Lesson Seven: I Never Knew You
Devotion #2: Answer in the Third Person
Patrick Bicknell
One of the gravest dangers that any of us can fall into is the idea that what we do will earn us entry into Heaven. It can be the faulty thinking that the number of hours we serve at Church, the times we read through the entire Bible, or what good works we do for people, even if it is in Jesus’ name, will give us merit to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus gives us the warning of what will happen to people who think this way when the final judgment comes. As Jesus wraps up the Sermon on the Mount, we get to a passage of Scripture that many people have described as the scariest passage in the Bible. Jesus makes it clear that on the last day, not everyone who says, “‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Some people have used this verse to mean that we can lose our salvation. They feel Jesus is going to arbitrarily decide who is going to Heaven and who is not. However, Jesus is making a clear distinction between those who are genuine followers of the Lord and those who merely just “say” they are followers of Jesus. If you look at the response of the people after Jesus says they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it is kind of interesting. Their justification for why they should get in is that they did so much in Jesus’ name. They prophesied, they cast out demons, and they did many mighty works. The issue with this reasoning is that those are not the reasons why we should get into Heaven. The reason alone for why we should get into Heaven is only through the finished work of Christ on the cross.
I listened to an amazing sermon by Alistair Begg in which he talked about this idea and said, “If you were to die tonight and were getting entry into Heaven, what would you say? If you answer it or if I answer it in the first person, we have immediately gone wrong.” He goes on to cite how people will say, “Because I have faith, because I believe, because I did this,” but the only proper answer is in the third person! It is because He died for me. Jesus is the only reason you or I will gain entry into Heaven.
I hope that this passage of Scripture does not discourage you, but rather encourages you to continue to trust in Jesus Christ alone for your entire salvation. We are given a great truth of our salvation in Romans 10:11, which says, “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’” If our faith, hope, belief, and life are in Jesus, then we should have no fear on that judgment day because we will be kept safe through what Jesus did for us on the cross.