calling of the narrow way is be faithful to our Lord, His Gospel and our mission. Blessings beyond our imagination are found on the narrow way, along with struggles, challenges, and growth.
The narrow gate may be equated to conversion, and the narrow way could be understood as the life of sanctification.
These verses indicate a choice. We must make a decision, realizing that no decision is actually a decision for the broad gate and the broad way. Whatever he meant in his poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost did emphasize that our choices in life are significant. The last stanza of the poem says: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”