Sunday I read Matthew chapter 7, and I’ve been thinking about it all day yesterday and today–especially verses 13-29:
Mat 7:13-29 NASB
(13) “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
(14) “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
(15) “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
(16) “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
(17) “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
(18) “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
(19) “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
(20) “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
(21) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
(22) “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
(23) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
(24) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
(25) “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
(26) “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
(27) “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell–and great was its fall.”
(28) When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;
(29) for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
My Ryrie study Bible put a section header at the top of this passage. They called it “The Proof of the Kingdom.” That’s a good way of putting it.
You see, this passage is the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. All throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5-7) Jesus tells people how they are expected to live if they are going to be part of the Kingdom of God. But in this passage He swaps focus and starts telling them how to know whether or not they’re in the Kingdom.
There is so much that could be said about these verses, but the part that’s the most fascinating to me is verses 21-23:
Mat 7:21-23 NASB
(21) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
(22) “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
(23) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
I read this and I thought, “Wow, Jesus, that’s really harsh.”
But then I started to think about and I realized that there are really two classes of Christians.
The first class are the ones who claim to be Christian, but their actions don’t support their claim. The second class are the ones who claim to be Christian, and their actions do support their claim. Let me give a very simple illustration to put it all in perspective.
I could claim to be an astronaut. It would be pretty simple to pull off the claim. I know a little bit about space and astronomy, and I even know a little bit about astronaut training. To the average person I could, with a little work, persuade them that I either am an astronaut or that I was one at one point in my life. I could even watch shows about space regularly, talk about space a lot, and go to the planetarium every weekend. Of course, my claim to be an astronaut would still be completely false, because the American Heritage Dictionary defines an astronaut as being “A person trained to pilot, navigate, or otherwise participate as a crew member of a spacecraft.” Little old me has never done that, so I guess I’m not an astronaut, no matter how much I claim to be.
Jesus makes the same point. You can call yourself a Christian, but if you’re not showing the fruits (verse 16) then you’re not a Christian. You see, believing that a man named Jesus lived and died does not–in itself–make you a Christian any more than believing in space makes me an astronaut.
Now, before anyone gets mad at me, let me say this: I firmly believe that we are saved by grace through faith, apart from works (cf. Eph. 2:8-10; Rom. 4:1-8). But I also believe that true belief manifests itself in a changed lifestyle. Look at how James, the half-brother of Jesus, put it:
Jam 2:17-18; 26 NASB
(17) Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
(18) But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
(26) For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Of course, all of this is really interesting, but a lot of people don’t understand why faith manifests itself in works. They understand that it does, of course. They understand that when people are truly saved their lifestyle changes. But they don’t understand why. It’s a source of endless debates. Now I could explain it by throwing around a whole lot of theological terms like justification, sanctification, regeneration, and all the other “ations,” but that would just overcomplicate things. I’ll explain it in a way that I think is really simple and straightforward.
My explanation is this: It’s all about believing that Jesus is God.
The key part of that statement is the “God” part. I’ll come back to that in a moment, but first let me say this: A person can intellectually believe that there was a historical man named Jesus, and that He lived a good life and that He died. Some might even believe that, by some twist of fate or supernatural action, He came out of the grave after lying there for three days. Does this make them a Christian? No. The reason is that they do not accept that Jesus is God.
What makes someone a Christian is their belief that Jesus is God and their acceptance of Him as Lord and Savior of their life. Like John said:
Joh 1:12-13 NASB
(12) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
(13) who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
See what John said? “To those who believe in His name.” What’s His name?
Mat 1:21-23 NASB
(21) “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
(22) Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
(23) “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”
His Name is “God with us.”
The upshot of all of this is that when we accept Jesus as God then that means that He gets all the rights and privileges of God (the very first privilege being that He gets to be the boss).
He’s the biggest fish in the pond.
The toughest dog in the kennel.
He’s the ultimate Big Cheese.
So what makes a Christian a Christian is not just their belief in Him intellectually, but their willingness to receive Him as Lord. When we do that we recognize that we no longer live for ourselves. Like Paul said, we realize that we have been “bought with a price” (1 Co. 6:20). Since we’ve been bought with a price, and since we’ve accepted Jesus as boss, we now give ourselves over as His servants (Rom. 6:16-20).
In short, we live like we do because we’ve received Him as God, resulting in our salvation.
And, in giving ourselves to Him completely, we find the only true freedom.
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