The Narrow Door (Lent 22-2019)

Yes, God works in hidden ways and with small beginnings and the final result will be spectacular, but Jesus didn’t want them to get the wrong idea.  It wasn’t about hanging out or being a hanger-on.  There was far more to salvation than that. Faith is more than just hanging out. It’s the issue of the narrow door.  Jesus needed to teach about that.

Luke 13:22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

That question opened the perfect opportunity even though it was kind of a loaded question. 

Luke 13:22 He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.'”  But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ 28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

The “how many” number to be saved has never been a matter of insufficient room inside.  It’s always been a matter of insufficient righteousness outside.  Sure, there are people who are hanging out with Jesus, listening to Him as disciples, eating with Him, and maybe even wanting to be in.  But they’re missing something vital: faith!

“It was a frightening thought,” those in the crowd concluded. What if Jesus doesn’t know them?  Or that He doesn’t know where they come from?  It’s not a lack of information and Jesus’ ignorance.  It’s not His ignorance at all.  It’s that they never entered into a real relationship of any depth of faith. 

Will only a few be saved? 

It depends on how you define a few.  Jesus grieved that so many people will be lost in the last day.  But in the end, it wouldn’t for a lack of trying, only a lack of faith, a lack of truth, and way too much evildoing. And of course, a steadfast refusal to enter through the narrow door.

Think about it: 

• Do you know people who hate Christ and Christians so much that the truth could stand nose-to-nose with them and they’d still refuse to believe the truth? 
• What does it say about who they worship when they look at God’s truth and the world’s ways and choose the world’s?

Thank You, Father, for the magnitude of Your patience and forgiveness! Thank You, Lord, for preserving eternity with You for those who follow by faith. We praise You that there will be no sin in heaven. Thank You for the narrow door and that You have made a way for us to enter! Thank You, for the perseverance of the saints and the role of Your Holy Spirit in guiding us until that day. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2019 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this great look at the Easter story to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals remain popular,

• Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
•  A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God  which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014. 
• Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations.  We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17. 
• ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
• Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ.  It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
• Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.