“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.’” (Matthew 7:22-23 NLT)
It’s very easy to get caught up in our own goodness. Aside from following non-Christian religions that teach another way to a heaven (there’s only One way to the heaven of the Bible) through various human disciplines. Even within the Christian Faith it can be a small step to seeing ourselves as much better than we actually are.
We tend to think we’ve cleaned up our proverbial “act,” when we stop smoking, drinking, drugging, using profanity, or we turn from pornography, immorality, homosexuality, gossiping or whatever other form our transformation may take, and we start to feel really good about ourselves. And that’s not all bad, we should be happy with ourselves, but ultimately all glory, honor, and praise belong to our powerful God who made those changes possible.
Religion becomes dangerous when we take credit for what only God can do. Salvation from sin is wholly God. Our only contribution is our confession, repentance, and voluntary submission to His Lordship. Jesus did all the work for our salvation on the Cross and it’s only activated by faith in Him, never by our good works or our own efforts.
Ron Hutchcraft says it well when he writes: “Somehow, in the middle of lots of Christianity, it is possible to miss Christ. It’s possible to be very religious, very involved with Christian things, and to miss Jesus and to miss heaven! How does this happen? Jesus said that what these people missed was ‘doing the will of my Father in heaven.’ Well, in John 6:40, Jesus tells us exactly what that is. ‘My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.’ That’s what God the Father wants. That’s what He demands as the only way to get into heaven. It’s not doing Christian things or believing Christian beliefs or observing Christian rituals. It’s putting your total trust in His Son as your only hope of having eternal life.”
Have you made that decision? Have you yielded your life and allegiance to Jesus alone by faith alone? You may have attended church your whole life, live a very moral life, serve and are active in a great church, but if you’ve never opened your heart and life to the Lordship of Jesus, you won’t be going to heaven (see verse at top of the page).
We can do a lot of very impressive things, miraculous things, but with the wrong motive, and we gain nothing. Do you know that Satan can also perform miracles? In 2 Corinthians 11:12ff Paul speaks of false apostles who are “deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.” Their deliberate aim is deception and there are many who fill the pulpits of the world who fit this description. Then Paul shares this insightful statement: “But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
And that’s another very real danger when we shift from simple faith in the completed work of Christ on the Cross and start keeping score of all the ways we’re contributing to our own goodness. It’s a short step to seeing ourselves as our own “savior,” and allowing Satan to deceive us into believing we’re truly born again when in reality we’re frauds, fakes, and pretenders. Please don’t let that happen to you.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 