That was their question. And Jesus did not answer in a comfortable way.
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
Hm. The people said that they hung out with Jesus. They ate and drank with him during the week. They attended his teachings and listened to what he he was saying. And yet Jesus is saying they didn’t know him? And he doesn’t know them?
Really? They were on a first-name basis.
But look at WHY Jesus says he does not know them.
“Away from me you evildoers.”
You cannot claim to know Christ and participate in wickedness. You cannot claim to know Christ but have no repentance. He’s already been talking about this. Look how the chapter opens (Luke 13:1-9).
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Do you see the theme and the parallels here? In this story they are saying that the Galileans who were killed because a tower fell on them must have been greater sinners. Jesus says it doesn’t matter, all need to repent. Including them.
Then he comes to a tree and talks about the fig tree bearing fruit. When it doesn’t after years, and if there’s even more mercy and grace, then at some point it will be cut down. This is very much like when John the Baptist in Matthew 3 says that any tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down.
Is this, then, works salvation?
Not at all. Salvation is in Christ alone. That’s it. But if you have truly repented and turned to Christ, you will not continue in wickedness. You will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, leave sin behind. It’s not that you won’t stumble, but you will be en route.
So then does this mean keeping all the law?
Not the way they understood the law. We see this when Jesus tells them next about a woman he healed on the Sabbath and in the synagogue. She had suffered for 18 years! Yet when he healed her, they were furious. Because he had healed on the Sabbath and that was “work.”
They didn’t understand that the law was about righteousness and holiness and love. It was truth and love. It wasn’t just laws and ordinances.
Back to the narrow door. Jesus closes with this:
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
The people thought that they had an edge being Jewish. And in some ways they did. They were the covenant people. They had the Scriptures. They had the knowledge of God’s ways. And…
they had no excuses for not knowing and live righteously.
Basically what Jesus is saying here is that there will be Gentiles in heaven and you will not be. They will be saved but you might not. So don’t play games with God.
As he had said what we read about in chapter 12.
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning…You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:35, 40).