Christ's image for the entrance to eternal life: strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Matt 7:13-14). The narrowness is double. First, the gate itself: entry is by Christ alone, who declares I am the door (John 10:9) and I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). Second, the path that follows: the daily taking up of the cross (Luke 9:23) in disciplined obedience. Wide-gate Christianity that offers Christ without surrender is not Christ's gospel; it is its inversion. The narrow gate is the only door, and few find it — not because God hides it, but because the cost of entering is the death of the self.