May 24, 2017
Jesus has talked about false prophets, now He is going to talk about false professors, those who claim to profess belief in Him, but whose lives lack the fruit to prove it. In Matthew 7, verses 21-23, Jesus addresses those who will claim to be His followers, but whose lives are really marked by lawlessness. They give Jesus lip-service, but all the while they live according to their own rules and standards. Rather than seeing Jesus as their sole source of salvation, they tend to view Him as nothing more than a model to follow – they use His life as a standard for their own behavior, but not as a means of being made right with God. According to Jesus, their professions regarding Him will be false. And the result will be His ultimate rejection of them. He will tell them, “I never knew you”. He will accuse them of doing works of lawlessness. All because they refused to do the will of God – to believe in Jesus Christ as their sin substitute and Savior. Knowing about Jesus is not the same thing as believing in Jesus. Doing good deeds in the name of Jesus is not the same as believing in the good news about Jesus.