Many people think the God of the Old Testament is a God of judgement, and the God of the New Testament is a God of love, but I’m not sure these people are paying attention. The whole Bible speaks to us of the same God. The Old Testament is full of stories about God pursuing His people, calling them to come back to Him because He loves them. Likewise, the New Testament has many passages like Luke 13:24-27, in which Jesus says:
“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’”
Not only does Jesus here pass judgement on “workers of evil,” but many other places point forward to a time where Jesus will come again to judge the earth in righteousness and justice. But that may not be the scariest part of the verses above from Luke. In these verses, Jesus isn’t talking about just any “workers of evil,” but He’s talking specifically about people who think they’re following Jesus.
These verses are a response to someone asking Jesus: “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”[1] His response to the question isn’t “yes, they will be few” but more like “yes, because many are trying to get there the wrong way.” These people say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets”? In my reading, this phrase is like saying “we go to church.” In church we “ate and drank” with Jesus in communion. When we listen to sermons, it was like “you taught in our streets.” They were around Jesus all the time and doing what other Christians do, but as 20th century evangelist Billy Sunday said, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”
We can’t get salvation by our own efforts, even if we do all the “right things” but only through what Christ has already done. Christ’s work is the “narrow door” and anything else will be a closed door when Jesus returns in judgement. Part of what we call the visible church is going to be shut out. Jesus says many in the church “will seek to enter and will not be able.” These are people seeking salvation, who “knock at the door” but don’t get in.
Does this mean we should spend a lot of effort on figuring out who is and who isn’t a true Christian? It doesn’t, but it does mean we all should examine ourselves, which is what I think Jesus expected from His audience when He said these things. As James asked “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”[2] I ask myself, since I call Jesus my Lord, what things do I do only because He wants me to? Do I do more than hang around Jesus and His people? Do I do things that earn me nothing in return, but which please God? This is what I think is meant by Paul when he wrote in Philippians 2:12 “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Although our salvation is free, and can only be earned by Jesus Himself, if we believe in Him then He is our Lord. We should fear Him and do works that please Him.
Therefore, “strive to enter through the narrow door” of Jesus’ righteousness that was opened for us on the cross, but know that we won’t be the same on the other side. We will be forever changed.
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 