Today’s Sunday message threw me way back in time (mentally, of course) when I was leading an office Bible study. It was the same text, Matthew 7:21-23:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

I still remember the forlorn look on a participant’s face at that Bible study. He said, “So I’m not doing the will of God. Does that mean I’m going to hell?”

I don’t recall how I responded and what happened to that young fellow. But today’s Sunday message by Pastor Chad put my thinking about this passage into perspective.

This passage can be misunderstood to mean that salvation is by works. That is, if you want to go to Heaven, do what God says.

But elsewhere it is clear that salvation if by faith, not works (e.g., John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9). So how can we reconcile this with the Matthew passage?

I used to worry that hey, I’m not doing the will of God all the time. I have my bouts of succumbing to temptation, said things I shouldn’t have, lost my temper when I should be gracious. Does that mean my salvation is dubious? That Jesus will tell me in my face, “I never knew you, Nelson!” ?

I am grateful that Pastor Chad put this passage to context. It is to be understood from the Kingdom paradigm of the Sermon on the Mount.

Briefly said, the Sermon does not tell us how to be “saved”, but outlines the values of the Kingdom and how someone already in the Kingdom (i.e., saved) is to live.

The point of Matthew 7:21-23 is that the evidence one is a Kingdom citizen is obedience, not the spectacular. One is obedient not in order to enter the Kingdom, but because one belongs in the Kingdom.

The chilling inference is that one can really do the spectacular – prophesy, cast out demons, perform miracles – and still be en route to hell!

The archetype is Judas Iscariot. From Matthew 10:1, we know that Jesus gave His his twelve disciples “the authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” Does that include Judas? Verse 4 says so and even specified him as “who betrayed [Jesus]”.

So we can imagine Judas also going around casting out demons and such. But we all know what happened to him in the end.

Summary: The Kingdom values obedience, not what the world would consider as spectacular. The Jews at Jesus’ time looked for signs (John 4:48, 1 Corinthians 1:22) and sadly, so do many people today.

But the Kingdom way, the beautiful way, is to display the fruits of love, purity, humility, faith, and wisdom.

Now THAT would be truly spectacular!