I've been taught, many times, something that the teacher or preacher heard from someone who had gone on tour in Israel.

Apparently, on tour, some guide showed them a narrow hole in the wall, down at ground level.

They then went on to explain that the hole in the wall is the "eye of the needle" that Jesus was referring to.

They then explained that for camels to crawl through there, they had to strip the camels of everything they were carrying.

Then, when down to bare camel, they scarcely still would be able to crawl through the hole.

Many did oooh and awwww upon hearing this, nodding heads and saying how deep the teaching was.

However, doesn't that sound more like a "salvation by works" teaching, than the gospel of grace?

Matthew 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Jesus isn't teaching, that if we try real, real hard, and strip-off everything of the world, we can enter the kingdom, is he?

That would seem contradictory to many other parts of the new testament.

But rather how riches hinder people from being saved, without a miraculous intervention by the Holy Ghost with the gospel?