Matthew 7:22-23
“Some want to live within the sound of Church or chapel bells; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” - - C.T Studd
Matthew 7:22-23
“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.”
This has been referred to as the most terrifying passage of scripture and for good reason. Often times in our American Christianity our comfortability leads to forgetting the reality of the consequences and severity that is our nature of sin and our fallenness. In an age of affirmation, we fall into the temptation of believing that our works are the causation of our standing before the Lord and not in reality a measure of fruit. The terrifying reality that Christ reveals in this passage is the God that we serve is one who see’s the heart of every man. And by heart, God see’s our thoughts, our temptations, our hatred, our lust, our lies….He see’s it all. Our sin nature so infects our reality as human that we must be weary and cautious of even our “good deeds;” for good deed’s apart from a saving knowledge of Christ are done under the state of damnation. For the road to hell is paved with “good intentions.” As we examine this passage, we see that not only are the things called out by Christ expressed by others good deed’s but in fact spiritual gifts; and yet our Lord declares depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
John makes it clear in his epistles that no one is without sin and to claim as a Christian you are without sin makes yourself and God a liar. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and this is not a fear of danger but a respect for a Holy God that is unblemished and all knowing. As true God fearing Christians, we understand that every sin, whether intentional or “natural”, required this same God to send His one and only Son to this damned earth to suffer and die and then bear the very wrath that we who KNOW Him deserve. This is an unfathomable love that will take all of eternity for us to grasp. Even a fraction of this understanding granted by the Holy Spirit is designed in perfect sovereignty to draw us to our knees in repentance and obedience. An obedience and repentance driven by the knowledge that our Savior, Lord, King and by grace friend, suffered and died to bring me under His righteousness. A repentance that is not an acknowledged “sorry” for being caught or found out; but a hatred for the very sin we fall victim to in the weakness and warfare of our flesh. A weakness that caused our Savior to be torn and stretched naked with nails limb by limb.
This applies even more so to those of us in public service that call ourselves Christians. The spiritual battles we engage with in every call for service starts internally with our own salvation and flesh. Our very world fell from the temptation of sensuality presented in the form of food, how foolish are we today to minimize the countless strongholds placed intentionally around us by the world, the devil, or ourselves. As stated before, we cannot do this walk alone and this is a call for accountability to each other and ourselves. No one is beyond grace while they are still breathing, repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
John 14:15-17
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him or knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with You and will be in You.”
Proverbs 21:2-3
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”
“Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.” – John Calvin
James Doyle 6L13 ~December 2023~