(Luke 13:24-28)
Strive to enter by the narrow gate (door), for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house gets up and closes the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us! He will answer you, I do not know where you come from (Luke 13:24-25).
Strive to enter by the narrow gate is to force oneself through it. That shows how difficult a life of sanctification is. We must press hard upon it, making sure we do not carry anything extras. We can only do that by a self-denial life. The spirit is willing, said YAHSHUA, but the flesh is weak. Wanting to do good but doing the contrary was Paul’s frustration: For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am doing. Now if I do what I do not desire to do it is no longer I doing it, but the sin which dwells within me… For I endorse and delight in the Law of God I my inmost self, but I discern in my bodily members a different law at war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs (Rom. 7:18-.20, 22-23).
Light from the Word 