Lesson Seven: I Never Knew You
Devotion #1: A Quarter of an Inch
Pastor Ryan Story
There have been three verses that send a cold chill down my bones whenever I read them. While the entire Bible needs to be held with reverence, three verses have the ability to stop me in my tracks and begin to beg Jesus to forgive me for my prideful rebellion. Matthew 7:21-23 says, “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. 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.’” Jesus says that. Jesus, the loving Savior of repentant sinners, can be very frank. Jesus, the one who ate with tax collectors and adulterous women speaks of judgment too. Jesus, the one who said, “Let the children come to me,” (Matthew 19:14) does not overlook evil. Jesus, the perfect example of the love of God, told His followers (and us – because the Word of God has been preserved for 2000 years) that just because you say, “Lord, Lord,” or do amazing, indescribable things in His name, does not mean that He truly knows you.
I have a really bad habit of interjecting jokes or humor into serious situations. This is one of those moments. In the oddest correlation to a Bible verse I may have ever had, Gordon Bombay (yes, Emilio Estevez’s character in “The Mighty Ducks”) told one of his players about the time he missed the game-winning shot. In the movie, Gordon is haunted by a missed shot in his peewee hockey days. Gordon then tells the story to one of his players and says, “I go in, I triple deke. I fake the goalie right out of his pads. The puck is headed in, and then, Clang! Hits the post. We lost in overtime. A quarter of an inch this way, and it would have gone in. A quarter of an inch, Charlie.” I have always loved Charlie’s response in this scene. He says, “Yeah, but a quarter inch the other way, and you would have missed completely.” I have always loved this scene because Gordon’s mentality for so many years was focused on how little he missed, not the fact that he just barely missed the shot.
While grace is a major necessity for us to give and receive in life, “I missed by a quarter inch” is a dangerous metric to use in your relationship with Jesus. “I missed by a quarter inch” is not an acceptable metric when it comes to ensuring that your soul is saved by Jesus. It terrifies me that a person can be so spiritually self-unaware that they do not recognize the fact that a true relationship with Jesus is not something they have, despite doing “mighty works” in the name of Jesus. When Jesus says, “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20), He is telling us that Heaven, Earth, and Hell recognize a person by what they produce.
The question for us all is are we so focused on our works (our “missed by a quarter inch”) or are we focused on the work and person of Jesus. Do not miss.