Joel M Bradshaw

21“Not everyone who says to me [Jesus], ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On 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?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’–Matthew 7

These words are an end-times wake-up call. What do they teach us?

1. Simply acknowledging Jesus as Lord, Master, Boss is not enough. It’s a necessary first start and there are many that don’t even do that, but even the demons submitted to the authority of Jesus!
2. Doing good things is not enough. There are many in history who have filled their lives full of ministry and churchy busyness that will be speaking verse 22 at Jesus.
3. If Jesus doesn’t know you, then all your good things are ultimately just like bad deeds. This would have hit the Pharisees hard. They were the great “doers of righteousness,” but rejected Jesus. It’s as if they were acting like godless pagans all along!
4. Jesus is the end-times arbiter of who gets into heaven or not. This again would have shocked the Pharisees and frankly everyone else who simply sees Jesus as one religious buffet option among many. Jesus is absolutely not a pluralist. It’s an either/or not a both/and for Jesus.
5. If you are worried right now, what hope does Jesus give you? A few verses prior, Jesus spoke of false prophets being recognized by their fruit. Bear recognizable fruit that starts from the inside and leads to your outside. A few verses after this, Jesus gave his famous ‘building your house on the rock or the sand’ parable. Hope comes from hearing Jesus’ words and putting them into practice.
6. Jesus words are terrifying and indeed sobering, but they are not surprising. Words and deeds are nice, but Jesus knows if your heart is with him or not.
7. So heart-check time. What changes in you when you read the above verses?–JMB