Jesus is asked, 'will only a few people be saved?" and answered,
Luke 13:24
"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able"
Luke 13:22-27
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many,
I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 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.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me,
all you evildoers!’
We need the context and background for what Jesus said.
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
It says that Jesus was walking through Israeli villages.
The people living there were Jews, not Christians.
Jews who lived under the Law.
The Pharisees had corrupted Israel. Similar, like how the RCC had corrupted the Church before the reformation took place.
The Pharisees had poisoned the minds of the Jews with salvation by legalism.
The Pharisees were demanding that Jews could only be saved by doing prescribed works.
Specific works, works that the Pharisees invented and demanded of the people in order to be saved.
The works became so unbearable, that only a few could appear to fulfill them.
That is why that person asked if only a few would be able to be saved.
The narrow door is simply having faith in the Lord - (one way), not works (broad and wide).
Jesus was not speaking to Christians, but Jews who were under the Law and the the evil thumb of the legalistic Pharisees!
Matthew 23:2-4
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
So you must be careful to do everything he (Moses) tells you.
But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s
shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
This was the setting we find the Israelis were in when that person asked if only a few will be saved!
They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s
shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
Only a few could dare to say they were saved!
Yes.... The Truth will make us free.
.