Once upon a time an old, nameless man, a moral man, died. He walked along a path looking for a way to enter heaven. The first gate he came to had the inscription “The Gate of Good Deeds” posted high up on the iron bars. He clanged the brass door knocker and waited for the gatekeeper. Surely, the good deeds he had done; giving a hitchhiker a ride, helping a sick neighbor, donating to charities, would count in his favor. He was sure of it.
As he waited, he noticed that the gate looked as though it had never been opened. He clanged again.
The gatekeeper did not smile as he said, “God desires that everyone do good deeds and to be kind. However, I am sorry to tell you that good deeds alone will not gain entrance to heaven for you.”
Saddened after hearing that he was denied entrance, the old man turned and moved on.
He continued his walk until he came to the next gate: “Gate of Regular Church Attendance.” 
He rubbed his hands together and straightened his shoulders in anticipation of being admitted to heaven. Afterall as a teenager, he had been told “Going to church is the right thing to do.” He clanked the iron knocker. He looked longingly toward the gatekeeper as he made his way to the gate.
The gatekeeper said, “You have come to my gate, but I do not have a key to open it. Have you not heard that going to church, even if you attended regularly, is not enough?”
And with those words ringing in his ears, the old man became sorrowful as he retreated from what he thought would be the right gate to heaven.
The old man, with shoulders slumped and head down, continued his walk. It was not long before he came to the gate with the inscription: “Gate of the Ten Commandments.” He felt little hope but banged the bronze door knocker anyway.
The gatekeeper was slow in coming as though he had not had many visitors. “This is the gate of the Ten Commandments,” he said. “No one can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, and they are not meant to save you. They are only a guide to lead you to the One who can save you; the One who died to pay for sins.”
It was here he began to weep. He remembered hearing those same words in church but paid no attention to them. The old man began to understand that he was not judged for the good things he had done in his life, but rather for his sins. He was not judged for attending church but what he did with what he heard in church. He was not judged for not keeping the ten commandments but for not trusting in the One who died to pay the penalty for sin that was revealed in the law.
He did not even raise his hand to the door knocker as the heaviness of guilt and shame of his many unconfessed sins brought him to despair. As the old man turned to walk away, he noticed that this gate, like all the other gates had never been opened.
If doing good deeds, or going to church regularly or trying to keep the ten commandments can’t get a person into heaven, then how? He wondered.
Then he spied another gate – a much narrower gate and was amazed to see a man being welcomed into heaven. 
He ran to the “Gate of Faith.” The gatekeeper had very kind eyes, and the old man looked hopefully into them.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through Me,’” the gatekeeper said. “Have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior?” he asked, with a tender voice.
“No,” the old man admitted, quietly. “I knew about Him, but I never…” He bowed his head as he heard the sentence pronounced: eternity of darkness and anguish, forever separated from the Savior who alone is able to open the gate to heaven to all who believe.
If I only would have believed. The old man pounded his chest and wept bitterly. “If only. If only,” the old man wailed. He wept tears that would never end as he was ushered to a very wide, fearsome and grotesque-looking gate with the inscription: “Those Who Enter Here Have No Hope.”
Jesus is the key that opens the narrow gate to all who have put their faith, their trust, and their hope in Him.