Introduction

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14

In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew presents Jesus to us as a new and better Moses, standing upon a new and better Sinai, commanding a new and better law. For ninety-seven uninterrupted verses Jesus holds a one-man constitutional convention where he details the ethics of a new, spiritual, kingdom and calls on his disciples to live in the good of that kingdom - here, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Last Sunday, Daniel preached the culminating, capstone command of that kingdom:

“Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” 

The Golden Rule concludes the giving of the law, but not the giving of the sermon. More remains to be said before Jesus dismisses the congregation. 

In this way, too, Jesus resembles Moses. For just as Moses concludes the giving of the law in Deuteronomy 26 and then spends the next seven chapters warning and exhorting the people of God to live in the good of it, Jesus concludes the giving of his law in Matthew 7:12 and then spends the final fourteen verses of the sermon warning and exhorting the people of God to live in the good of it. Our passage for this morning marks the beginning of that final section of the Sermon on the Mount.  It is a “choose this day whom you will serve” kind of exhortation and, indeed, it is reminiscent of Moses’ valediction in Deut. 30:15. 

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways…then you shall live…But if your heart turns away…you shall surely perish.”

Our text this morning is a variation on this same theme: Choose this day which gate you will pass through, choose this day which path you will walk, choose this day which company you will keep, choose this day what end you will experience. Choose this day.

The warnings in our passage are directed at both the Christian and the Non-Christian. The Non-Christian is warned that the path on which he walks leads to destruction. The Christian is warned that the path on which he walks is hard and lonely. In both instances, Jesus describes life on earth as a journey along a particular path. This metaphor is one of the most prevalent in all of scripture. In the Old Testament we routinely encounter passages like this: 

“I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness…Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil.” (Proverbs 4:11; 13) 

And in the New Testament we read nearly forty instances in the epistles alone where the life of the Saint is described similarly.

• “Walk in the newness of life” (Romans 6:4)
• “Walk by faith not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7) 
• “Walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16) 
• “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1)
• “Walk in love” (Ephesians 5:2)

It is in this context that Jesus uses again that old idea: Life is a journey and discipleship a pathway to be walked. Jesus’ audience would have been familiar with this metaphor. They may have even thought it was a little cliche. But as is often the case in his teachings, Jesus takes a familiar idea - in this case, the metaphor of the two pathways - and then builds on it. Here, he expands and deepens the metaphor by adding a narrow gate at the head of the hard pathway of life and a wide gate at the head of the easy pathway of destruction. This is new. Genesis and Deuteronomy and Proverbs and Psalms are filled with the motif of the two pathways, but there are no gates there. What exactly is meant by these two gates, and especially the narrow gate, will be one of our goals this morning. 

The title of our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount is “Life in the Kingdom.” 

A single-sentence summary of this morning’s sermon would go something like this: 

Life in the kingdom consists of costly obedience lived in the joy of free grace. 

1. Two Gates 

See, I have set before you today two gates. 

The gate is wide that leads to destruction. The gate is narrow that leads to life. 

We’ll start with this idea: the gate is the beginning that determines the end.

The Wide Gate 

The most sobering aspect of the wide gate is that you have already passed through it. This is left unsaid by Jesus, but is stated loudly by the rest of scripture. The sinner does not sit in a place of comfortable neutrality, weighing first this way and then the other, before coming to a rational decision. The two gates are not equal options set out for his consideration as he sets out on the journey of life. The choice has already been made. When Adam fell, all mankind fell. When Adam chose the wide gate, you and I both chose the wide gate. The day of decision, in that sense, is far gone. The entrance to the wide gate is already six thousand years behind us. To do nothing is to remain on the path of destruction. To remain as we were born is to remain as we were when, in Adam, we put our back to Eden and crossed the threshold toward destruction. Detached neutrality from the deep questions of faith and religion isn’t just impossible at this late stage, it is suicidal. Remember what I stated a moment ago, the gate is the beginning that determines the end, and our entrance at the wide gate ends in destruction. 

The Narrow Gate 

Well, if the wide gate is a picture and warning of our already desperate situation, the narrow gate is a picture of salvation. And not a universal salvation, but a particular one. “No one comes to the Father except through me”, Jesus says in John 14. The narrow gate speaks to the exclusivity of the gospel and the salvation that is in Christ alone. 

The “Two Paths” metaphor is often used in scripture to compare the way of the wise to the way of the foolish, or the way of the righteous to the way of the wicked. The path of wisdom that leads to prosperity operates, in those places, as universal principles applicable to pious Jews and pious pagans alike. 

But the presence of the narrow gate shows us that Jesus is doing something else with the metaphor of the paths. Here Jesus is not presenting instructions on how to achieve a prosperous life, like in Proverbs, but instructions on how to achieve eternal life through him. We find the gateway to life to be precisely the same size and shape as the gospel itself: large enough to welcome any who calls upon the name of the Lord, narrow enough to deny entry to any who seek admission on the basis of any other name, creed, or confession. The narrow gate accepts none who carry with them their own good works; none who carry with them the love of the world; none, indeed, any who carry with them the love even of their own life. You must pass through the gate with nothing or not at all.

Nothing in my hands I bring
Simply to the cross I cling
Naked come to thee for dress
Helpless look to thee for grace
Foul I to the fountain fly
Wash me savior or I die.

There is renunciation at the gate and there is regeneration at the gate. 

I said a minute ago that the metaphor of the gate is new. And that’s true. But the idea behind the metaphor is not. You see, the law has always been powerless to change hearts. It was never enough to just say “choose life”. It was never enough to just point your finger and say “do better!” There has always been this other thing that was needed. And Moses knew that, he knew that something more than threats and warnings and promises were necessary for true obedience. Indeed he says as much in the very same chapter we read from earlier, Deuteronomy 30: 

“The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” 

Remember our definition from earlier: the gate is the beginning that determines the end. 

For the Christian, that “circumcision of the heart” that Moses describes is simply another way of saying that you must be born again if you ever hope to love God with all your heart and all your soul. 

In the sequence that Jesus lays out in our text, the gate precedes the hard pathway that leads to life. We’re not there yet, but I’m going to tell you anyway: the hard pathway that leads to life is, essentially, the Christian’s lifelong, ongoing, progressive sanctification. And if the journey that proceeds from the gate is sanctification, then the Christian’s passage through the narrow gate must be nothing less than justification. 

If the Christian’s journey along the hard pathway that leads to life is really just another way of describing orthopraxy, then our passage through the gate must stand as a picture of our acceptance of orthodoxy.

The beginning that determines the end, the gate that leads to life, is one that fundamentally reconstitutes the inner man. In Moses’ words, it circumcises the heart. In Jesus’ words it is a second birth. But however it is described, it does not merely declare us righteous, by the Holy Spirit it empowers us to godliness. 

Run John run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings. 

Life in the kingdom consists of costly obedience lived in the joy of free grace. 

Our next two points cover the “costly obedience” part of living in the kingdom. But the Narrow Gate is free grace all the way. We progress into a life of costly obedience glorying all the while in the radiance and undimmed brilliance of free grace. When we discipline our children or when we chastise ourselves, we would do well not to simply jab our finger at the pathway of costly obedience but to point them and ourselves back to the Narrow Gate from whence we came, back to the source of all our hope and joy, and back to the declaration emblazoned in blood over the lintel beam so that we might read aloud the words of our salvation anew: “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out!” 

2. Two Ways

See, I have set before you today two paths. 

The way is easy that leads to destruction. The way is hard that leads to life. 

The Easy Way

The pathway of the Non-Christian is not easy because they do not suffer. Indeed, in many respects, they suffer more than the righteous since their lives are attended with the consequences of living in rebellion against a God who is not mocked and whose principles of sowing and reaping are imprinted indelibly into nature.

But their path is easy in this sense: the way of the Non-Christian is without internal spiritual struggle. To be sure, they might deliberate internally about how best to achieve his or her aims. And the Non-Christian may doubt a course of action or upbraid themselves on account of a social misstep, but never for a single moment do they wish to unseat themselves from the throne of their own lives.

For the Christian, the struggle is constant to depose Self from his native throne and place Jesus as king upon it. It occupies the great mass of the Christian’s prayers and confessions. It occupies the great mass of his regrets and shame. It occupies his mind when he wakes in the night and when he prays on his knees. 

But the Non-Christian knows little of such struggles. The regnant lord of his life - his own passions and desires and selfishness - has ruled in uncontested supremacy since he first drew breath. King Self fears no rebellion and brooks no opposition. In the great throne room of the Non-Christian’s heart, the Self is crowned anew each day.

And this is ultimately what makes their pathway easy: every step they make is made in that direction which they perceive will bring them the most happiness. 

The Hard Way 

In contrast to the easy pathway traveled by those who reject Christ’s lordship, Jesus warns his followers that his way is hard and difficult. This is a warning like the one in Luke 14 to count the costs before claiming the name of a disciple and venturing out on pilgrimage.

Jesus often does this. For every comforting invitation it is not hard to find a sober warning. The same Jesus who said “come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden” said also “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Matt 8:22). The same Jesus who said “Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me” said also “whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:34-38). 

The hard path of discipleship is not the monk’s way, but the Christian's way. 

The hard path of discipleship is not the pastor’s way only, but the member’s way, too. 

The hard path of discipleship is not the adult’s way, only; but the child’s way and the teenager’s way, also. 

Let me speak specifically. 

• The hard path of the Christian is one where hours each week are spent in secret counsel with God, praying, worshiping, confessing, reading, and meditating on his Word. 
• The hard path Christian is one where the worship of God among his people is treated as his most sacred and inviolable duty.
• That path requires that the first fruits of his wealth, energy, and gifts be devoted to the work of ministry. 
• It requires him to love and lead his fallen, imperfect, wife; 
• It requires her to respect and submit to her fallen, imperfect husband; 
• It requires fallen, imperfect parents to discipline their fallen, imperfect children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;
• It requires children to obey their parents. 
• It requires honesty, diligence, and competence in his worldly vocation; and wisdom, stewardship, and generosity in the use of the money earned there. 
• It is the hard way of the Christian to stay married to a cold and bitter spouse. 
• It is the hard way of the Christian to welcome a disabled child into this world rather than destroy her in the womb.
• It is the hard way of the Christian to voluntarily confess his sin to the harm of his own reputation.
• It is the hard way of the Christian to forgive her teenager not seven times but seventy times seven times.
• It is the hard way of the Christian to get off the couch and discipline his eight year old with love rather than with an angry shout across the house. 
• It’s the hard way of the Christian to tithe.
• To resist political or racial tribalism
• To hold your tongue when angry
• To speak boldly when afraid
• To trade your smart phone for a flip phone for the sake of your purity
• To subordinate your children’s life of sports and music and theater to the life and ministry of the church. 
• To quit the job you love because you know it tempts you to compromise. 
• To keep the job you hate because you know God has called you to it. 

All of this is hard. 

And what is more, the testimony of scripture states, any Christian life devoid of these kinds of daily, voluntary, freely chosen hardships, undertaken for the glory of God and in obedience to his word is a counterfeit faith. 

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” 

3. Two Companies 

See, I have set before you today two kinds of companions.

Many are those who enter through the wide gate. Few are those who enter through the narrow. 

The company of many 

The path leading to destruction is an easy one, in part, because it is filled with such good company. The moment a single nagging doubt crosses the Non-Christian’s mind all they have to do is turn on the TV; all they have to do is hop on social media or click on the New York Times and instantly they are comforted with the reminder of how normal they are. And not just normal, but good and wise, too. In such company as that, their decisions are seen as normal and good and wise, their priorities as normal and good and wise. Even their sins, even if not good and wise, are at least normal. The most successful people in the world think and act just like them. The most beautiful and famous and intelligent people in the world think and act just like them. What terrible end could there possibly be? 

The company of few 

It is a quite different experience for the Christian. For them, to turn on the TV or hop on social media or click on the New York Times is to encounter not just people who live in LA or London, but to encounter people who appear to occupy an entirely different world. I’m not talking about two competing sub-cultures. I’m talking about different realities, beliefs, values, loves, presuppositions, convictions, and ways of thinking that are so profound and fundamental that they may as well be coded into our respective DNAs. 

No Christian is exempt from this feeling of estrangement from the world. 

Here’s a quick story about my favorite poet TS Eliot. 

Eliot was the most famous and widely celebrated English poet of his generation. In the 1920s, there was Eliot, then there was everyone else. He was close friends with one of the great novelists of the era, Virginia Woolf. They moved in the same intellectual, academic, and bohemian circles and both stood atop their respective fields, wielding immense influence. 

Then, in 1928, Eliot became a Christian. A real one. 

And I know what you’re thinking. Surely TS Eliot gets a pass, right? The world will still respect him, right? He can still go to all the parties, right? 

Here is a letter that Virginia Woolf wrote to her sister that year.

I have had a most shameful and distressing interview with dear Tom Eliot, who may be called dead to us all from this day forward. He has become an Anglo-Catholic believer in God and immortality, and goes to church. I was shocked. A corpse would seem to me more credible than he is. I mean, there’s something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God. (Virginia Woolf, letter to Vanessa Bell, February 1928)

Here’s a word to you young people. I know what you’re thinking because I thought this too once: you’re thinking that if you’re smart enough; if you’re clever and witty and charming enough; if you’re a good enough athlete; if you dress right and have a firm handshake then you can have both. You can be an uncompromising Christian and be accepted by the world. Let me tell you this in as sweet a way as I can: you can’t. To use Woolf’s language, a corpse will seem more credible to the world than you. They view your very existence as obscene. Ask Charlie Kirk’s widow what a nice smile gets you from the world when you speak the truth of the gospel without fear.

Two more things should be noted about both Eliot and Woolf. Thirteen years after his conversion, Eliot published his last and greatest poem - a poem that, despite being conspicuously Christian in outlook, stands as one of the crowning achievements of English verse in the last hundred years. That very same year, 1941, Virginia Woolf placed a large stone in the pocket of her dress and drowned herself in the River Ouse. 

But of course the Christian suffers more than just the mockery of bohemian proto-feminist English novelists. If that was all the denigration we had to endure, we could count ourselves blessed! 

It is far more than that. 

Jesus’ warnings were clear: the gospel is a sword that divides civilizations and cultures and nations and even families. In some ways, the Christian is a sojourner and stranger even in the land where his ancestors have lived for hundreds years. Our citizenship is in heaven and our brothers and sisters are those who do the will of the Lord. 

4. Two Ends

See, I have set before you today two ends to your life.

The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. 

Destruction 

When I was in high school I remember a church near our house put on a big theatrical production called Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames. It was put on at Halloween and advertised as a sort of combination evangelistic outreach/haunted house. The set up to the stage drama was that a group of teenagers are killed in a car accident. Some go to heaven and some go to hell. I remember the part of the drama depicting heaven to be rather perfunctory and uninteresting and the part of the drama depicting hell to be tacky and rather gauche. 

I’m not sure how helpful that sort of thing is. While scripture speaks frequently and frankly of God’s judgment, it does so soberly and judiciously, not gratuitously or with the visual language of a horror movie.

To the Non-Christian who is here today, it is probably best to say simply this: the God who created all of existence by the mere utterance of his voice and before whom creatures of unimaginable brilliance cover their faces, will, in the final reckoning, turn his unyielding gaze upon you and give you exactly what you deserve and what his own justice and holiness demand. 

It is not my place to imagine for you what your sins deserve at the hands of such a one. Indeed, without the conviction of the Holy Spirit, nothing I could say to you could ever wake you from your false security. I suspect that you picture the end of your life as taking place in a hospital bed with a morphine drip followed by a long and dreamless sleep. I will not embarrass us both by trying to scare you out of such a delusion. My prayer is only that the Holy Spirit would put in you a Godly and reasonable fear that would lead to a true and lasting repentance. 

There are only two ends available to you: life and destruction. Choose life while it is still yours to choose.

Life

But what is that life?

Beloved in the Lord, let us encourage one another with these words: The life that awaits us is an imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance kept for us in heaven where it is guarded by God’s own power, and ready to be revealed in the last time. It is a city prepared for us, a new heavens and a new earth where we, the redeemed in the Lord, will be given eternal life and will never perish and will see the face of God. He will be our light and we, the righteous there, will reign forever and ever and shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. There death will be swallowed up forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and there will be no more hunger nor thirst for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of living water and we will be with him who is our maker and our savior forever, and the dwelling place of God shall be with man.

But the life that is promised to us is not only a future life. There is life abundant here and now. 

Present Life 

We delight to obey the commands of the Sermon on the Mount, not only because we seek to secure an eternal reward but because we seek a present one. 

The blessed life of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness is a present blessing to us. 

The blessed life of the merciful and the peacemakers and the pure in heart is a present blessing to us.

It is a joyful state to be the salt of the earth and to let our light shine before others.

It is for our present good that we are told to reconcile with our brother and to come to terms quickly with our accuser. 

The commands that Jesus gives are intended to secure our present as well as future happiness. 

Here’s a story from my own life…

Christ

There is one final sense in which the hard path of Christian discipleship leads to life. 

Let’s look one final time at our text. 

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 

Now, let’s look again at it again, but this time focusing only on the pathway of the Christian.

Enter by the narrow gate…For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. 

Now lets take away the verbs and modifiers, what then is left of the Christian life? 

The gate, the way, and the life.

Does any of that look familiar? 

• The door? 
• The way? 
• The life?

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is not holding out to us a life of suffering, nor even a life of duty, he is holding out Life. He is promising himself - now. 

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” John 10:9. 

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” John 11:25.

The law of the Sermon on the Mount was not, like the law of Moses, inscribed in letters of stone, it was embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Every rule, every law, every command, every impossible standard, every picture of ethical perfection held out to us across those ninety-seven verses, they are not only the charter document to a new kingdom, they paint the nearest portrait we have of the Son of God.

We are called as much to relationship as we are to obedience. Not duty to the letter only, but delight in the savior, also. Not command, only; but communion. Not performance, but holy pilgrimage to the city of our God. 

We enter through the Christ Door. We walk along the Christ Way. And at last we die, safe in the everlasting arms of Life itself.

Application and Conclusion: The Primacy of the Gate

The Order Corrects

Interstate highways have a numbering system that indicates which direction they run. Odd numbered highways run north-and-south and even numbered highways run east-and-west. US 1 goes from Maine to Florida. US 64 goes from Nags Head to Arizona. These highways are perpendicular to each other. If you want to go to Maine you should not be on US 64. If you want to go to Arizona you should not be on US 1 - except for about a three mile stretch in Cary where these two diametrically opposed roads link up and share the same asphalt. 

In times of cultural chaos we can mistake fellow travelers for fellow Christians. Our Biblical convictions have led many of us to have grave concerns about the state of our world. Abortion and IVF; Muslim and Hindu immigration levels; the celebration of gross sexual perversion; the spiritual and economic anxieties surrounding AI; drug legalization. The list could go on. If we look around we will see many who agree with us on issues that for us are Biblically based Christian convictions but which, for them, are merely cultural, political, or scientific convictions. These are smart people, with large platforms, and a winning message but because they have not passed through the Narrow Gate that is salvation in Christ alone by grace alone we should not treat them as companion pilgrims. To paraphrase the Godfather: we do business with these people; we respect these people; but we never trust these people - at least in spiritual matters. 

And just because someone is pietistic or counter-cultural doesn’t mean they are on the Pathway of Life, either. The gate matters. If they have not passed through the Narrow Gate then they are not one of us. It is not its unpopularity that makes the pathway true - but its truth that makes it unpopular. This is a trap that has ensnared many. We should beware of the allure of being part of a noble minority. Sure, you might be one of the remnant of 300 who has not bowed the knee to Baal, or you might just be a weirdo. To find yourself on a hard road of discipleship without first having passed through the Narrow Gate is simply another stretch of the Path of Destruction. There are Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons who walk a type of hard road. There are Muslims and Hindus who walk a type of hard road. There are even conservative home schooling families who walk a type of hard road. 

Being counter-cultural is necessary but not sufficient. Living a moral life is necessary but not sufficient. 

But if it does not lead up from the Christ Gate it remains the Easy Path that leads to destruction.

The highway is full of people who share our passions and convictions but who are not Christians. Our paths only appear to be the same. In reality, we are like that little stretch of asphalt in Cary where US 1 and US 64 merge for a few miles and then separate again. If our eyes are on our fellow travelers, we’ll end up taking the wrong exit. We’ll find ourselves in Maine when we mean to be in Arizona. Keep your eyes on Christ, the one who is the Way, who walks ahead, and bids us follow.

The primacy of the gate is a caution. The primacy of the gate is also a comfort. 

The Order Comforts 

Our collective cultural imagination is filled with images of the gates of heaven. Maybe you know the Guns & Roses song “Knockin on Heaven’s Door”; or maybe you’ve seen the Pixar movie “Soul”, or some Far Side cartoon where Saint Peter is quizzing someone trying to get in. The pearly gates are both everywhere in our culture and also pretty much a joke.

Here, in church, our conception of the end of life is, of course, deadly serious but also, sadly, maybe unavoidably, still shaped by these kinds of cultural images. We have the worst of both worlds: we take our eternal destination seriously, yet we’re stuck with these stupid images of puffy clouds and pearly gates and some kind of weird quiz that we have to get right if we’re going to get into heaven. 

For some of us, this isn’t just annoying, but a source of profound anxiety. 

Our passage offers both clarity and comfort here. It brings clarity because it reminds us that there are, in fact, two doors: the Narrow Door that is Christ, which stands at the beginning of one’s spiritual life, and the door at the end of life that leads into one’s final reward.

The answer to our anxiety over our salvation cannot be to simply say that there is no second door and that heaven stands open to receive all. That would be a lie. Jesus speaks clearly of the reality of some being denied entrance to heaven. The second door isn’t made up. It’s real. 

But what is also a lie is that Saint Peter is standing at that door behind some valet booth, jingling his keys, and waiting for you to say the password.

What is a lie is that your admission through the gates of heaven is anything other than a foregone conclusion. 

That is the comfort in this passage. 

The door that really, truly, matters is not the door of heaven at the end of your physical life but the Narrow Gate of salvation that you pass through at the beginning of your spiritual life. If you have passed through the Christ Gate you have, in a very real sense, already passed into eternal life. And if you have not passed through the Christ Gate you are, in an equally real sense, already dead. 

Here’s a thought for you to consider: the change that occurred in you when you passed through the Narrow Gate and became a Christian, the change that you underwent when you became justified, forgiven, and filled with the Holy Spirit was a change greater than what you will experience when you die and go to be with the Lord. It is even a change greater than what you will experience when the Lord returns and our bodies are raised anew. 

That is a marvelous truth, isn’t it? 

The Christian who obtains salvation this day has more in common with the person they will be in 10,000 years than with the person they were yesterday. Our future physical death is nothing compared to the spiritual death that we have already been delivered from; our future physical resurrection is nothing compared to the spiritual resurrection we have already experienced. 

To those who doubt their salvation; to those who fear death; to those anxious about appearing at the gates of heaven and finding them shut, I say to you now: 

Do not look ahead to the day of your physical death, but look backward to the day of your spiritual birth. Do not look ahead to an imagined day of your damnation, but backward to the actual day of your salvation. 

Look back at the Narrow Gate you once passed through. Look back to the Good Confession you once made. Recall again the waters of your baptism that once covered you.

There are none who will find the gates of the celestial city in heaven locked who have passed through the open gate of the gospel here on earth.

The beginning determines the end. 

If you doubt your end, go back to the beginning. Go to Christ who stands at the Narrow Gate. Go to him whether for the very first time or for the hundredth time. There are none who come to him now who will be turned away then.