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The narrow door

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” 

Being at University for roughly 2 years now, there are times when evangelism becomes a close friend to what may appear to be a simple walk across campus. If I am being honest, there are times when I am not in the mood to get evangelised to. The interactions that I do have with people, almost all of them start by asking me the same question: “If you were to die today, would you make it to heaven?”. I’ve always answered the question with “I think so” or “maybe”, but I’ve realised my answers always lacked something: reassurance. My answers assumed that there will be a set time or moment when I will earn the right to heaven, however, that assumed that getting to heaven is rewarded by my own works.  

If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you may have heard the phrase “You’re saved by grace, not by works”, but I think some of us don’t really ponder, or more accurately, live a life that exemplifies that statement. We see through the verse, that Jesus is referring to “the narrow door” and this “door” represents eternal life. Jesus throughout his ministry uses metaphors, analogies and parables to explain complex doctrines: the same is for here. 

When we think of doors, the first thing that comes to mind is to open it. If “the narrow door” represents eternal life, then the key to open that door is Jesus. It is only through Him and by Him that we get reconciliation with the Father.  

Another thing we may think of when examining a door that is open is to enter it. I can only speak for me, but the doors I’ve experienced in my life usually only have one entry point. You can only pass through one way: there isn’t a secret place to pass through or an alternative direction. When related to eternal life, Jesus is the one and true entry point, and we can only ever pass through the door of eternal life through Him. 

Lastly, I want to focus on the fact that the door is “narrow”. If eternal life and Jesus’s resurrection is open for everyone, why is the door so narrow? I don’t think the narrowness is correlated with capacity but rather our heart posture. My reluctancy when asked the question of “If you were to die today, would you make it to heaven?”, was partially due to pride. Subconsciously I thought that I could do things to make it to heaven.  It takes humility to understand that there is nothing you can do to earn the right to heaven.  

The door is narrow because you can’t bring anything: you can’t bring your friends, you can’t bring your good works, you can’t even bring your ministry. It is only through Jesus and will only ever be through Jesus.  

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