Saturday, January 29, 2022

Sermon on the Mount - Part 23

Today I want to look at verses 21-23 of chapter 7, once again focusing on who Jesus was speaking to, and on the context of the entire message.

Matthew 7:21-23

(21)“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. (22) 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?’ (23) And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

There are some interesting things going on in these verses. First, it appears Jesus is setting Himself up as the doorkeeper to heaven when He says "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, " and again when He says, "depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."  I wonder how each group in the crowd took these words. Surely this is not how the other leaders taught. Maybe that is part of the reason the crowds were astonished at the authority level in His teaching. 

Next, He reaffirms the theme that just calling Him Lord is not enough. You have to follow that up with action. It's not that the action saves you, but action is a result of true belief. If I really believed that something bad would happen to me if I walked out the front door, I would go out the back. Action follows belief. It is a result, and not a cause. I think about the many who answer altar calls of various types today, and walk away with the idea they are saved. As much as I know and believe it is grace and not works that saves us, saving grace does seem to carry with it a change of life that causes one to be sold out to Jesus. How many in the crowd that day thought that their calling Him Lord and doing all of the others things that they did to fill their religious obligations was what assured their salvation? They might say things like, "But Jesus, I prophesied for you, I healed the sick in your name, and did so much other neat and cool stuff, what do I get? Nothing? That hardly seems fair!" But it is not about their efforts, it is about accepting His effort, which takes us back to the whole idea of humility and all of the other behaviors listed in the beatitudes. These are the results of salvation, and not the cause of salvation. You can't manufacture these feelings, can you? Which begs the question, can we choose to be saved? I don't really want to get into that right now, nor do I even feel I know the answer without doubt. But I do believe it is something that deserves to be wrestled with honestly. If that is even possible.

I have heard people say that this is one of the scariest verses in the Bible, and I think that it can be. We should be concerned that all of our efforts might still be in vain. So I think about who Jesus is speaking to, and what He is trying to say. He is speaking to people who were obsessed with their works rather than His work for them. He is telling them, it is not about what you do, nor is there anything you can do to save yourself. Period. Yet when we see and understand what God has done for us through His grace and mercy, there must be some kind of response. We rely on grace, and we respond as imperfect beings to that grace. Didn't Paul address this idea in Romans 6:1-2? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 

So we end up in this quandary,  to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must do the will of the Father (Vs 21), but we are not saved by our works, it is a gift! (Vs 22-23) So here is my conclusion: works are not the will of the Father. So what is? Faith in Jesus His Son is. But that faith, if merely to escape hell, is not faith in Jesus. (Real faith is accompanied by a change of life that is real and evident. James 1:22-25; James 2:14-17) James 2:18 says, Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

My prayer for today is to have that kind of change in my life. Not the change of trying to get to heaven by my own effort, but the change that comes from knowing and understanding the effort that Christ has done for me.

Edited 2/14/2022

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