And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from me, all you evildoers.’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.” (13:22–30)

Throughout His ministry, Jesus clarified and expanded His teaching by answering questions that people asked Him (e.g., Matt. 13:10–11; 17:10–11; 21:20–21; 24:3–4; Mark 12:28–29; Luke 7:19–23; 12:41–53; 17:20–21; John 3:1–5, 9–10; 6:28–33; 8:33–59; 9:1–3; 12:34–36; 13:6–10, 36–38; 14:5–9, 22–24). On this occasion, the Lord was asked the very provocative question of whether only a few will be saved.

His reply was shocking. Instead of discussing percentages, He declared that many will desire to enter the kingdom but will not be able to do so. Those who do enter will do so with difficulty; they will have to fight their way in through the narrow door. Christ’s perspective goes against the grain of contemporary evangelistic methodology. Unlike His reply, which demonstrates that salvation is very difficult, modern evangelism frequently presents the gospel in ways that make it seem easy.

Much of modern evangelism’s methodology stems from the revival ministry and writings of Charles Grandison Finney (1792–1875). Often called “the father of modern revivalism,” Finney was an attorney who became an evangelist after his conversion. He denied that the new birth is a supernatural work of God, and taught that salvation depends solely on the power of man’s will. His ministry utilized pragmatic “new measures,” such as emotionally-charged urging of people to come forward to the “anxious bench” (a forerunner of the modern altar call) and other tactics designed to manipulate people’s wills.

It certainly is not wrong to invite people to come to Christ and embrace the salvation that He offers. Jesus called sinners to repent and enter His kingdom (Matt. 4:17; Luke 5:32), as did John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2), and the apostles (Mark 6:12; Acts 2:38; 3:19). The reason the church exists is to carry out its mandate to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19; cf. Luke 24:47). The issue is not whether to invite and even command lost sinners to repent and believe the gospel, but rather how to frame that invitation. This passage is vitally important, because it reveals how the Lord Jesus Christ invited sinners to come to salvation. But before recording that invitation in verses 24–30, Luke described in verses 22–23 the setting in which it took place.

As the scene opens, Jesus was passing through Judea from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem (a journey Luke records in 9:51–19:27). His death and resurrection were only a matter of months away. As He crisscrossed Judea Jesus was constantly teaching, as He had done throughout His ministry (cf. 4:43; 8:1; Matt. 4:23; 11:1; Mark 6:2), because disseminating the truth was foundational. The purpose of all the miracles, signs, and wonders Jesus performed to affirm His deity as the Son sent from the Father was to validate His teaching. The goal of ministry is always to provide the foundation of biblical truth that is essential to salvation, leading to love, service, and worship of God. The constant theme of the Lord’s instruction related to life in His kingdom, the sphere of salvation where God reigns over His people who love, serve, and worship Him (cf. the exposition of 13:18–21 in the previous chapter of this volume).

At some unidentified point along the way during Christ’s ministry in Judea someone posed to Him a provocative question: “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” The question reflects the recognition of His followers that the point of His teaching related to salvation. The divine work of salvation is not deliverance from unfulfillment, dissatisfaction with life, poverty, or poor self-esteem. Salvation is deliverance from God’s wrath and judgment into safety and eternal blessing through the sacrificial death of His Son. “Having now been justified by His blood,” Paul wrote, “we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Rom. 5:9; cf. 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9). The question was whether only a few were to be saved from divine judgment and eternal damnation in hell. It appeared to the questioner to be the case.

The question was an honest one, asked by a true follower of Christ. Those in the crowds who heard Him ran the gamut from outright enemies to curiosity seekers to the very interested to the genuinely saved believers. What level of interest this individual had in Christ is not known. His question, though, voiced what His followers had to be thinking. The Jewish people expected that when Messiah came, he would be welcomed by the entire nation, which would receive salvation (Isa. 45:17; 60:21–22). Messiah would establish his kingdom, in which Israel would play a leading role. In that kingdom the curse will be removed and righteousness and peace will prevail. Gentiles will also be saved (Isa. 56:6–7) and come to see Messiah reigning in glory on Mount Zion (Isa. 24:23; Zech. 8:22–23).

But after nearly three years of ministry, countless miracles, unmatched teaching, and crowds of thousands following Him, there were only a disappointingly small number of true believers who believed in Him savingly. So few in number were they that even He referred to them as a “little flock” (Luke 12:32; cf. the exposition of 13:18–19 in the previous chapter of this volume). The religious leaders of the nation had rejected Jesus, denouncing Him as being empowered by Satan. Many of the people had bought into that lie and also viewed Jesus’ supernatural power as satanic. Many rejected Him because He did not meet their messianic profile and expectation. In fact, when a large crowd attempted to force Him into their preconceived role of political-military messiah, Jesus refused (John 6:14–15). But it was the puzzling conundrum that even among the large numbers who did follow Him very few were genuine believers.

The question, however, overlooks Old Testament history, which reveals that salvation had never been widespread in the past. When God destroyed the sinful pre-flood world, only eight people escaped that divine judgment (Gen. 7:13; 1 Peter 3:20). From the destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah only Lot and his wife and daughters escaped (Gen. 19:16). The genuine, believing remnant of Israel was always small (Isa. 6:13; 10:20–22; Jer. 23:3; 31:7; 50:20), and salvation was always individual (Isa. 55:1), never national.

The fact that Jesus’ answer did not address the question directly shows that it is not important how many people are being saved; what matters to each person is that he or she be one of them. Instead of responding to the question of quantity, Jesus focused on the quality of true believers’ faith and gave a personal invitation to those present to receive the salvation that He offers. Four aspects of that invitation may be discerned: He called for spiritual exertion, temporal desperation, lack of relation, and eternal perception.

SPIRITUAL EXERTION

And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (13:23b–24)

Christ’s invitation was radically different from those commonly used today. His message was not that God loves everyone unconditionally and desires to connect with sinners and fulfill all their personal dreams and ambitions. Nor was His goal to manipulate people into making a shallow commitment to Him. Jesus’ words are sobering, threatening, and frightening enough to produce panic in the heart of a penitent, thoughtful soul. They also serve to banish halfhearted seekers who are unwilling to surrender unconditionally to His lordship (cf. Luke 14:33).

Compared to the rampant easy believism that underlies much of modern evangelism Jesus’ invitation, which calls for strenuous exertion from the penitent sinner, seems almost heretical. It is true that salvation is solely by God’s sovereign grace. No one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44, 65), nor can anyone know the Father except those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27). Those who are dead in their sins can be saved only by God’s grace, not their own efforts (Eph. 2:1–10; Titus 3:3–5). Yet salvation is not apart from the will of the sinner. As noted above, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles called for sinners to repent, and that is the church’s message as well. Paul told the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens that “having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30; cf. 26:20). Those commands make it clear that sinners are responsible for the choices that they make, and will be held accountable for not repenting and believing in the Savior.

Strive translates a form of the verb agōnizomai, from which the English word “agonize” derives. It is used only here in the Synoptic Gospels. The word means “to fight” (John 18:36; 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7), “to compete” in an athletic contest (1 Cor. 9:25), or “to struggle” (Col. 1:29; 4:12; 1 Tim. 4:10). The fight or struggle in view here is one of self-denial that produces real repentance. “If anyone wishes to come after Me,” Jesus said, “he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Then He added the paradoxical statement that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it” (v. 24). The message of the gospel is not self-fulfillment, but self-denial. Faith in Christ costs the sinner his selfish goals and desires, and may separate him from his family (Luke 14:26), possessions (Mark 10:17–22), even his life (John 12:25). But those who lose those ephemeral earthly things will gain in this life blessings, and in their eternal reward infinitely more.

The requirement that sinners enter through the narrow door further indicates the intensity of the struggle (cf. Matt. 7:13–14). The door is a tight fit, requiring those who enter through it to strip themselves of their personal baggage. It is also made hard to find by the many deceptive voices luring the unwary and undiscerning to the broad gate that leads to hell. Therefore many will seek to enter and will not be able.

The Lord brings salvation only to a heart marked by the repentance that always accompanies true saving faith. Quoting from Isaiah 40:3–4, John the Baptist described true repentance: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth’” (Luke 3:4–5). In my commentary on that passage in an earlier volume of this series I wrote,

TEMPORAL DESPERATION

Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ (13:25a)

Not only is the door to the kingdom narrow, but it also can be shut. Once Christ, the head of the house, gets up and shuts the door there will be no admission; the opportunity to enter the kingdom will be permanently gone for those who are shut out. There is a sense of desperation and urgency in this picture; sinners, with only a limited time to respond to the gospel invitation, let that opportunity pass to be permanently shut out.

Scripture makes it clear that all the unredeemed are living on borrowed time (cf. the exposition of 13:1–9 in chapter 15 of this volume). God declared of the sinful, pre-flood world, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3). Jesus told a parable about a rich, selfish fool who was greedily storing up earthly treasure for himself, only to have God say to him, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (Luke 12:20). “Be ready,” Jesus exhorted His hearers, “for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect” (Luke 12:40). Like a guilty person settling with their opponent before reaching the magistrate, sinners must settle with God before it is too late (Luke 12:58). Jesus warned those who told him of Pilate’s slaughter of some Galileans, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3; cf. 5). The story of a man giving a fig tree one more year to produce fruit symbolizes the reality that all who lack the genuine fruit of salvation are living on borrowed time (Luke 13:6–9). Eventually, God’s patience toward those who reject the truth will end and He will judicially abandon them (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). Therefore “now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’” (2 Cor. 6:2).

Using the same imagery as that in the shocking parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1–13), Jesus warned that those who miss their opportunity for salvation will stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ That reaction expresses their surprise and horror at being permanently shut out of the kingdom of God. After all, they were religious people, many of whom claimed to have ministered in Jesus’ name (Matt. 7:22). Clearly, hell will be populated not only by irreligious rejecters of God, but also by those who were outwardly religious and reverently spoke of Him.

LACK OF RELATION

then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from me, all you evildoers.’ (13:25b–27)

The Lord’s answer, “I do not know where you are from” (cf. Matt. 7:23), reveals the reason that those who squander their opportunity will be shut out of the kingdom. Despite their external religious façade, they had no relation to or life union with Christ.

Salvation results in a shared life with Jesus Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ;” Paul wrote, “and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). Christians are in Christ (cf. Rom. 6:11, 23; 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 1:21; 5:17; Gal. 3:28; Phil. 1:1; 4:21; Col. 1:2, 28; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Peter 5:10, 14), and He is in them (John 6:56; 14:20; 15:4–5; 17:26; Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27; 3:11; Eph. 3:17).

Shocked by His denial of any relationship with them, they will begin to say, “We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.” Their protest that they ate and drank in His presence symbolizes their claim to have had a relationship with Him. They also claimed to have listened to Christ when He taught in their streets. How then could He shut them out of the kingdom?

But mere familiarity with Jesus does not bring salvation, as the Lord’s reply drove home with crushing finality: I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from me, all you evildoers (cf. Ps. 6:8). They had no relationship with Him. They had never repented and been justified by God because they were covered with the righteousness of Christ through faith in Him. Rather, though religious and moral, they were still unrighteous evildoers. The sentence was final; their departure eternal.

ETERNAL PERCEPTION

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.” (13:28–30)

Jesus did not focus on His hearers’ purposes, ambitions, desires, health, wealth, or anything else in this life. Instead He called them to have an eternal perspective and turn their attention to the threat of hell. In that place, Jesus warned, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (cf. Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). The torment of hell will not be limited to the pain of punishment, but will include the remorse, shock, and surprise of those who ended up there despite thinking they were going to heaven. The more people in hell knew about the gospel, the more profound their remorse will be; their pain will be proportional to their level of rejection. And since their rejection will be eternal and incurable, so will their sin be and the judgment of that sin.

Intensifying the warning of torment for those denied entrance to the heavenly realm will be the bliss of those who enter it. Specifically, it should be contemplated by all Jewish people to consider that they will be left out of the kingdom if they reject Christ. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God will be there while they are thrown out of God’s presence forever. The Jewish people prided themselves on being the children of Abraham, who had an inalienable right as heirs to the covenant promises God made with him and reiterated to the prophets. They expected to be saved because they were Abraham’s descendants. Realizing that they who reject Christ will never with their three illustrious forefathers enjoy the rich blessings of the kingdom should make the reality of hell extremely bitter for them.

Even more painful than being left out of eternal life with their hero forefathers is the knowledge that their hated enemies, the Gentiles, will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 8:11–12) from which they are excluded. That Gentiles will be in God’s kingdom should come as no surprise, since that truth is clearly taught in the Old Testament (e.g., Isa. 2:2–4; 25:6; 56:6–7; 60:3; 66:19–24). But the Jews largely rejected that idea and even resented the thought that God would save Gentiles (see Jonah 1–3). Here Gentiles are depicted enjoying a lavish banquet—symbolic in the ancient Near East of life’s most important events—in the kingdom. The banquet pictures the blessedness of fellowship with God (cf. Luke 22:29–30; Rev. 19:9).

Jesus’ concluding statement, And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last, further intensifies the shock these lost Jews will feel. Not only will Gentiles be in the kingdom, but they will also be equal with the Jews who are there. In the realm of salvation “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for [the redeemed] are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28; cf. Eph. 2:11–16).

The lesson to be learned from Christ’s model invitation to salvation is twofold. First, the true church of Jesus Christ must get the message right; a perverted, corrupted, altered, false, and easy invitation is powerless to save lost sinners. Further, false evangelism leaves people unconverted and subsequently skeptical of true gospel evangelism and therefore more open to further deception. The Lord Jesus Christ never watered down His message to avoid offending people; He made them either feel bad enough to repent, or furious enough to reject.

The message to the unredeemed is that God saves no one apart from genuine repentance. The battle to deny self and follow Christ is intense, the time is short, eternal destiny is at stake.