The picture that Jesus gives us in this command is not a choice between two gates, but a choice between two ways of life — the broad way and the narrow way.

The narrow way is not a last-minute decision. It is the result of choices that we make along the way. Thus, God warns, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). For this reason also, wisdom stands by the way calling out to simple youth to make the right choices.

This one command is a summary of God’s entire plan of redemption and His work throughout history to bring people to a right choice. Throughout the history of Israel, God sent His prophets and spoke through them with pleadings to turn from their way of death to the way of life. In our day, God speaks to the world through believers, urging everyone to turn from foolishness and sin to the true and living way.

When Saul of Tarsus persecuted Christians and dragged them to prison, he was not fighting against people but was actually persecuting Christ. Therefore, on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Saul in a great light and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4).

Jesus is the Way of Life, and Jesus is the door through which we go to gain eternal life. He is also the means through which eternal life is secured for us.

Q: After pronouncing His creation “good,” why did God regret having made man and determine that everyone besides Noah and his family had to be destroyed?

A: When God sent the Flood to destroy the earth, there was only one man who found favor in His eyes—Noah. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but no one listened to him because they had completely corrupted their ways before God.

God describes what took place: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, and the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:4–6).

“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Genesis 6:11–12).

Because mankind chose to do greater and greater wickedness, their lives were consumed by lustful and violent passions. They failed to recognize that the path they had chosen would lead to destruction. Noah found favor with God because by faith he chose the narrow path of obedience to God and was saved along with his family.