What and where is the narrow gate?

Jesus told us (Matt 7:13) to enter through the narrow gate. To modern ears this seems way too restrictive. People like to keep their options wide open. We are encouraged to see society as a very broad range of ideas and philosophies and religions. Narrowness is bad. Tolerance, variety and wideness is good.

In fact, the Christian faith is about a God who loves all people, young and old, black and white, poor and rich, good and bad. The denomination I belong to places a lot of emphasis on being inclusive. Jesus died for all. The kingdom is freely available to all. The church should be equally accepting of all. The words of Jesus do not contradict any of this. They merely point out that the point of entry into 'life' (by which he surely means 'glorious and fulfilling life as God intends it to be') is a narrow one. An individual's journey will be unique. There are as many ways to relate to God as there are people needing that relationship. But there is a bottleneck along the way. There is a gate through which all pilgrims need to pass. What is it?

Dallas Willard says it is 'obedience' rather than 'correct doctrine'. I agree that Jesus was not saying only people with (the correct) narrow views about God would be able to enter life. There are many whose grasp of theology is somewhat tenuous but who still enjoy the kingdom life Jesus is talking about. I'm less sure that 'doing what Jesus says' is what the narrow gate represents, though I can see how Willard comes to that conclusion in view of the other illustrations and sayings which follow.

Perhaps Jesus was referring to himself as the narrow gate. This would fit in with verses from John's gospel - "I am the gate" or "No-one comes to the Father except through me" - and having a person as the key entry point certainly seems better than a set of rules or even a simple guiding principle. Or maybe Jesus is not intending for the narrow gate to represent anything in particular. Maybe he just wants to stress that the journey to life is not a wide open 'anything goes' trackless plain, but a case of recognising the importance of limitations and focusing on the one thing that matters - the narrow gate.

The personal import of this concept is clear enough: Following a Christmas of fairly happy-go-lucky self-indulgence, I need to apply myself once again to discovering the key person who will lead to real life.