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THE PARABLE OF THE NARROW DOOR(Luke
13:22-30; Matthew
7:13-14, 21-23)
22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages,
teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. HOW MANY WILL BE SAVED? As Jesus traveled to
Jerusalem and his appointed destiny with the cross, this parable was
given as an answer to a speculative question about the
number of people who will enter the kingdom of God.
This question, a theological issue of the day, had different
answers among Jewish rabbis. Israel considered itself to be the elect nation and the
unknown questioner, probably a Jew, expected Jesus to say that while all
Jews automatically qualified for God’s kingdom, the Gentiles (or
non-Jews) were excluded. A PRACTICAL ANSWER TO A THEORETICAL QUESTION The
Lord refused to answer the question or speculate; he considered the
question to be irrelevant. Instead
Jesus made the issue personal: attend to your own entry into the kingdom
now. His indirect answer
emphasized the individual’s responsibility to ensure his own salvation
and the danger of being distracted from a personal faith by any
speculative inquiry. He
said that it was more important for people to search their hearts as to
whether they would be included in the kingdom, rather than make
irrelevant guesses as to the total number of the elect.
A personal faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord is the first and
most important thing to apply oneself to. “WHAT
MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?”
(Acts 16:30) We are not saved by sincerely
practising any religion we like. Belonging
to a ‘Christian country’ is not enough.
Joining a church does not save us.
There are probably many unsaved church members.
It is no good a person knowing the theology of Christianity, or
arguing a life of good deeds, or having a position of leadership in the
church. Being an ordained
minister of religion, or a Sunday school teacher, or a church officer,
will not qualify one for salvation.
Nor is water baptism the means of salvation.
Only a living personal faith in Jesus Christ is the means by
which salvation is received. ONLY
ONE ENTRANCE - JESUS CHRIST The
popular idea that everyone is a “child of God” is a false and
dangerous idea according to the Bible. Salvation begins at only one place. The kingdom of God is like a house with a narrow door that
offers limited admission. Entry
to the kingdom is by a narrow door of repentance and submission to God.
Jesus described himself as the “door”
and said, “Whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9).
Jesus is the only door for salvation; none other exists.
The disciples preached the exclusive nature of his gospel: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). THERE WILL BE THOSE WHO ARE LEFT OUT Jesus turned an
abstract question into a call to personal responsibility.
While the invitation to enter the
kingdom is available to all, it must be accepted and acted upon.
It is one thing to claim an
acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus but altogether another matter
to surrender one’s allegiance and loyalty to him as a committed
disciple. We cannot
claim to know Jesus if we have not responded to his message. Superficial familiarity or
friendship with Jesus, or being in his presence, (“ate
and drank with you”) and
being exposed to his teaching, (“you
taught in our streets”) such as church attendance or reading the
Bible, is insufficient. THE ISSUE IS KNOWING JESUS A personal knowledge of God is available
to all through Jesus Christ. What
matters is an active faith based on a personal and intimate knowledge of
Jesus that is validated by an obedient life of discipleship.
A living faith results in action.
James gives a challenge, “What
good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?
Can such faith save him?” (2:14) Our service to others is
one test of genuine faith.
A disciple makes Christ Lord of his life as well as the Saviour
from sin. The apostle Paul
said, “Believe in the Lord
Jesus, [not just believe in Jesus] and
you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Christ must be our Lord in reality as well as in name.
Jesus said to his disciples,
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for
that is what I am.” (John 13:13). “HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE IF WE IGNORE SO GREAT SALVATION?” (Hebrews 2:3) In this parable the urgency of
making a decision is stressed because one day it will be too late to
enter the kingdom. We must
come now when the door is open, not at a time of our own convenience,
for one day the door will close. The
warning, “Many will try to enter and will not be able to” is a caution
against a repentance that is too late.
Note the future tense “will
try”. Those
who wish to be saved make use of their opportunity now.
Once the time for decision has passed, attempts to enter into
salvation will fail. The “owner of the house” refers to Jesus Christ.
His “I don’t know
you” of verses 25 and 27 in this parable may be compared with his
“I never knew you”, of
Matthew 7:23. The
repetition intensifies the sense of complete rejection. THE CLOSED DOOR The
kingdom of God is like a house with a “narrow
door” where admission is difficult.
If we do not enter the kingdom at the time of his appointment we
may not enter it at all. Like
the story of the 10 village girls (Matthew 25:10) the door is shut when
the “feast” begins. Once
God has shut the door to life, it is closed permanently.
The lesson: Do not be too late in deciding to respond to
God’s invitation. The day
of opportunity is today’s Age of Grace: “Now
is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation” (2
Corinthians 6:2). There is
a time limit on the offer of salvation.
Death will close the door of salvation for every sinner who does
not repent. THE PRIMARY APPLICATION The main application of the
parable is the enigmatic statement, “Those
who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
This cryptic saying has different contexts in the gospels
(Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Mark 10:31). This
radical statement would have astounded the Jews of Jesus’ day.
It is a warning that many from Israel
will be outside the kingdom while many “inferior” people from
outside Israel will be included. Israel
had an advantage over other peoples in point of time: “First for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16).
This story was a caution to Israel that
the position of Jews and Gentiles would be reversed.
Israel’s walk with
God was not consistent with God’s commitment to them. Israel thought too much of itself as the chosen nation and
too little about the consequences of its disobedience. The nation mistakenly considered that it had exclusive rights
to Jerusalem, the temple, and the holy of holies when God’s plan of
salvation included peoples from all nations in Christ as a living temple
in which God lived by his Spirit. God’s
temple is now in the lives and hearts of the believers in Jesus Christ. EXCLUSION
FROM THE KINGDOM There is a contrast
between the people inside the door and the latecomers outside the door,
or outside the kingdom. The
original audience of Jesus would have been surprised to hear of the
guests who enter the kingdom and where they came from.
Every Jew expected to sit with “Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob” at the “the
feast in the kingdom of God”
while the despised Gentiles were excluded.
A banquet was a symbol of the kingdom (Revelation 19:9).
Many of those who expected to be at the
feast would be excluded. Can
you imagine the agony of hearing the words “Away
from me, all you evildoers!” because you never really knew him?
Jesus suggests that these “evildoers”
will witness their own expulsion from the kingdom.
Their exclusion results in “weeping
and gnashing of teeth”. This
is a powerful image of future punishment.
It is used several times by Matthew to express disappointment,
regret at lost opportunities, grief, frustration, hopelessness, and
anger (8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
Commentators disagree about whether the term refers to the
irrevocable loss of salvation, and describes those in hell, or merely to
a loss of reward. Either
way, salvation and judgment are linked together. THE
SALVATION OF THE GENTILES The phrase “people from east and west and north and south” is the equivalent of our expression the ‘four corners of the earth’, or the whole world, and infers that Christians from all the Gentile people-groups will be included (c.f. Matthew 8:11-12). Important Bible characters like “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” will be included in the kingdom as well as seemingly unimportant people who were valued by God. Today
the kingdom comprises people from every culture but they have all come
through one entrance-personal faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord.
It is also a promise to the disadvantaged, the undervalued and
the underprivileged that trust God’s mercy and grace.
We shall be surprised at the membership of the kingdom. THE
‘ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED’ DEBATE To
avoid unprofitable speculation we need to remember the three tenses of
salvation:
We
may rejoice in the assurance of such promises as John 10:28: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can
snatch them out of my hand.”
Nevertheless we should also take note of those verses that warn
against careless and complacent living: “Make
every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without
holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)
We dare not presume upon the grace of God.
There is a saying about the repentant thief and the unrepentant
thief at the cross: “One was saved, that none might despair; yet only
one, that none might presume. A
PERSONAL APPLICATION One
of the mysteries of the Christian faith is the balance between God’s
sovereignty and human responsibility.
God remains in control of everything, yet we have decisions to
make. On the one hand, “in
all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans
8:28); yet on the other hand we are encouraged to “to
work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works
in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
(Philippians 2:12-13) In
this parable Jesus gave a general warning to “make
every effort” (NIV), or
“strive” (AV, NASB), or “try
your hardest” (Barclay), to enter the door of salvation.
This translates the Greek word “agonizomai” from which
English gets “agony”. In
general it means to struggle and to exert oneself in wholehearted
action. The word was at
first used for contending to win a prize on the stage or in public games
(1 Corinthians 9:25) or to contend in court. It came to mean to fight or to wrestle (John 18:36; 1 Timothy
6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7). It is
translated “labour fervently”
(AV) or “toiling strenuously”
(NEB) in Colossians 1:29. Weymouth
translates this verse as, “To this end, like
an earnest wrestler, I exert all my strength in reliance upon the
power of Him who is mightily at work within me.” Consider how competitors in the Olympic Games train for their events to understand what Jesus meant. It does not mean that human achievement wins entry into God’s kingdom. This is the mistake of the self-righteous legalist. However, it does mean that we take sacrificial Christian discipleship seriously and not casually. It is a call to long-term spiritual commitment to Christ as Master and Lord. William
Barclay comments: “We
run a certain danger. It is
easy to think that, once we have made a commitment of ourselves to Jesus
Christ, we have reached the end of the road and can, as it were, sit
back as if we had achieved our goal.
There is no such finality in the Christian life.
A man must be ever going forward or necessarily he goes
backward.” [2] CONCLUSION We
are saved by grace alone, through faith in Christ.
God opens the door of salvation and we make our way into the
kingdom. Jesus said it is a
matter of “striving”
rather than drifting in. The
repentance and faith in Christ by which we enter the narrow gate is not
a matter of intellectual assent but a life-changing personal experience
that involves our co-operation with the Holy Spirit.
As sinners we enter a narrow door and walk a narrow way of
discipleship (Matthew 7:13-14). This
parable warns us that our calling and election can never be taken for
granted as every day we depend on the mercy of God.
We celebrate the grace of God, but we dare not presume upon it.
There will be some surprises as to who will be present in the
kingdom and who will be missing. FOR REFLECTION
PRAYER Father, I thank you for the gift of entry into your kingdom through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to yield every area of my life to his lordship and to be his true disciple. Amen. Jim Peacock MA (Hons), Diploma of Education. |
