"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." -
Luke 13:24
Have you read the next verse?
Luke 13:25
25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,'
The verse you posted is talking about those who seek to enter God's kingdom
after the door has been shut. So long as you live on this planet, the "door" stands open. You can enter by the narrow way into God's kingdom right now, if you wish.
true Christianity is having a relationship with Jesus Christ and being his disciple and actually following Jesus daily, turning away from ALL sin. It is not just accepting Jesus as savior.
Well, you can't truly turn away from sin
until you've trusted in Christ as your Saviour. Also, making perfect obedience to God the key to your salvation denies what Scripture says about works having
nothing to do with being saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Titus 3:5
5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
2 Timothy 1:9
9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
No one's good works saved them and no one's good works keeps them saved. God accepts us because
Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us. We are clothed in the perfect righteousness of our Saviour and this - and
only this - makes us acceptable to God.
Romans 4:4-5
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
1 Corinthians 1:30-31
30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption--
31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."
Now, the natural and inevitable consequence of being saved is that we will become more and more sanctified, that we will live an increasingly holy and righteous life. But such a life no more makes us (or keeps us) saved than an apple tree bearing apples makes it an apple tree. An apple tree bears apples
because it is an apple tree and we live righteously
because we are saved.
I am failing to do that, and I do not feel I have a relationship with Jesus. I don't think that I hear his voice, and fear I may have never know Jesus.
We all of us sin. We can learn to sin a great deal less than we do, but being utterly free of sin isn't going to happen this side of the grave.
Galatians 5:17
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
1 John 1:8-10
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Romans 7:21-24
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
These verses don't give us an excuse to sin, but they do dissolve the idea that Christians can live perfectly sinless lives. Certainly, every believer should be growing more and more holy over time, but the process of doing so never ends until we cross the threshold of death into eternity.
Having a relationship with Jesus isn't a matter of feelings. Scripture tells us that we experience God when He convicts us of sin, strengthens us in moments of weakness, illuminates our minds to His truth, transforms our desires, comforts us in time of distress, and provides for our material needs (among other things). Having some strong mystical sense of God's presence is not a necessary part of how we experience these things. Don't, then, get hung up on feeling God. Feelings come and go and are notoriously deceiving. Walk with God on the basis of what He's said to you in His eternal, unchanging word instead.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
