“Enter ye in at the strait gate…Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” 
(Matthew 7:13)

“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” 
(Luke 13:24)

The words above were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ. And He said in another place, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Since then, HE is the “Strait gate,” “the narrow way,” and the “life:” and since HE is received through simple faith and trust (Acts 10:43; Acts 16:30-31; Romans 10:1-17; John 3:14-16, John 3:36), WHY is the entrance and way of life described as being so strait, so narrow, so compressed, so difficult?

Is it because men are so sinful and their sins so numerous that, with such a load, they cannot squeeze into the kingdom of God? No, that is not the difficulty. The most wicked and vile sinner who ever lived may enter the “strait gate” with ease and walk comfortable and joyfully in the “narrow way” . . . all the way to glory.

It is not because men cannot enter with their SINS, but because they cannot enter with their RIGHTEOUSNESS! It is man’s supposed righteousness – his self-righteousness – which will bar his entrance into God’s kingdom. He must lay aside every fig leaf of self-righteousness in order to be clothed of God and enter God’s kingdom. Empty, bankrupt sinners are met and welcomed, and led through the “Strait gate,” by FREE GRACE!

M. Montgomery