The Strait Gate

In the Sermon on the Mount the Savior said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:13-14).  Other scriptures similarly refer to this "straight gate" by which we must enter.  Luke recorded these words of the Savior, "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).  In the Book of Mormon, in addition to the Savior's repetition of the Sermon on the Mount at Bountiful, the Savior said to the twelve disciples: "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate, and broad the way which leads to death, and many there be that travel therein, until the night cometh, wherein no man can work" (3 Nephi 27:33).  Jacob invited us using the same phrase, saying, "O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life" (Jacob 6:11).  In our dispensation the Lord likewise used the phrase, "Wherefore, although a man should be baptized an hundred times it availeth him nothing, for you cannot enter in at the strait gate by the law of Moses, neither by your dead works" (D&C 22:2).  In another revelation He said, "For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me" (D&C 132:22).  So according to these scriptures, there is a symbolic gate which is strait by which we enter and a path which is narrow that we subsequently follow as we hearken to the words of Christ.  So what is the gate, and what does it mean for it to be "strait"?

               I believe that the word strait, as used in these passages, means "narrow."  It doesn't mean the same thing as "straight" which refers to something that is direct (i.e. in a line).  A "strait" (usually plural) in modern usage is a narrow passageway of water, but the scriptural usage doesn't appear to have anything to do with water.  Christ's gate is narrow or small, meaning that there is not a lot of room to pass through.  We can’t come through it symbolically carrying all of our worldly desires and sins.  We have to leave the things of the world behind because they won’t fit through the small gate leading to salvation.  On the other hand, "broad is the way" that Satan invites us to travel on.  I believe this refers to the fact that there are many ways to sin and turn ourselves away from God, but there is only one way to follow Christ: by entering into the waters of baptism and keeping His commandments.  Nephi taught us that specifically: "For this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost" (2 Nephi 31:17).  We don't get to choose the parameters—there is only one way through, and that is the way that Christ set forth through repentance and baptism. 

               We often talk about staying on the “strait and narrow” path, a phrase which I had always thought was straight and narrow.  But the scriptures only speak of it with the former spelling.  Lehi I believe was the first to mention it in his vision of the tree of life: “And I also beheld a strait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron” (1 Nephi 8:20).  Nephi presumably was thinking of his father’s vision when he spoke of the “strait and narrow path” that we enter with baptism (2 Nephi 31:18-19).  Mormon also wrote of the “strait and narrow course” that we must be led in (Helaman 3:29-30).  The “strait” in this context, describing the path itself instead of the gate, seems to me to best fit this definition of the word: “strict, as in requirements or principles.”  The path may not be a straight line, but it is strict and we have to hold on tight to the iron rod that accompanies it.  The gate we enter in is small, and the gospel path is a narrow, strict course that will lead us to “the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.”