Summary: Salvation is not a given. It cannot be assumed. We have to want it. We have to leave aside questions of "how many" or "who," and focus upon it. We have to strive for it.
There is an old Gospel song entitled "So High." Depending on the version, the chorus goes something like this:
So high
You can't get over it
So low
You can't get under it
So wide
You can't get around it
You got to go in by the door1
This is what Jesus seems to be saying about "salvation," not only in today's passage from Luke, but over the course of his entire ministry. The song could easily be applied to today's reading from Luke, which begins with someone asking Jesus, "Lord, will only a few be saved?"
Jesus' answer, as is often the case when Jesus answers a seemingly straightforward question, is elliptical -- or so it would seem, anyway. Perhaps, all things considered, Jesus is giving the most straightforward answer possible. Whatever the case, there are a number of hard truths to consider in Jesus' response.
Will only a few be saved? someone wants to know.
Wrong question, Jesus says. Don't worry about numbers. Worry about the door -- the door that leads to where you say you want to go -- and strive, strive, to go in by that door.
That "door" that we're talking about is narrow. To go in by that door requires work, "striving." No, this is not the same thing as what has come to be called "works righteousness." We'll see specifically why in a little bit. Suffice it to say here that Jesus says, "Many who try to enter will not be able."
How, we might ask, is this try to different from striving? "Strive to enter," Jesus says -- but this striving, in and of itself, will not get you in; your striving, in and of itself, will not earn you a place in the kingdom. And that is where "works righteousness" fits -- or doesn't fit. Works righteousness is the notion that we earn a place in the kingdom, we earn salvation itself, simply by doing a prescribed amount of good works. The hard truth is that nothing that we can do can earn us salvation, a right relationship with God forever -- the initiative and the accomplishment are all God's. And, perhaps more important, works are, strictly speaking, unnecessary. We don't earn God's love with good works. God loves us because God loves us. Period.
But for all that, here Jesus insists that we strive.
Another hard truth: many who think they are in, really are not -- or perhaps many who think they are on the way are really headed in the wrong direction. Here, Jesus echoes Matthew 7:21-23: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me ....'"
On "that day," which is to say, the day of final judgment, the ultimate day of salvation, many will say, Lord! See how we strove...! We prophesied! We cast out demons! We did many mighty works...! And the striving, impressive as it was, was insufficient.
So, a straightforward reading of today's passage, and others, tells us that salvation is not a given. It won't just fall on us automatically. We have to want it. We must strive for it. We have to focus on that narrow door and try to enter through it -- and do it while the chance is still there, for once the householder -- God -- gets up and shuts the door, it's over! No second chance!
Salvation. It is difficult. Impossible, for that matter -- but what is impossible for mortals is possible for God, as Jesus himself declared elsewhere.2
It would seem that Jesus is calling any who want to be saved not simply to strive, but to focus; to strive -- but to strive only toward the legitimate goal of salvation, all the while knowing that it is not your striving that will get you through the door, but your intention, your desire simply for life with God, as modeled in the life and death and new life of Jesus Christ. Focus on that. If you are asking "will only a few be saved"? you're probably asking the wrong question.
But it's so hard to let go of that question! What about my unbelieving family members -- not to mention friends, of whom there seem to be more and more in these times of unbelief and loss of trust in all manner of authority? After all, we are certainly not talking about any "universal salvation," here, are we? "Many will try to enter ..." -- that is, under their own power, on their own terms, by their own effort, "... and will not be able." Can't get over it, can't get under it, can't get around it; you got to go in by the door. And once the door is closed ... Well, no, on the face of it we certainly are not talking about any universal salvation.
Jesus' answer seems to be something like, 'Don't worry about how many or how few; worry about yourself. Know that your salvation isn't a given. You have to be concerned about it. You have to want it. You have to seek it. You have to pursue it. Once the owner of the house shuts the door, that's it. Claims that you "knew him when" won't get you in. Discussion of works righteousness notwithstanding, it takes the right kind of work to get in. Commit yourself, and don't look back. Be knowledgeable about what it is you're committed to. Focus on that narrow door. Works righteousness focuses on earning your way in solely by dint of your own effort. You can't. No amount of good works can make you completely right with God. It requires grace, healing and saving help from God. But you still have to desire it and strive for it.
Okay! That is nice and tight-lipped and compact and hard-nosed and straightforward, all well and good -- but what shall we make of the horror stories from tracts, about teenagers dying in car wrecks without "making a decision for Christ"?
The grace of God is truly boundless. We are told that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and that he came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.3 We are told that it is indeed the will of God that all people be saved.4 No, we are not being promised a blanket universal salvation, in which everybody's in, no matter what, because of some extravagantly generous understanding of salvation by grace.
However! There is no grace in eternal damnation!
But all this strays from the answer Jesus gives in today's passage from Luke. Ask the right questions, Jesus says. Focus on what truly matters. Don't worry about how few or how many, or who's in and who's out. Worry about yourself. Strive. And in this same passage, we see that, after all, it won't be only a few who do get in. Many will come, Jesus says, and from all points on the compass. And ... okay, many who think they're in now are not. Don't worry about them. Strive. You know your need, or you wouldn't be asking the question. Seek first the kingdom, and your questions will be answered. Seek the kingdom, not your own justification, not salvation as a personal possession to earn.
So high
You can't get over it
So low
You can't get under it
So wide
You can't get around it
You got to go in by the door
Is there ever a point where you can't strive any more, a point where it's futile, the door's closed, that's it?
To be sure, it is possible to read this text as saying that once the door is shut, it's over. We need to take that seriously. No, we don't have to look at this as some pronouncement of one's eternal fate. We can, but we don't have to. But there we go again, down that wrong-question rabbit hole.
We know our need for God. We know the means of grace. Let us, simply -- strive. Study our scriptures. Worship and commune regularly. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Go where that love leads you. Trust, ultimately, in the God of grace, and set aside our worries about how many or how few, about "second chances" -- we're not talking about second chances; we're talking about, and seeking, and striving for, the love and power of God. You understand that God loves your loved one even more than you do, right? Believe it! Trust -- and strive to enter by the narrow door.