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. 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.’ (Matthew 6:21-23)
This is one of those wake-you-up warning passages in scripture, from the mouth of Jesus none the less. Here we are warned that not everyone who addresses Jesus as Lord is truly saved. In fact, the verse says, “many” who believed will not get in. Belief alone does not guarantee that we are children of God. “It may just qualify you to be a demon”, as Brance will humorously say. We are told in scripture,
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder! (James 2:19)
We can believe, call ourselves a Christian, and like the demons be in open rebellion against God and his Son.
Jesus says that the only ones who get in are the ones who do the will of the Father. How can we know what God’s will is for his children? God has given us his word as a way to know his will. There we are told that true faith is accompanied by repentance. Like these warning verses display, belief and even great works do not move us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Of course, as we see elsewhere in God’s word, genuine faith will be accompanied by belief and works. James says faith without works is a dead faith.
I remember attending a church planting conference about five years ago where a leader of a large church in Texas warned all the hopeful men (and wives) in the pews not to lose their souls in the process of growing a church. He referenced one of the warning verses in scripture. Sound crazy?! Jesus doesn’t think so.
Verses 22 and 23 should break our heart and shake us alert. There are people who truly think they are in and will be shocked to learn otherwise. People who have even done mighty works in Jesus’ name. Mighty works! There are going to be pastors, and deacons, and teachers and world-renowned ministry leaders even, who will be shocked to learn that they never belonged to God, that they do not make it into heaven. When they protest and list all the great things they did in his name, he will respond that he never knew them. He will tell them to depart, calling them workers of lawlessness.
If people who are doing great works in Jesus name are to take warning, how much more so those of us who make our Christian faith a casual affair! Or for those of us who reinvent his commands to make them more palatable to us and the culture around us. This would be why Jesus tells us just a few verses earlier,
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)
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