The Wicket Gate

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. MATTHEW 7:13–14

At last, after the Slough and the hill, Christian comes to the gate. Over it is written, “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” He knocks, more than once or twice, and while he waits he makes a little rhyme, asking whether the one within will open to him, though he has been an undeserving rebel. It is the prayer of every sinner who has ever stood at the door of mercy wondering if it will open.

A small gate at the way’s head

Bunyan calls it a wicket gate: a small door set in or beside a larger gate, just wide enough for one person at a time. Evangelist had pointed to it across a very wide field, and Christian could not at first see it. That is right. The entrance to the Christian life is small and easily missed. There is no grand portal and no crowd. One person comes, one at a time, and knocks.

The gate stands, in Bunyan’s dream, at the head of the way. Everything before it — the burden, the Slough, the hill — is conviction and struggle. Everything after it is the pilgrim’s road. Bunyan uses the gate for that decisive moment when an awakened sinner comes to Christ Himself, and is received. The burden will not fall until later, at the cross; but the pilgrim is on the road now, and the road is Christ’s.

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. JOHN 10:9

I am willing with all my heart

A grave person comes to the gate, whose name is Goodwill. He asks who is there. Christian answers, in effect, a poor burdened sinner from the City of Destruction, going to Mount Zion to be delivered from the wrath to come, and asks if he is willing to let him in. And Goodwill replies, “I am willing with all my heart,” and opens the gate.

If there is one sentence in the whole book to carry home, it may be that one. Bunyan had spent years believing that Christ was unwilling — that He might receive other sinners but not one who had done what Bunyan had done. The discovery that set him free was that the Lord is willing, with all His heart. Goodwill is not reluctant or grudging. He does not examine Christian’s record before opening. He opens, and then asks.

And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. MATTHEW 8:2–3

Arrows at the gate

Then something strange happens. As Christian steps in, Goodwill gives him a pull. Christian asks what that means, and Goodwill explains that a little distance from the gate stands a strong castle of which Beelzebub is captain, and from it he and his company shoot arrows at those who come up to the gate, hoping they may die before they can enter in. Christian answers, “I rejoice and tremble.”

This is Bunyan the experienced pastor speaking. He knew that the moments when a soul is nearest to Christ are the moments of fiercest attack. Grace Abounding is full of it: just when he began to hope, a new temptation would come; just when a promise began to warm him, a terrible text would fly at him. The devil does not trouble much about those who are content in the City of Destruction. He shoots at those at the gate. So if you have found that coming to Christ has stirred up more fear, more doubt and more temptation than you had before, do not conclude you are on the wrong road. You are being shot at because you are near the door.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. JOHN 10:27–28

In no wise cast out

Once inside, Christian confesses how he turned aside to Mr Worldly Wiseman and almost perished under the hill, and says he hardly deserves to be let in. Goodwill’s answer is one of the loveliest things in the book: “We make no objections against any, notwithstanding all that they have done before they come hither; they in no wise are cast out.” The margin gives John 6:37.

That verse was, perhaps more than any other, the anchor of Bunyan’s soul. In Grace Abounding he tells how it visited him in the worst of his troubles: “Oh, the comfort that I have had from this word, ‘in no wise’!” He explains that it means by no means, for no thing, whatever a man has done. Satan laboured to pull the promise from him, telling him that Christ meant other sinners of a lower rank; but Bunyan answered that there was no such exception in the words. Some years later he wrote a whole treatise on the verse, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, and it remains one of the warmest invitations to sinners in the English language.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. JOHN 6:37

The narrow way

Goodwill then shows Christian the way he must go. It was cast up by the patriarchs, prophets, Christ and His apostles, and it is, in his words, “as strait as a rule can make it.” Christian asks whether there are no turnings by which a stranger might lose his way. Goodwill answers that there are many ways butting down on this one, and they are crooked and wide; but the right may be known from the wrong because only the right is straight and narrow.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. JEREMIAH 6:16

The burden not yet gone

Christian then asks Goodwill to help him off with his burden. Goodwill tells him to be content to bear it until he comes to the place of deliverance, for there it will fall from his back of itself.

Theologians have argued over this detail. Does Bunyan mean that a person can enter by the gate — come to Christ — and still carry guilt? The best answer is that he is describing experience, not the legal fact. Every believer who comes to Christ is justified at once. But many do not feel the full release at once. Bunyan had not. He had joined the Bedford church and walked with its people for some time before his chains fell off in the field. The dream is honest about that gap. If you have come to the gate and still feel the burden, do not turn back. Keep walking towards the cross.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Have you knocked at the gate — come personally to Christ, not merely to church or to religion? If not, knock today.

2. Memorise John 6:37. Say the words “in no wise” slowly, and apply them to the worst thing you have done.

3. If coming close to Christ has stirred up fresh fear or temptation, name it as an arrow from the castle, and take refuge inside the gate.

4. Think of one person who believes they are too bad to be received. How could you tell them about Goodwill?

5. Ask where you are tempted to leave the narrow way for a wider, more comfortable one.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You are the door, and You are willing with all Your heart. I have stood outside too long, fearing that You would not open.

I come as a poor burdened sinner. Receive me, for You have said that You will in no wise cast out anyone who comes.

When the arrows fly at me, pull me in and hold me fast. When I am tempted to think my sin too great, remind me of Your word.

And set my feet on the narrow way, and keep me on it until I come to the place of deliverance. Amen.