And that is the point Alamo-Girl. We are our own worst enemies.
It's not that Jesus is errecting barriers to our ultimate salvation, the point is WE are are errecting barriers to our own salvation! These barriers are varied, but as you say, they involve pride, ego, and vanity.
Going through the initation rights of Christianity; water baptism, Spirit baptism, confessing Jesus is Lord; is all good and proper, but it ultimately does not mean anything unless our lives reflect that which we profess.
Just today I had a conversation with a friend where the topic was "Just what MAKES a person a Christian, anyway?" We both know of people who go to a good church, who say all the right things, who know the "lingo" of Christianity, and claim they actually believe it; but who's lives don't relfect anything but that of a selfish, egotistical, vain person who is ultimately out for only themselves and what they can get away with. Christianity is just a means to an end for them, not a lifestyle.
But it's not always easy to discern who's just playing the game and who is truly a bondslave to Jesus. Christianity is a little too easy here in the USA, it really doesn't cost a person much to be a Christian, if it costs anything at all! As long as you say the right things, and demonstrate some of the right habbits (like going to church every Sunday) no one will question your sincerity.
On a previous devotion, I posted a meditation which is relevant to this thread concerning the Holy Spirit - more specifically, that to stay in His Light we must become transparent by surrendering self-will to His will. For anyone interested, here it is again:
This past weekend, that meditation continued. I was compelled to understand that the glory is the Father's, that Jesus is the brightness of His glory and that the Holy Spirit brings His glory through us. We must stay in His Light at all times.
On personal experience I would add that we must be transparent in His Light, without selfish motive. And I believe this is accomplished by "praying without ceasing" – never drifting, never becoming opaque.
Here are the passages in the meditation:
Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; - Hebrews 1:3
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. – 1 John 1:5-7
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. - 2 Corinthians 4:6-7
But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. – 1 Peter 2:9-10