I Never Knew You
Matthew 7:21-23
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
These verses should cause us to examine the basis of our salvation. Those whom the Lord was speaking to were good people. They had done many fine things, and done them in His name. So why were they not accepted by God?
I believe their problem was that they were depending on their good works to save them and make them good enough to get into heaven. God has given us one way to get into heaven, and it is not by doing good works. He sent His Son to die on the cross and shed His blood so that our sins would be forgiven. Unless one has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and therefore had his sins forgiven, his sins will stand as witness against him in the final judgment. Now once we have been saved, we should spend the rest of our lives doing good works as the Holy Spirit directs us according to the Father’s will.
2 comments:
yeah - it's tied up with the forgiveness thing also, right? like...if in our hearts we can forgive, it's an acceptance of God's rule. And maybe although we're not perfect, if we try hard God can choose us to further his rules/guides? and yes, the door is narrow 'cause it's hard to do this. I know this, believe me, I know this...how hard it is to forgive.
thanks for the positive comments. I'm going to be away from thursday to sunday, but am taking my Bible with me so I don't get behind. :)
I believe the difficulty in forgiving is that we have been so wounded by the action of another that we just don't want to forgive.
But God tells us to forgive. I believe if we seek to do His will, He will strengthen us to do it.
When someone hurts me, immediately I hear God telling me to forgive. Therefore, I seek to forgive even though I do not feel like forgiving. But a few minutes later, I notice that my heart has quieted down and I am not as hurt.
We begin the process by obeying. God finishes the process by cleansing and binding up our wounds. This is an amazing dynamic.
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