Cliffhanger

"'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. Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."'" (Matthew 7:21-23) This is a scary passage for some. This is a scary passage, but it shouldn't be. I mean, let's just say there's a cliff over there and everybody's afraid of falling off. So what do you do? That's right. You don't go near the cliff. You stay as far away as possible. Right? This passage in Matthew is a cliff. Let me explain. There's a lot of talk about "Lord" in the above verses. (Check it out again.) Three times the reference is made. Then there's the mentioning of "Your name." Do you see that, too? Three more times "religious activities" take place "in the name" of Christ. (Look again.) But there's a problem with the people who say, "Lord," and use His name in the passage. They "practice lawlessness." And worse than that. They aren't "known" by Jesus. "I never knew you," He makes clear. Another way of putting it: These people don't have a relationship with God. They were doing spiritual things and calling Him, "Lord" (which denotes surrender to a sovereign) while the whole time their hearts remained in an unregenerate and unsubmissive to His will state. It is God's will that none should perish and that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) You don't do works for God to become right with God. You become right with God first (by faith), then you do works for God. So that's the cliff. And some of you reading this post at this very moment may be hanging over it by your fingertips? Time to climb back up, cliffhanger. (Romans 10:9-10; 2 Corinthians 5:17)