Luke 13.24 commands, exert every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
Consider God’s words about the cost of belonging to Him:
Matthew 6.15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.
Luke 9.24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
Luke 14.26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 17.33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.
John 6.53 I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.
God made possible for all humanity to live with Him forever. Living forever is what we all really want isn’t it? Living forever with new bodies that don’t grow old and wear out or become lame through accident or disease. This is the life we really want. It is the life God promises through Jesus the Savior. It is the life we were meant to have before we choose to go awry.
We suffer today because our ancestors choose to disobey God thinking they could be god themselves. They were fools. We cannot run the world at all. We struggle to do the things we want to do and to keep ourselves from doing the things we know we shouldn’t do. We are desperate people in need of a Savior.
God has provided a Savior. Himself. In the form of a man. We call Him Jesus. He lived the life we are supposed to live so we could be justified before God. He died the death we are supposed to die because we are the rebels against God. The great exchange God offers us is the perfect life Jesus lived on earth for our rebellious lives we are living on earth. The reward is eternal life with God and those who love Him on the new earth He promises when He returns to once again live in person with His people.
Salvation is free. God did all the work. God freely offers the exchange. All we must do is accept it. But…
Accepting His offer is to be all in with God. This means we are fully and wholly committed to living life His way for His glory forever. To be God’s child requires total submission to God as Father, loving Him most and first no matter the cost. Why?
He is God. Doesn’t it make sense that God would require His creation to be all in? God will not be an addition to our lives that we make to help them become our best selves. God must be our life that we lose in Him to know the life He intended for us to have before the foundation of the world was laid.
God is good. He is love. His ways are life and peace and joy forever. To really know God, to really experience Who He is, we must lose our lives by surrendering our lives wholly and fully to Him as our Lord and Ruler of all. This takes faith. This takes courage. This takes exertion against our inherent will. Everyone wants this life, few will give everything to have it. Just as God said.
Are you giving everything to have the free gift of eternal life?