Why It's So Difficult to Be Saved
By Dennis Pollock
Many Christians might find the title of this study offensive, or at least wrong. They would say, "It's not hard at all to be saved through Christ. God made it easy and told us that all we must do is believe in Jesus. Anybody can do that very easily."
There is truth in this, but it's not the whole story. Any reasonable person should see that there must be some difficulties in entering God's kingdom and family because so few people have done that. And the Bible makes it clear that it is, in fact, difficult. Jesus told His disciples:
It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:23-24)
Here Jesus refers to financially wealthy people, and says they do not get saved easily, implying that most of them will never come to Him. But people can be rich in other aspects. Some are rich in intelligence. They possess brilliant minds and can think rings around most people. Some are rich in beauty and are far better looking than all the common-looking people. Some are rich in business skills, and it seems that every business venture they enter turns to gold. And often, I think we could say, usually, people rich in these and other areas that put them far above ordinary people are unusually resistant to Jesus. They find themselves doing better than most, achieving more than most, and receiving far more honor and compliments than others. And usually, these kinds of people, fabulously rich in some fashion, do not end up as born-again Christians. They do not go to church, they do not read the Bible regularly, they rarely pray, and you never hear them say things like, "Praise the Lord," or "Halleluia," the way we evangelical Christians do.
Exceptions
There are exceptions, of course. We could point to some brilliant evangelical Christians, here and there. The apostle Paul was a genius with a razor-sharp mind. The nineteenth- century evangelists Charles Finney and Charles Spurgeon were both brilliant men who probably could have succeeded in almost any endeavor they chose. And there are a few, but not many, very wealthy Christians who both love Jesus and make scads of money. But they are the proverbial exception that proves the rule.
The Right Gate
Jesus said this:
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
Of course, Jesus is not talking about literal gates. The narrow gate that so few find is Jesus Himself. The wide gate is the Christ-less life that leads to everlasting destruction. And Jesus tells us that most people will choose the wide gate that leads to destruction. In other words, most people will go to hell. Most doctors will perish, most plumbers will perish, most actors will go to hell, most schoolteachers will go to hell, most Americans will perish, most Africans will be lost, most Asians will die without Christ… most people will exit this world without Jesus and the gift of eternal life. This implies that there are some major difficulties involved in a person entering the kingdom and family of God through Jesus. If it were easy and there were no difficulties involved, everyone would get saved. But everyone does not get saved, not by a long shot! So, to use Jesus' words, "Difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."
Of course, this does not sit well with many. Oprah Winfrey assures us that there are many roads to God, implying that most of us will get there, by taking whatever road we find convenient. And others insist that if we are good to our fellow man, we will surely be accepted by God. The Bible says otherwise.
Not Many Wise
In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul writes:
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty… (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)
Paul tells the believers, "Look around and notice who makes up the majority of the church. There are not very many wise, highly intelligent men and women. There are not many powerful, famous people. The church is mostly made up of simple, common people."
Paul was certainly not one of these common folks. Before coming to Jesus, he was a brilliant and highly respected Jewish theologian and philosopher, one of the leading Bible scholars in all of Israel. His writing was superlative, and his use of metaphors was outstanding. But he was the exception, and he knew it very well. Most of the Christians, then as now, were ordinary men and women who were not brilliant, not famous, and not powerful. Paul even goes so far as to declare: "God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." God loves to bypass the superstars of this world and call the nobodies to Himself.
Why So Hard?
But we must ask the question, "Why?" Why is it that the famous, wealthy, and the powerful people rarely make it into the kingdom of God? I believe the answer lies in understanding two basic concepts.
The first concept is humility. Without humility, no one can enter the kingdom of God, and humility becomes very difficult when you have known almost unlimited success and received constant praise throughout your life. To enter the family of God through Jesus, you must be able to say, "I'm not enough – I'm not good enough to go to heaven, I'm not clever enough to run my own life, I'm not successful enough to gain God's approval, I am no success at all without Jesus. I'M NOT ENOUGH!"
Jesus warned: "Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3-4). So, humility, along with faith, are the keys that unlock the doors of heaven. But humility is the one virtue that is conspicuously absent in most of the rich, famous, and powerful people of this world. They have plenty of smarts, they have lots of money, they have an abundance of friends, but very little humility. And the Bible says that "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." For people who have allowed their success, fame, money, beauty, or intelligence to make them proud, there is no grace, no salvation, and no heaven for them.
Dependence
A second concept that makes it difficult for people to enter God's kingdom has to do with dependence. When God calls a person to come to Christ, He calls them to live a life in total dependence upon Him. Jesus declares: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5). Most powerful and successful people hate the idea of being dependent upon anyone. They often consider themselves a self-made man or woman, fully competent to accomplish their dreams and succeed in their endeavors without the need for anyone's help, advice, or input.
But God says that without Him, we are helpless and entirely useless. Without Jesus, we can do nothing. And it is difficult for men and women, who have scratched their way to the top, to ever acknowledge their total dependence upon God. Of course, they are dependent on God whether they acknowledge it or not. Every breath they take, every day they live is a gift from God. But they don't see it that way and so they resist the call to come as a little child to Jesus. Depending on their strengths and abilities, they choose the wide gate that leads to destruction.
Jesus Christ is our wisdom, our strength, our success, and our righteousness. We can do nothing without Him, but we can do all things through Him. He who upholds the stars and the planets upholds our lives as well, and He who began a good work in us will be faithful to keep and preserve us unto the end.
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