With so many religions and faiths the question that comes to mind is who will enter into heaven; who will go to paradise? The question of eternity is in all our minds Lord will only a few be saved”? According to an article fewer and fewer Americans feel the need to go to church. Salvation is one of the least topics preached in churches today. The efforts for those of us who still belief in salvation is required to be up. There has to be a desire to be saved implanted in us. We find this type of inquiry with a prison guard in Acts 16:30 where he questions the apostles what did he need to do in order to be saved. Now, the path for entering into the kingdom is narrow already, but the narrowing process is becoming more difficult. Ten virgins were confronted with making it to entering in with the groom (Mat.25:10-12). Five of the ten virgins had did their work to have excess oil in their reservoir, so when the time came to enter they would not have a problem, but the other five were laid back and did miss the entering. The call for us to go beyond our efforts is on; God’s people are called to work tirelessly to push forward God’s kingdom.
Luke 13:22-27
22 Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”
He replied, 24“Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. 25 When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’
The exhortation to work hard to enter is fervently demanded nowadays. Salvation, is more then ever individualized then ever. Helping our loved ones come to know God and be saved from hardship and affliction is in all of our hearts, but now more then ever our individual effort towards being saved needs to take priority. Paul spoke to the church in Rome about this matter (Ro.10:9-10), that confession along with faith leads to individualized salvation. There was a time when salvation was influenced by family, ones family could determine ones destiny (Ex. 20:5). But, God holds each person individually responsible for their own faults and salvation. Too often we find ourselves running against time, in fact, making it late to events and other places has become culture. Jesus spoke of two gates and the narrow being one of them. He spoke of the wide gate (Mt.7:13-14) which leads to destruction and the narrow that leads to eternal life. Everyone, nowadays, likes the wide because they have lots of choices and everything goes. But, God’s thing is not about choices, its about his choices because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not ours (Is. 55:8). It is hard but not impossible to stay in the narrow way.