Lk. 13:22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.
Lk. 13:23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them,
Lk. 13:24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

When people hear “saved”, they generally think about being saved from going to hell; but that is not really what Jesus is referring to here. Jesus is talking about adoption of sons of God. There is a strata of spirits. God is at the top of the strata or pyramid of spirits. Different spirits occupy different positions in the pyramid. At the base of the pyramid are the spirits in “hell”. The sons of God are in the upper echelon of the pyramid.

Da. 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Da. 12:3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

2Co. 5:9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
2Co. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Even the sons of God are not all equal in the pyramid of spirits. Some will shine like stars forever and some will shine like the brightness of the heavens. The shining level or rank will be assigned to each human son of God, by Jesus, at the judgment seat of Christ.

In the Beginning

Ge. 2:7 The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Initially, when God formed man from the dust of the ground, man did not belong in the pyramid of spirits, but was just like other living things. Then God breathed into man His holy spirit and man became a possessor of divine life. Man immediately joined the pyramid of spirits, albeit, at the lowest level (Ps. 8:5; He. 2:7). Angels of God were rattled by this development because they could see that God created in man the capacity for variability in stratum in the pyramid of spirits. This means that man could rise in the pyramid of spirits and be above some or even all the angels, since the stratum of each angel is fixed in the pyramid. One third of God’s angels immediately lost faith in God; they began to think that God is partial by unduly favoring mankind over them. The other two thirds of God’s angels somehow knew that God is too holy to practice favoritism against them.

Is. 14:12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
Is. 14:13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
Is. 14:14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
Is. 14:15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

Lucifer, the archangel who leads the one third of God’s angels that rebelled against God, decided to form his own pyramid of spirits, in which he will be at the top. Is. 14:15 says that in the end, he will wind up at the lowest level of God’s pyramid of spirits.

Ge. 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
Ge. 2:17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

It turns out that God has not given mankind a free ride towards the top of His pyramid of the spirits. There is a condition attached, and if mankind failed to meet the condition, he would descend in the pyramid.

Ge. 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Lucifer, now turned Satan, decided to push mankind out of God’s pyramid of spirits and bring mankind into his own pyramid. He succeeded in doing just that. Today, we have what the people of God call the kingdom of darkness, and some human beings are highly placed in that kingdom. According to Isaiah 14, ultimately, the kingdom of darkness will collapse into nothingness.

Jesus

God sent a new man (an Adam) to the world, in the person of Jesus Christ. God’s intention was to give mankind opportunity, once again, to become sons of God. The new Adam followed the same process that the first Adam followed before his fall.

He. 10:5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

God formed a new man in the womb of Virgin Mary, just like He did in Ge. 2:7 in the case of the first Adam. The new man grew up, with angelic guidance and protection (Ps. 91:11-12). However, Jesus’ life as a man was never a bed of roses (He. 5:7-. By the time Jesus reached the age at which rich men of his time performed adoption of their sons, God put His Spirit in Jesus (Mt. 3:16), just as He did to the first Adam in Ge. 2:7. Jesus therefore Joined God’s pyramid of spirits. Satan swung into action, as usual, to push Jesus out of the pyramid of God and then into his own pyramid (Mt. 4:1-10). Jesus successfully resisted the devil’s schemes and God promoted him to a higher level in His pyramid. Eventually, it came to time for Jesus to fulfill his real purpose of coming to the world. Satan tried so hard to stop him from fulfilling the purpose, but Jesus successfully resisted the devil and gave himself as a ransom for the sins of mankind.

Ph. 2:9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.

Re. 5:11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
Re. 5:12 In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

God promoted Jesus to a level just below Himself in the pyramid of the spirits. Angels of God have no problem with the promotion given to Jesus by God, because Jesus merited it.

Followers of Jesus

A common belief among people who have committed themselves to following Jesus is that once you are baptized into Jesus Christ, either in water or in the Spirit or both, you have been saved by grace and therefore you are a sure candidate for adoption as a son of God. Incidentally, being baptized in water and in the Spirit only brings a person where Adam was in Ge. 2:7 and where Jesus was in Mt. 3:16. That is just a new beginning, or being born again. The journey to the kingdom of heaven begins from here.

Lk. 13:24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.

Jesus says that many who begin the journey to the kingdom of God will not be able to enter. Many will not be able to meet the criteria for adoption as a son of God. What are the criteria?

Mt. 19:16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
Mt. 19:17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
Mt. 19:20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Mt. 19:21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Mt. 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Mt. 22:37 Jesus replied: “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [Deut. 6:5]
Mt. 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

The criteria for adoption as a son of God is obedience to the commandments of God, especially the first commandment. A common thing you hear today, especially among the evangelical Christians, is that obedience to the commandments of God is no longer necessary because we are not under law, but under grace. Grace means to depend on the Spirit’s power to do the will of God, as opposed to depending on self (will) power. Unfortunately, many Christians do not know how to depend on the Spirit’s power and yet claim that they have been saved by grace.

When Jesus told the rich young ruler that what it takes to be adopted as a son of God is to obey the commandments of God, he quickly claimed that he was already keeping all the commandments, as he understood them. Then Jesus emphasized the first commandment; can you lavish all you have on God? The rich young ruler immediately shied away.

The criteria for adoption as a son of God is that you must lavish all you have on God. In order to adopt a human being as His son, God has to give to that human being something that He values most; His divine life—what makes Him to be God. One third of God’s angels were mad at hearing that God wanted to impart His divine life into human beings. The subject of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was the divine life. God can only give it to a human being who can prove excessive love for Him.