A Sobering Verse
Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matt. 7:21, RSV.
Today's verse is one of the most frightening in the New Testament. It flatly states that I can be lost while claiming Jesus as my Savior; that I can be deceived; that I can think that all is well with my religious life when everything is actually wrong.
Matthew 7:21 is also one of the most serious passages in all of God's Word. Jesus is not playing games. He has spent a large portion of His inaugural sermon telling us how the scribes and Pharisees had deceived themselves. Now He is pointing at me and you. We can be just as confused and misled as those Jewish leaders unless we pay heed to His words. There is nothing more serious in all the teaching of the words of Jesus than His proclamation in Matthew 7:21-23. Our Savior is speaking to us with all the earnestness of His soul. It behooves us to listen carefully.
Not all who claim to be believers in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be saved according to verse 21. That is an amazing thought, given the fact that so many say that the totality of salvation is claiming Jesus as Savior. Here Jesus is warning us that being saved involves more than merely making such claims.
And what more is needed? Jesus answers that question in the same verse, when He states that we must be doers and not mere hearers of His Father's will. John reinforces that point when he writes that "we may be sure that we know him," if we keep His commandments and walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:3-6, RSV).
That's good news. It's true assurance of salvation. We can know! Praise God!
But what is "doing the Father's will"? Here we must remember that the context of Matthew 7:21-23 is the entire Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has just spent Matthew 5-7 setting forth God's will for His people. Doing God's will is living the Beatitudes; it means being salt and light as we witness; it means living out the height and depth of His law of love in our community; it is loving even our enemies and thus being like God; it is doing God's will in our prayer life and stewardship; it means having our priorities right and trusting Him in terms of our daily needs rather than being focused on material things; and it means refusing to judge others, while at the same time treating them as we would like them to treat us.
Doing God's will means being like Jesus.
Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matt. 7:21, RSV.
Today's verse is one of the most frightening in the New Testament. It flatly states that I can be lost while claiming Jesus as my Savior; that I can be deceived; that I can think that all is well with my religious life when everything is actually wrong.
Matthew 7:21 is also one of the most serious passages in all of God's Word. Jesus is not playing games. He has spent a large portion of His inaugural sermon telling us how the scribes and Pharisees had deceived themselves. Now He is pointing at me and you. We can be just as confused and misled as those Jewish leaders unless we pay heed to His words. There is nothing more serious in all the teaching of the words of Jesus than His proclamation in Matthew 7:21-23. Our Savior is speaking to us with all the earnestness of His soul. It behooves us to listen carefully.
Not all who claim to be believers in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be saved according to verse 21. That is an amazing thought, given the fact that so many say that the totality of salvation is claiming Jesus as Savior. Here Jesus is warning us that being saved involves more than merely making such claims.
And what more is needed? Jesus answers that question in the same verse, when He states that we must be doers and not mere hearers of His Father's will. John reinforces that point when he writes that "we may be sure that we know him," if we keep His commandments and walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:3-6, RSV).
That's good news. It's true assurance of salvation. We can know! Praise God!
But what is "doing the Father's will"? Here we must remember that the context of Matthew 7:21-23 is the entire Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has just spent Matthew 5-7 setting forth God's will for His people. Doing God's will is living the Beatitudes; it means being salt and light as we witness; it means living out the height and depth of His law of love in our community; it is loving even our enemies and thus being like God; it is doing God's will in our prayer life and stewardship; it means having our priorities right and trusting Him in terms of our daily needs rather than being focused on material things; and it means refusing to judge others, while at the same time treating them as we would like them to treat us.
Doing God's will means being like Jesus.
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