Just because you profess to know Jesus doesn’t mean you’ll make it into the kingdom of heaven. This statement comes from our Lord’s own mouth in Matthew 7:21-23. Here Jesus explicitly states that it’s entirely possible to claim to know Christ, to do great and mighty works in his name, and ultimately, on the last day, be rejected by him.
How can such be the case? And how, in light of this passage, can we be assured that we’re not one of the “many” that he’ll deny on the last day? Let’s break down this passage and find out.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’…
In v. 21 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
What does this mean? Simply that a mere profession of faith in Christ is not adequate to save. After all, anyone can claim to know Christ but that doesn’t make their claim true.
To call Jesus “Lord” has an implication to it that many people, apparently, are unaware of. The Greek word used for “Lord” here is kurios and it means “lord” or “master”. It refers to someone who has absolute ownership rights of another (Strongs 2962). So when we call Jesus Lord, we’re essentially saying that he is our master and we are his slaves; he is our king and we are his servants. Any other view of our relationship with Christ isn’t biblical.
In Luke 6:46 Jesus says, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Thus the implication of calling Jesus Lord is obedience to him. If we call Jesus Lord, but we don’t do what he tells us to do, then our proclamation is a false one. This is the point Jesus is making in verse 21. It’s not about saying the words, it’s about living out what those words imply.
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,…”
1 John 2:3-4
This, of course, does not mean that Christ expects perfection from us. In fact, Scripture makes it clear that all believers will continue to sin, to some degree, for the rest of their lives. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And in Galatians 5:17 we read that “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
As believers, our battle with sin continues simply because our sinful nature hasn’t been removed. We have the Spirit of God within us, but we still have our old sinful nature to contend with. Because our sin nature remains, we’ll always be inclined to sin to some degree. However, as we continue to grow closer to Christ and mature in him, sin should become less and less prominent in our lives as we learn how to “walk by the Spirit” so as to “not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
Prophecy, Exorcism, and Mighty Works Rendered Irrelevant
In verses 22 – 23 Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
If professing to know Christ wasn’t enough to ensure one’s salvation, surely performing miraculous deeds in his name should be, right? Not according to Jesus. This passage demonstrates that it’s entirely possible to do good things in the name of Christ, even miraculous things that most of us couldn’t claim to do, and yet still be rejected by him.
If this passage demonstrates one thing with any degree of certainty it’s that works don’t guarantee one’s salvation.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” There is no contribution we can make towards our salvation in the form of works or good deeds. God doesn’t save us because of how much we’ve done in his name and he doesn’t save us based on our good behavior. If such were the case then salvation wouldn’t be a free gift at all, rather it would be an earned reward. This, however, is not what Scripture has to say about salvation.
Salvation comes from faith alone in Jesus Christ. This faith, however, must be a saving one; one that results in a radical transformation of one’s life and one that produces a life of obedience to the Word of God. If your faith hasn’t changed you, you can be sure it hasn’t saved you.
James says as much when he tells us that “faith by itself, if it does not have good works, is dead” (James 2:17). The good works James is referring to are any deeds or acts that are the direct result of the faith one proclaims to have. In other words, a true and living faith is one that produces change in the life of the one who has it. If one’s faith does not change them, does not result in them obeying the word of God, does not result in them doing good deeds when it’s in their power to do so, then this is not a saving faith.
Listen again to the words of James – “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14). The answer to this rhetorical question is an emphatic “No”, as James goes on to illustrate throughout chapter two of his epistle.
The point James is making is not that works are required for salvation, but rather that good works, of necessity, flow from it. A person that is truly saved cannot help but bear the fruit of good works because the Holy Spirit within him plants and waters the seeds thereof.
Why then does Jesus reject those who, according to the passage in question, have prophesied, cast out demons, and performed miraculous deeds in his name? Because they didn’t have a genuine relationship with him. They professed him to be Lord, and they worked in his name, but they did so in vain as their hearts and lives were never given to Christ.
I Never Knew You
We know this to be true from what Christ tells them. He says, “I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23).
When Jesus says that he never knew them, this is not to say that he was totally ignorant of their existence, but rather that he never had an intimate, real, and genuine relationship with that person; a relationship that can only come through faith in Christ for salvation.
The people who Jesus rejects on the last day are people who were never truly saved to begin with. These are not people who, at one time, were saved but then fell away from the faith. Nor are these people who used to have a genuine, authentic, and real relationship with Christ and then apostatized. Jesus doesn’t say, “I used to know you, but I don’t really know you know,” but rather, “I never knew you.” These are people who never placed saving faith in Christ to begin with, were never part of his flock, who never surrendered their will to his, and who never bowed their knee in submission to his lordship and authority, and because of their blatant rejection of Him as Lord and savior, they too will be rejected.
Doing the Will of the Father
So how do we escape this fate? How do we ensure that we’re not one of the many whom Jesus will deny on the last day? Jesus tells us in verse 21 that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
It’s only by doing the will of the Father that we can truly be saved. What is the will of the Father? Listen to what Jesus says in John 6:37-40:
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:37-40
The will of the Father is that we believe in him whom he sent, namely Jesus Christ. If we truly believe in Christ then we’ll be saved.
Paul tells us in Romans 10:9-10 that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
This belief in Christ, however, cannot be a mere acknowledgement of his existence but rather a belief that he is, indeed, the Son of God who was sent to save us from our sins. Faith in Christ is the only thing that saves us but it must be a true and living faith; one that prompts us to good works and obedience to the word of God.
In Summary
On the last day many will profess to know Jesus, many will have done great and mighty works in his name, and many will ultimately be rejected by him. By the persuasions of their pseudo faith and the guarantees they thought they had by working in his name, these people will be denied entry into the kingdom of heaven. This is a sorrowful reality, but it’s the reality we have nonetheless. Christ confirms that not everyone who says they’re a Christian truly are, and even those who go to great lengths to appear to be so, by doing good deeds in his name, will ultimately be judged as workers of lawlessness.
This reality should force us to examine our own lives, should it not? Are we truly living out our profession of faith or are we falsely calling Jesus “Lord, Lord”? Are the works that we do done with the proper motives or are we doing them just for the sake of appearance and a sense of security? Christ knows our hearts, and so do we.
My challenge for you then is to take a moment to self reflect and ask yourself this question: On the day of judgment when you have to stand before Christ, what is he going to say to you? Is he going to utter those words that every believer longs to hear: “Well done my good and faithful servant.”? Or is he going to say, “I never knew you; depart from me your worker of lawlessness.”?