2 Dec 2014
Matthew 7:21
Matthew 7:21: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
And what is the will of the Father? To believe in Jesus. To repent of one’s sins and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. That is God’s will. Those who do that will be saved, and those who don’t will be lost. There is no middle ground.
There are many people who call Jesus Lord, but who have something deeply wrong with their theology. Islam honors Jesus as a prophet but not as God. Mormonism believes that Jesus is a man who eventually became God through good works. Jehovah’s Witness deny the bodily resurrection and the Trinity. Although these may call Jesus Lord, their teachings are heretical and false, and they will be lost. They may claim many marvelous works, but it will not matter in the end.
What will matter is what they did with Jesus. Did they accept the real Jesus – the Biblical Jesus? Or did they create their own counterfeit Jesus? It is vital for us to understand that a counterfeit Jesus cannot save you.
The other thing we must realize is that it is not enough to call Jesus “Lord”; Jesus must actually be our Lord. We must give Him more than mere lip service; we have to give Him our very lives. Those who call Jesus “Lord” but who refuse to obey Him and instead lead lives of grievous sin are not Christians at all. Those who forsake righteousness and holiness in order to pursue lives of utter depravity and wickedness are not Christians no matter what they claim. Genuine repentance produces the fruits of the Spirit; if the fruits of the Spirit are absent then the Spirit is absent as well.