Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
This is a pretty common passage that most Christians are familiar with. Most often this passage is used to show that you could be doing all kinds of great things for God and still not know Him. It is a warning to believers to be careful not to get so caught up in doing that we neglect a real relationship with Christ.
Lot’s of Christians refer to this as the scariest passage in the Bible. The idea that you could be living for God, attending services weekly, volunteering and doing good and yet still miss heaven. That’s terrifying!
While that is a good thing to remember, to put more emphasis on Christ than on your works, it’s misguided to read this as a warning to sincere Christians who are serving God. This puts too much of the emphasis on us maintaining our salvation by what we do or don’t do, and it ignores the context of the passage.
So what is the context?
Matthew 7:13-14 ““Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
From verse 13 Jesus is building a dichotomy between true believers and unbelievers. Some are going through the wide gate and that gate leads to destruction. Some are going through the narrow gate and that gate leads to life. This isn’t two types of believers, it’s those who are following Christ (The door) and those who aren’t.
He continues,
Matthew 7:15-20 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Again, the dichotomy is made between true prophets and false prophets. There are some who are genuine and some who are deceivers. How do we know? By what they produce. Sheep/wolves, grapes/thornbushes, figs/thistles, good tree/bad tree. Two kinds of people believers and non-believers.
Now we get to verse 21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,” Why? Because not everyone who comes in His name is a genuine believer or minister. Beware of these false prophets because not everyone who does things in His name are legitimate. You will be able to discern who is real and who is a wolf based on what they are producing. Does their ministry focus on Christ and His work? Or does it focus on themselves and what they are doing?
Verse 21 asks who will make it to heaven, Jesus says it’s, “only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” On the surface this seems scary because as believers we fear we may be doing this wrong. So what is the will of the Father? Believing in Jesus.
John 6:28-29 “Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.””
We must remember that ALL of our righteousness comes from Christ. If we read a Bible passage in a way that makes us responsible for our own righteousness we are reading the Bible wrong and misunderstanding what it is trying to teach us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Another commonly misunderstood passage that is often misunderstood in the same way is in Revelation 3.
Revelation 3:15-16 "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth!"
This verse has been used a lot to teach that if you are not on fire for God that you are in danger of being spewed out of God's mouth. it's believed that this is teaching that it's better to be on fire for God or lost than it is to be wishy-washy for Jesus.
But that's not the case. Laodicea was near two other towns, each which had a unique water source. To the north was Hierapolis which had a natural hot spring, often used for medicinal purposes. to the east was Colossae which had cold, pure waters. in contrast to these towns, Laodicea had no permanent supply of good water.
Efforts to pipe water into the city from nearby springs were successful, but it would arrive lukewarm. the metaphor in the text is that the hot springs provided a source of healing and the cold springs provided refreshment for drinking, but the water was lukewarm and it didn't taste very good so you would want to spit it out.
Hot water was good. Cold water was good. Lukewarm water was bad. So why does Jesus say they are lukewarm? Is it because they don't have the zeal of others? No. It has nothing to do with effort, it has everything to do with their own self righteousness.
Verse 17 “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
What is happening here? The church at Laodicea had become so obsessed with their own spirituality, their own good works, that they are completely unaware of their need of Christ. They have essentially grown to the point they they felt they were self sufficient.
This meant that their witness to those around them was compromised, like lukewarm water they didn't taste very good. There could be a lot of speculation about why they reached this point, but the point for us to remember is that anytime we look inward, at our own righteousness, at our own good works, and feel a sense of accomplishment, a sense of I got this. We are on the fast track to lukewarmness.
It's not about us! Every time we make it about us we mess up! I'm not saved by my own merit, and my life of sanctification isn't earned by my own merit. It's all because of Jesus! He grants me salvation, the Holy Spirit leds me and conforms me to the will of God. When you have faith in Jesus, you don't have to fear anything.
Don’t live in fear of accidentally missing heaven. The grace of God is bigger than your human frailty. Rest in the finished work of Christ, be led by the Spirit and rejoice in the salvation that you have received. Trust in His works, not your own.
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.”
Salvation is a free gift, no one can earn it, that is way Paul says in Romans 4:4-5 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,”
One of my favorite words I've learned recently is "Extra Nos" it is a Latin term that simply means "outside of us" it's a reminder that we can't produce righteousness, we are dead, we are sinners. So Christ had to obtain this righteousness for us. He did this by living the perfect obedient life, taking the sinfulness that belonged to us, and exchanging it for the righteousness that belonged to Him.
Romans 5:6-11 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Romans 5:19 “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
"All the Gospel requires is repentance and faith. The gospel doesn't require obedience, it produces obedience. If the Gospel were to require obedience from us, then that would mean that we could be obedient apart from the person and work of Christ, and Jesus died for nothing. The Gospel produces obedience in us. Joyful obedience in us. If we get these things mixed up, that's where we end up in legalism and moralism and works righteousness. That's when the good news is really not good news at all. It becomes burdensome." - Voddie Baucham