The Surprising Narrowness of Jesus

The Sermon on the Mount is wide on mercy, so Jesus talking of narrow roads can seem surprising.

Jesus is the only Gate that leads to life. We must go through the salvation gate; God giving us the ability to decide to follow, based ultimately upon His choice of us before the foundation of the world, but explained by us as a moment in time or process choice that we make. We do not choose Him, Jesus chooses us. We cooperate by faith.

The salvation gate gets us on the sanctification road of discipleship. Not an easy way but a rough way, a way marked by suffering and persecution. It is the way Jesus calls us to and the way that leads to life. It is counter-intuitive to us, we think the easy way would lead to life.

The pattern of salvation then sanctification is seen in the New Testament. Matthew 16:13-28 follows the pattern: Peter confesses Christ and then is called to self-denying discipleship. In Matthew, Jesus' call to the fishermen (4:7) comes before His long call to discipleship in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7).

Jesus is the Author and Perfector of faith (Hebrews 12:3) and so He calls us to faith and then develops that same faith. He takes us from start to finish. And all the while, we make choices along the way, enveloped in His sovereign hand.