Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 25:1, 4-5:
Lord my God, I put my trust in You alone;
Show me Your ways, Lord, teach me Your paths.
Guide me in Your truth and lead me,
for You are God my Saviour,
and my faith is in You all day long.
Amen.
Reading
As we read Jesus’ words today, it’s important to remember the fundamentals of the Gospel.
All human beings have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory; we have been separated from God by our sins; and the outcome of that separation is spiritual death (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23; Romans 3:23). We are outside the Kingdom of God because of the rebellious, selfish, sinful choices by which we have enthroned ourselves as the rulers of our own lives.
Sent by the Heavenly Father’s love, Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life and then offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all humanity. Right now the door to the Kingdom of God is open to all who will repent of their sins and entrust themselves completely and utterly to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. And then, when we have done that, we are saved from our sins and brought into God’s Kingdom, entirely by grace, through faith and never because of our good works. (See John 3:16; Romans 6:24-26; Ephesians 2:4-9).
With all that in mind, how do we make sense of Jesus command in Luke 13:24?
‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to’?
If we are not saved by good works, what exactly is this “great effort” we are to make to ensure we enter through the narrow door into the Kingdom?
As I reflect on that, I believe Jesus is being realistic about how difficult it actually is for people to simply trust Him as Saviour and Lord – especially when they have been raised on the belief that only their good works and religious observance will get them into the Kingdom of God. That’s how Jesus’ first listeners had been raised; so He was urging them to overcome the powerful draw of religious legalism, and simply embrace His free offer of salvation by grace through faith in HIM! There was no other way to enter the Kingdom, but it would be exceedingly hard for them to make that choice. He warned them that many Gentiles (i.e. people from the north, south, east and west) who had not been raised on such legalism, would feast in the Kingdom of God more readily than they would. And He urged them to make every effort to enter the Kingdom through the narrow door (of faith in Him)!
Then, I also contemplate how often I find it incredibly difficult to trust the Lord Jesus absolutely in the real cut-and-thrust of my life. Yes, Jesus is the Doorway to the Kingdom of God, and I have entered the Kingdom in the first place through wholeheartedly trusting Him. But, equally, I can only experience the reality of the Kingdom in my day-to-day life to the extent that I am willing to keep trusting Jesus enough to follow His leading and obey His commands as He leads me into Life.
Please, do not miss the opportunity to enter the Kingdom by trusting Jesus to bring you into it … and please let us not shy away from trusting Jesus enough to follow Him and truly live the Kingdom-Life, each moment of the day.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will trust Jesus alone for my right standing with the Father.
- I will trust Jesus enough to follow and obey Him as He leads me into Life!
Holy Spirit, please give me the grace to believe, to trust and to follow Jesus as my Lord, every moment of today. Amen.
Dave's Diary 