#DailyDevotion Struggle To Enter The Narrow Way

Luke 13:²²Then Jesus went and taught in one town and village after another on His way to Jerusalem. ²³Someone asked Him, “Lord, are only a few people saved?” ²⁴“Struggle to get in through the narrow door,” He told them. “I tell you, many will try to get in and not succeed. ²⁵After the Owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you’ll be standing outside and knocking at the door. ‘Lord, open up for us!’ you’ll say. But He’ll answer you, ‘I don’t know where you’re from.’ ²⁶Then you’ll say, We ate and drank with You, and You taught in our streets.’ ²⁷But He’ll tell you, ‘I don’t know where you’re from. Get away from Me, all you who do wrong.’ ²⁸Then you will cry and grind your teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s kingdom but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹People will come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and will eat in God’s kingdom. ³⁰You see, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”

Someone asks Jesus, “are only a few people saved?” Jesus responds with, “Struggle to get in through the narrow door.” We probably should state another biblical teaching first, that in one sense God saved the whole world. John the Baptist points to Jesus, Joh 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus tells Nicodemus, Joh 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  (17)  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Paul writes, 2Co 5:19 “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Peter writes, 2Pe 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” What shall we make of these things? God wants to save all people and has provided the necessary sacrifice to saved everyone.



Now Jesus tells us to “Struggles to get through the narrow door.” He tells us many will try to get in and won’t be able to do so. Can see the people Jesus is talking to are people who have heard him teach, ate and drank with him but that is not enough. When they try to get into the kingdom of God he will tell them to depart from him for he doesn’t know them and they are those who do wrong. You would think those who saw what Jesus did and heard him teach would be those who he knew and who knew him. But such is not the case.

So what is this narrow door that we must struggle to get through? Jesus says, Joh 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And again, Joh 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” So we see, Jesus is the only way into the kingdom of God. It’s not our works that are the narrow way. Elsewhere Jesus says, Mat 7:21-23  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  (22)  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  (23)  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Again there is that, “I never knew you.” So how are you known by Jesus? The one who does the will of Jesus’ Father. What is the will of the Father? Joh 6:29 “that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Faith in Christ is the narrow way. We must struggle to cast aside anything that isn’t Christ Jesus to save us. Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” This faith only comes from hearing the Word of Christ i.e. Jesus Christ alone is our justification, redemption, holiness and wisdom.

Heavenly Father, grant to us faith in Christ when we hear the good news you sent your son Jesus Christ to be our redemption, atonement, and sin offering so we may enter through the narrow door into your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.