Earning Salvation

“Away from me I never knew you” Matthew 7:23

This is one of the most fear inducing pieces of scripture and yet the most revealing of the true heart of God. A God who longs to know us; to know His creation, His sons, His daughters, His children.

Yet, I can't help but feel crushed at the thought of hearing these words spoken by the Father.

For some of you, these words don't feel too foreign, and the words of your own earthly father seem to ring in thought as you read this passage. Stirring wounds that never quite healed and bringing questions to the mind that build walls to medicate the piercing pain that irritates the flesh.

Some of you know nothing of this level of rejection, and the mere idea of it seems incomprehensible. Therefore, in ignorance you choose to remain, hiding away from this truth by the voice of fear and shame that makes you wonder if maybe God will say this to you.

Whatever the case I can assure you we all bring our own bias and experience into our study of the word of God.

My encouragement today is to sit with it, meditate on it, breathe in these words from the book of life. I ask that the Father unveil our eyes to hear the words of love spoken through this passage.

“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?”

And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, You who practice lawlessness” - Matthew 7:22-23

How could God say this to people so clearly living out the words He commanded? Weren’t these people trying there best to obey? It seems as though they were, they cast out demons, perform miracles, and preach the Gospel, yet they will be denied salvation; eternal peace and perfection.

Why? Is He not a God of mercy? A God of grace? A God of love?

Then why?

“I never knew you.” There are many amongst the fellowship of our Church who know and do and speak the language of a good Christian. Those in the body, those who work within the church, and those who even go on mission around the world. Yet, there will be many that do not know how to be honest, real, raw, or humble. They choose a life to masquerade with a stature of perfection, an impenetrable wall that not even God Himself is deemed worthy to see. A wall built by shame, bondage, and sin. This wall that is the very evil our God hates. The wall that separates love, relationship, and truth from entering in.

Truth is that empty words and empty actions are evidence of an empty heart.

Our actions mean nothing if our heart is not open. Our giftings, our influence, our leadership become nothing less than a means to an awful, terrible end if we are not enslaved to the very essence of the Gospel. The Gospel that speaks to the broken, sinful, fleshly nature of humanity; the complete sin drenched depravity of every human being, and reaches down in it, to one humbly broken heart, and revives life through Grace found at the foot of the cross where a Savior’s blood drips and pours to wash it clean and make it new. A Gospel that restores relationship with the Father so we may live in light of our weaknesses and not be ashamed for in our weakness we boast all the more in the power of our all forgiving, all adoring, all redeeming Christ. (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

He doesn’t ask for much, only that we let Him know us so He can do the rest for us.

Some of you want to earn it all, prove it all, gain it all. I also often find that I too want this. But what do we do when the one gift that exceeds every other gift in the world, is the only gift that is obtained when we stop trying to earn it?

The answer to that question can only be found in our unique journey in seeking to know and be known by Christ.

God reminds me often that the first step is always a little clunky, scary, and at times gross, right before the clearing.