“Not everyone who calls out to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21 NLT)
In Mark 12 Jesus had a conversation with one of the teachers of religious law that ended with Jesus telling him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” So? It seems Jesus was implying we can be close, but still not be in His eternal Kingdom. Which begs the question: “How close are you?” “Are you ‘in’ or ‘out?”
Which perhaps raises another question I’ve been asked: “Can I really know I’m ‘IN,’ that I’m going to heaven when I die?” There were those in Scripture that cause me to rub my head in amazement when Jesus tells them they’re not “IN,” they’re not getting into His perfect heaven.
For example, in Mark 16:17 Jesus said: “These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons…” Yet, in Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus said: “On judgment day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’”
What are the implications? For one, we can believe with all our heart we’re going to heaven when in fact we are not. Does that frighten you? It terrifies me! Why? Because I don’t mind missing a lot of things, but I don’t want to miss heaven. But can’t we have assurance that we’re going to heaven? It depends on that upon which your “assurance” is based.
B.J. Thompson wrote: “Beware of any relationship that will not allow you to communicate your boundaries.” I thought about this quote in the context of the boundaries that Jesus sets for us that we want to ignore on our faith journey, that, quite possibly, have us living a lie. We see where the Bible clearly teaches 10 very specific “Commandments:” “You MUST NOT have any other god but Me. You MUST NOT make for yourself an idol of any kind…you MUST NOT bow down to them or worship them, for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.”
There are other “little things” like not misusing/misrepresenting the Lord’s Name, not observing the Sabbath, not honoring our parents, not murdering (hating) someone, not committing adultery (sexual sin), not stealing, not lying, and not coveting (look it up 😊). And these are in the Old Testament. Jesus magnified these “boundaries,” He didn’t minimize them. Yet, we think we can “bend” the rules because we now live under grace?
How long will your marriage last, or most any relationship for that matter, if you’re constantly lying, defiling, abusing, ignoring, and on it goes in ways we violate the Commandments the Lord has given us. “Yeh, but that was the Old Testament!” Oh, I forgot, does that not count? Are you out of your mind! Do you honestly believe God has changed His mind about those things?
This is too rich. Let’s pick this up in tomorrow’s post.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 