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21 Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" 23 And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" ~ Matthew 7:21-23
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 7 where the Lord Jesus continued to inculcate His culture into His hearers through the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount. When God gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, He did not give it in order to show the Jews how good they could become. He gave the Law in order to show us how sinful we truly are. In doing so, the Lord Jesus was showing the difference between His kingdom and that of the religious leaders of Israel which were not the same.
In v.21 of today's passage we read, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."
Previously the Lord Jesus compared the broad gate that leads to destruction to the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. He highlighted the fact that it is only through a broken heart that we are positioned to enter into a personal relationship with Him. And, even though we may refer to the Lord as our "Lord," that does not mean that we have a personal relationship with Him. The mistake the Jews made was they didn't understand that they could not keep God’s law and thus meet His standard to be acceptable before Him. This is why the Lord Jesus magnified the fact that it is difficult for sinful man to enter the narrow gate. Finding Him requires meaningful search. Accentuated here is the fact that nobody just stumbles along and falls into the kingdom of God inadvertently. No, we must come to the end of ourselves first.
The reason the Jews didn't come to the Lord is due to the fact that they didn't come to the end of themselves. This prevented them from noticing that the Lord Jesus is "He" in this verse who did the will of the Father completely. The Lord Jesus is the narrow gate, and if we come to Him through our brokenness, we will see Him as our only Savior. Those in this verse who call Him, "Lord" are those who depend upon self-righteousness rather than divine righteousness for entry into heaven.
In v.22 of today's passage we read, "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'"
Even though some will claim that they earned God's favor through their performance this verse clearly warns us against such a conclusion. Our acceptability before the Lord has always been based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross because He is the only one perfect enough to earn the favor of God. Even though these will say repeatedly, "in thy name" revealing that these miracles happened because of the name of the Lord Jesus, they will miss the Lord's salvation because of their dependency upon themselves.
In v.23 of today's passage we read, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"
The entry of anyone into heaven has always been determined by the word "knew." Of course, God knows all things. This was not what the Lord Jesus was talking about here. You see this type of knowing is actuated by our faith in Him. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we recognize Him as our Savior and He comes to live within us. The word "knew" reveals more than just awareness, it is used to denote personal involvement and relationship.
To those who lack faith in the Lord, the Lord Jesus will say, "depart from me." These will be those who "practice lawlessness." The word "practice" is key to understand here. This one word describes someone who habitually lives a lifestyle that is contrary to God's desire for them. These are those who sit on the throne of their own hearts and are not bothered by their sin. Sadly, these will spend their eternity in Hell separated from God and all that is good.
Now, let me make clear here, we all struggle with sin. But, for those who have a personal relationship with the Lord, their sin bothers them. In fact, a Christian doesn't "practice" or perpetually live in sin, though occasionally may fall into sin. A Christian is someone to whom sin clings and the non-christian is someone who clings to sin. The Lord Jesus was not describing somebody who struggles with sin here and there, He was describing a person who continually shuns the definitions of God in his life and who lacks personal relationship with Him.
