Someone asked him,
"Lord, will only a few people be saved?"
Jesus redirected the man from a question about an intellectual curiosity to something with immediate practical questions. Because God wills that all be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:4) Jesus did not simply respond with percentages about who would in fact experience it, facts that would have no bearing on the one who questioned him. He responded instead with what the man himself must do if he desired the salvation Jesus offered.
He answered them,
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
The man would need to strive to enter through the narrow gate. Jesus affirmed by this that there was a wrong way to go about it, that many would not achieve it, not in order to satisfy the man's curiosity about few or many, but to add incentive for the man himself to heed the words of Jesus. It was not any gate whatsoever that would lead to salvation, but only one specific and narrow gate. Neither was it by any sort of striving whatever that one could enter, for many would attempt it but fail. The way was narrow because salvation belonged to God, not any idol we might choose. Jesus himself was the gate, himself the concrete offer of salvation from the Father to the world. He himself was the only source of the strength by one who sought to enter would be strong enough to do so.
And you will say,
'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'
Even if we have spent time in churches and listened to teachings it is not a given that we will be able to pass through the narrow gate. We must strive to enter. This means we must commit ourselves to the process by which God, through his discipline, makes us the right shape to enter, by conforming us to Jesus himself, who is the gate.
My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.
We need to realize how foolish it is to strive by our own strength to enter the gate. And it is not only foolish, but offensive to try to force our way past Jesus himself as though we were stronger than he. The point is not to push our way past our around him, but to endure as God himself helps us to become like him so that we can pass through him who is himself the gate. To fit we must ultimately "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" (see Hebrews 12:1). This is precisely what the discipline of our loving Father helps us to do. On our own strength we do not tend to choose discipline, which at the time seems painful. Discipline is therefore the grace for which we do not often dare to ask, but which we desperately need. Our need is in fact so desperate that Jesus acknowledged that for men salvation was not merely difficult but ultimately impossible, the gate too narrow, our strength too feeble. But what was impossible for men was not impossible for God. All things were possible for God (see Luke 18:27). Therefore, in contrast to trying to be strong in ourselves, Paul exhorted, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might" (see Ephesians 6:10).
The Lord's discipline is meant to enable us to enter by the narrow gate. His strength can do in us what we cannot do ourselves. But we have a part to play. Our striving means that we "do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him". These are two temptations we face in response to his divine discipline. We might be tempted reject his discipline entirely, disdaining it and walking away. But the second and more insidious temptation is that we might lose heart and simply allow ourselves to give up. We might still regard the salvation on offer as desirable, but not possible for us. If we give in a give up salvation then seems too distant, lofty, and difficult. In such a state we become easy targets for temptation, and no longer avail ourselves of the Lord's remedies when we do fall. Confession is often a part of the Lord's discipline. But if we lose heart we will not seek it out.
The Lord invites those who know him to enter will the way is still open. It is not necessarily the case that we will be permitted to investigate every other option and then give in to the way Christ offers when we discover it is our last resort. If we choose to live lives apart from Christ it is not a given that we will be willing to accept his mercy at the last. We may well die as we lived. It is true that even at the last the discipline of the Father is willing to shape us as sons and daughters that Jesus himself will recognize and grant entrance. But the point is that we should not rely on that contingency, for if we truly desired it we would begin here and now. We should do what Jesus said at the beginning of his response and "strive" by the grace of God, both to enter ourselves and to help others to do the same. The end result, the far side of the narrow gate, is worth it. It leads to a pasture that is anything but narrow.
Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
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