The Inclusive Exclusive Christian Faith

He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward   Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:22–30).[1]

Based on recent studies of world religions, Christianity makes up 31-32% of the global population, followed by Islam at 24-26%, Hinduism at 15%, Buddhism at 7%, folk religions at 6%, the non-religious at 16-24%, and other religions, such as Judaism, at1-2%. How accurate these numbers are, I don’t know, and I would imagine that the screening criteria of what is defined at Christianity would differ from ours. Regardless, I would argue that Christianity is not the world’s largest religion nor any of the others listed, including the non-religious. It is a religion as old as Cain and one we are all familiar with, which for sake of a label, I call merit-driven modified universalism. Perhaps you like me have seen it in studying other religions or perhaps in our own. No doubt, it is faithfully practiced in churches throughout our country, and there could even be someone here today who believes it. In summary, it is the belief that Christianity is merely one or many ways to heaven, eternal life, the next life, call it what you will. What is required to go heaven, per se, is good intentions, sincerity, and a sprinkling of good works (on a sliding scale). Heaven, it is thought, will be filled with a variety of faiths and people, except Adolf Hitler and that guy you don’t like at work.

Of course, this religion takes many forms and may be expressed in myriads of ways, but it is alive and well and thriving. It’s also contrary to God’s Word, and antagonistic to the essence of the Christian faith. We need not mine the depths of our theological treatises but only listen to the words of Jesus, who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), and by “comes to the Father” he meant the only way a sinner by nature may be reconciled to his Creator, the Lord God almighty. It is this aspect of true Christianity that makes it not only exclusive but hated. We do not believe there are many true religions but one only. When Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9), he was also stating the converse: If anyone does not enter by Christ, he will not be saved. There is no other way to heaven, no other means to inherit eternal life, no way to God but exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ?

In the pervasive pluralism of our age, such a belief is considered repugnant, even by the so-called non-religious. But, as we see in our passage today, not only is salvation through faith in Christ alone, there will be a day when every person past, present, and future will want to be saved, will desire eternal life, even claim to know Jesus, but it will be too late. Faith that is late then is not saving faith, as J.C. Ryle explains,

There is a time coming when many will repent too late, and believe too late,–sorrow for   sin too late, and begin to pray too late,–be anxious about salvation too late, and long for heaven too late. Myriads shall wake up in another world, and be convinced of truths which on earth they refused to believe. Earth is the only place in God’s creation where there is any infidelity. Hell itself is nothing but truth known too late.[2] 

The reason, Jesus explains, is because the door is narrow. There are not many ways to be saved but only one. But what does “saved” mean?    

Saved from What?

As Jesus traveled onward to Jerusalem, someone among his followers asked, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (13:23). It’s a curious question, perhaps academic, perhaps meant for banter, but why did the questioner presume “few,” and what did he mean by “saved”? Let’s start with “saved,” because it’s a term we readily use, but do we know what we mean when we say it? I am reminded of a story R.C. Sproul tells of when he was a young man and someone approached him and asked, “Are you saved?” To which Sproul honestly responded, “Saved from what?” The young man, sadly, could give no answer revealing a zeal without knowledge. Are you saved? To ask the question we need to know what it means.

When Jesus’s follower asked the question, he was likely referring back to a previous discussion Jesus had with his followers about a Galilean massacre, where the Roman governor had commingled the blood of murdered worshipers with the blood of their sacrifices, and probably another tragic event where eighteen people were crushed to death by a falling tower. In both cases, Jesus asked the provocative question of divine reciprocity: Were those who died more deserving of death than those of us left living?[3] It’s a rhetorical question, and Jesus didn’t wait for an answer, because his point was not speculation but introspection, warning every one of his followers not once but twice: “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (13:3).

Contextually then, to be saved is to be saved from perishing. But Jesus meant more than death in a massacre or from a falling tower, more than the immediate conclusion of this life, and his followers knew it. Other than the Sadducees, first-century Jews believed in life after death and the resurrection of the dead. To be saved incorporated both body and soul, not to perish eternally in hell. For example, when Jesus said to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 NKJV), Jesus didn’t have to explain what he meant by perish. Nicodemus understood “perish” beyond this life and “everlasting life” of the blessed life to come. So, when Jesus’s follower asked him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (Luke 13:23), by “saved” he meant saved from perishing in eternal judgment.

How Many?

Why then did Jesus’s follower presume “few” would be saved from eternal judgment? To answer this, we must understand that the prevalent first-century Jewish presumption was that by virtue of birthright every Jew would inherit eternal life, but for a few notoriously sinful exceptions. The rest of the Gentile world, except for a few notable proselytes, would perish. It was a belief akin to baptismal regeneration today, the belief that you are saved through baptism and so guaranteed eternal life apart from faith. As a covenant child of Israel, the questioner presumed his salvation; the “few” included himself and his people.

Of course, the apostle Paul obliterated such a notion, when he asked the Jews in Rome,

Do you suppose, O man . . . that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:3-5).

Turns out, neither birthright nor baptism saves.

In contrast, Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (13:23-24). The word “strive” connotes urgent action, running contrary to the prevalent perspective that there was no urgency nor action required to save an ethnic heir of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Perhaps Jesus’s questioner thought he had already entered through the narrow door at his circumcision. But Jesus’s response emphasizes that no one is saved by their heritage or sacraments. To strive then is to truly believe; it is the obedience of faith.

While contextually Jesus’s response was confronting the errors of first-century Judaism, let me take this opportunity to make a relevant point, speaking directly to parents regarding your child’s salvation. When your child was baptized, he or she received what the apostle Paul calls the “circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11-12), setting him or her apart[4] as a child of God’s covenant, similar to Abraham’s circumcision of Isaac. This is a beautiful and sacred privilege enjoyed by God’s covenant people, past and present. Your child is set apart, by covenant sign and seal, as God’s children have historically been, to be raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord, in a godly home, reading the Word of God together, praying together, as you train your child in godliness. But do not fall prey to the perspective of the Jews of Jesus’s day, presuming that your covenant child is saved by virtue of his or her baptism or by your faith. The truth that “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10) applies to you and your child! And apart from repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ there is no salvation. So, parents, preach the gospel to your children! Teach them early and often that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and then point them not to their works of righteousness but to their only hope, Jesus Christ the righteous. For all who believe on him, whether adult or child, will not perish but have eternal life.[5] But presuming your child is saved by virtue of his or her baptism or upbringing will only result in a baptized, church-attending, biblically-literate, morally-upright candidate for hell. Take your child to the narrow door.

Who’s In?

Jesus carries his narrow door statement into a story about a “master of the house,” who shut the door to his house, an analogy in which we quickly see that Jesus is the master. It’s an analogy that leads us to wonder: Who’s out and who’s in the house? Outside the house there are plenty who claim to know Master Jesus, who ate and drank with him, who witnessed his miraculous works. They know him by name, but he knows them not. Why? Because knowing about Jesus is not the same thing as trusting in him alone to be saved. It is the difference between profession of faith and possession of faith. Faith in Christ is the narrow door, the only way to enter the kingdom of God.

I am reminded of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, whose hero, Christian, is first described as being clothed in rags, the book of the law in his hand, a great burden on his back, residing in the City of Destruction. And as he read the law, he began to weep and tremble, but neither his friends nor his family could help, leaving him in despair and crying out, “What shall I do to be saved?” Thankfully, he encountered Evangelist who, understanding his dilemma and knowing the remedy, pointed him to “yonder Wicket-gate,” and sent him straight away. And it was there, when he arrived, that Good Will told him, “Look before thee; does thou see this narrow way? That is the way thou must go. It was cast up by the Patriarchs, Prophets, Christ, and his Apostles, and it is as straight as Rule can make it: This is the way thou must go.” And through it he went alone and rejoicing. [6] Likewise for us, it is only through the “wicket gate,” the narrow door of Jesus Christ that we may enter the celestial city.

But many will not, and so on Judgment Day, when they finally see their need to be saved, it will be too late. As it was in the days of Noah, when his righteous preaching[7] was completed and he entered the ark, and “the LORD shut him in” (Gen. 7:16), and “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” (7:11). On that day everyone wished they were in that ark of salvation, but they were not, and so, “Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died” (7:22). Similarly, Jesus says that on Judgment Day there “will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” in anguish, but also the ability to see “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28) but those who did not enter the kingdom through the narrow door of faith in Christ will be left with the torment of wishful thinking. It is not the one who hears the gospel first that enters the kingdom of God but the one who believes it, and so “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (13:30).

Who then will enjoy such an exclusive privilege to recline at table with the Patriarchs in the kingdom of God? Not the presumptuous natural-born heirs of Israel but people “from east and west, and from north and south” (13:29). Such a statement should not have surprised Jesus’s followers, because it was Isaiah who prophesied that people would come across the sea and from afar[8] to feast at the Lord’s heavenly table.[9] This was the revelation that God gave the apostle John, of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Rev. 7:9-10). Entrance into the kingdom of God is only through the narrow door of Christ, but who may enter includes people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Such is the inclusive exclusive Christian faith, and through it the only way to heaven.

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[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version 

(Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 101.

[3] Luke 13:1-5

[4] 1 Cor. 7:14

[5] John 3:16

[6] John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 10-28.

[7] 2 Pet. 2:5

[8] Isa. 49:12

[9] Isa. 25:6