“will only a few people be saved?”
This question reflects a theological concern prevalent in Jewish thought at the time. Many Jews believed that salvation was primarily for Israel, with a focus on the faithful remnant. The question implies an understanding of salvation as a selective process, possibly influenced by teachings from the Hebrew Scriptures about the remnant of Israel (e.g., Isaiah 10:22). It also touches on eschatological themes, as salvation was often associated with the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of God's kingdom.

Jesus answered,
Jesus' response to this question is crucial, as it provides insight into His teaching on salvation. His answer often challenges prevailing assumptions and redirects focus from speculative theology to practical discipleship. In the broader context of the Gospels, Jesus frequently emphasizes personal responsibility, repentance, and faith as key components of salvation, rather than relying solely on ethnic or religious identity.

• The questioner addresses Jesus as “Lord,” acknowledging His divine authority and right to speak on eternal matters (Luke 6:46; John 13:13).

• Scripture presents Jesus not merely as teacher but as sovereign Judge (John 5:22–24).

• Recognizing Him as Lord places the conversation on ultimate, eternal footing—salvation itself.

• The inquiry is personal and direct, illustrating that anyone may bring honest questions to Christ (John 3:1–2; Mark 9:24).

• Yet Jesus consistently turns curiosity into conviction, moving from abstract speculation to individual application (John 4:7–26).

• The setting reminds us that salvation is discussed in real time with real people, emphasizing its relevance for every listener (2 Corinthians 6:2).

• The question reflects common first-century Jewish debate about the size of the redeemed remnant (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27).

• It assumes salvation is limited—raising whether scarcity is due to God’s unwillingness or human response (Matthew 22:14).

• Jesus later clarifies that God desires all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) yet many refuse (John 5:40).

• Underneath lies a warning against complacent cultural religion: lineage or association cannot replace genuine faith (Luke 3:8).

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24)

• “Strive” speaks of earnest, continuous effort—responding wholeheartedly to God’s gracious call (Philippians 2:12–13).

• “The narrow door” pictures Christ Himself (John 10:9; 14:6). Salvation is exclusive in source yet open to all who come His way.

• “Many… will not be able” warns that good intentions, delay, or self-righteousness cannot secure entry (Matthew 7:21–23).

• Verses 25-27 show a closed door once time runs out, underscoring urgency (Hebrews 9:27).

• Verses 28-30 reveal great reversal: some first (privileged) become last, while outsiders from east and west recline with Abraham—salvation is by faith, not heritage (Romans 11:20; Ephesians 2:8–9).

• Jesus shifts the focus from “How many?” to “Will you?” Salvation is personal.

• Entry is through a single, narrow door—Christ alone—received by repentant faith.

• God’s invitation is wide, but the window is finite; delaying risks eternal exclusion.

• Religious familiarity cannot substitute for genuine relationship with the Lord.

• The text calls every hearer to earnest, immediate response, confident that whoever enters by the Door will be saved (John 10:9).

We are left to conjecture to what class the questioner belonged, and what feelings prompted the question. Was he thinking of salvation in the higher Christian sense of the term, or of safety from that destruction of which Christ had spoken as coming on the impenitent people? In the mind of the questioner the two things may have been blended together, but the answer clearly points to the former, and we have sufficient evidence that such questions were agitating men's minds in the apocryphal Revelation known as the Second Book of Esdras. This book is probably (in part, at least, certainly, see 2 Esdras 8:28-29), post-Christian, and has been assigned to the time of Nero, or Domitian, or Trajan; but it reflects with a wonderful fulness the fevered, anxious thoughts that were working among both Jews and Gentiles, and among those none is so prominent as that "many are created, but few shall be saved" (2 Esdras 8:1; 2 Esdras 8:3; 2 Esdras 8:55). Among the strange cabbalistic fancies of the Rabbis, one was an attempt to fix the number of the saved by the numerical value of the letters of this or that text that prophesied of the Kingdom of Heaven. Assuming the question to be of this nature, its form indicates that it was a speculative inquiry. A man anxious and in earnest would have asked, "What must I do to be saved?" And, being a speculative question, our Lord put it aside, gave no direct answer, and sought to force the man back on the thought of what was needed that he himself might take his place in that company. . . .