Not Everyone Who Says “Lord, Lord”

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 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; Leave Me, You who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:21–23).[1]

Those words from the Son of God must be among the most sobering in all of Scripture, as He projects us into the future and offers us a preview of the final judgment.

A Chilling Discovery

Jesus predicts that many will arrive at the judgment expecting commendation, only to be shocked and horrified to find themselves condemned. This is a severe warning. Yet it is also a gracious one. Jesus issues these stern words so that we will not be among the many condemned on the last day.

This warning, however, can be woefully misunderstood, leading to needless concerns. So let us dispel a couple of unfounded concerns that this warning is not meant to create.
This warning does not mean that full assurance of salvation is impossible in this life before the Day of Judgment. Full assurance of salvation is attainable in this life (Rom. 8:31–39) and should be sought. It is the Christian’s duty to seek it rather than rest in anything short of it (2 Pet. 1:10).

This warning does not mean that the assurance of salvation is an unclear or confusing doctrine. This text is scary, and rightly so. But for some people, it is scary for the wrong reason. A believer can be unnecessarily disturbed by this warning and robbed of assurance, living in fear that he will not pass safely through the judgment because of some minor technicality—as though he failed to read the fine print.

There is no fine print with Jesus. When it comes to what we must do to be saved and the assurance of salvation, He has put everything in bold (1 Jn. 5:13). He has no desire or design to trick people so He can have a good laugh at the judgment: “Surprise, surprise! You only thought you were saved!”

It is pastoral malpractice to preach and apply this warning with a sadistic intent to undermine the assurance of those who have every reason to look forward to the last day as the final installment of their salvation (1 Pet. 1:5–7).

Then what is this warning for?

Empty Confessions Will Be Revealed

The crowd Jesus describes openly and boldly claims Him as their Lord, but their confession is empty and is ultimately revealed to be a sham.

I recall the first time I squarely faced these solemn words. They stripped away my false assurance as an unregenerate church member and led to my conversion. That was several decades ago, but the truth of this text remains a warning to many who are in the spiritual state I once was—those with an empty profession of faith who live under the damning delusion that they are prepared to stand before the Son of God. If they do not face the truth of their condition with judgment-day honesty, they will hear these awful words from the Son of God: “Depart from me.”

If there is any aspect of this warning that is clear, it is this: a confession of Christ that is bold and zealous is not enough to ensure safety at the judgment.

Evangelical Compliance Will Be Recognized

Jesus says that only those whose confession of Him as Lord is accompanied by doing
the will of Father will enter the kingdom at the judgment.

But what is the will of the Father? In this instance, is it that we repudiate efforts to save ourselves by our own good works and humbly receive His Son’s perfect and impeccable righteousness for pardon and acceptance? In the context of this sermon (Matt. 5–7), “the will of the Father” is the righteousness required by the Old Testament’s moral precepts — our duty to obey His commandments.

Practical Righteousness

Backing up a bit, we hear Jesus declare,

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! (Matt. 5:17–18).

Skipping the precise and full meaning of “fulfill,” we understand enough to know that Christ came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets by fulfilling their promises and predictions concerning Himself (Lk. 24:25–27). Many of those prophecies have already been fulfilled in His first advent. He is presently fulfilling Old Testament prophecies (Isa. 42:1–4), and some prophecies remain to be fulfilled at His second advent, when the present heaven and earth will pass away. Furthermore, the Son of God has fulfilled the righteous requirements of God’s law through His sinless life and by satisfying the demands of the broken law, thereby rescuing His people from condemnation.

But Jesus also affirms the abiding authority of the Old Testament in ethics, declaring it the rule of life in the kingdom of heaven. For He continues by saying that

Whoever then annuls even the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:19).

Note that our Lord is not speaking of His fulfilling the commandments on our behalf, but rather of our obedience to them.

But is Jesus doing this merely to show us how far we fall short, so that we might abandon our efforts to keep the commandments and cast ourselves upon His mercy to receive His obedience by faith? Not hardly. Christ goes so far as to say that rank in the kingdom of heaven is determined by one’s actual obedience to the commandments and by his “earnest inculcation of such observance on the part of others.”[2] The practical righteousness of daily kingdom life is in view, not the righteousness of Christ imputed to the sinner and received by faith.

This is further confirmed by the fact that Jesus begins the sermon by delineating the moral qualities that characterize the godly (Matt. 5:3–11). This list, which pronounces blessedness on those who possess these characteristics, is not meant to lead us to conclude that no one can be described in this way except Jesus Himself. These virtues paint an accurate portrait of Old Testament saints, such as the prophets, whose moral light led to their persecution (Matt. 5:10–12). Yes, some people actually live this way—genuine members of the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, when the Son of God says that only those who do “the will of the Father” will enter the kingdom at the judgment, He is describing those who keep God’s commandments in their daily lives and truly live that way.

Phony Righteousness

After affirming that He did not come to abolish the ethics of the Old Testament, Jesus declares, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).

It is understandable if our reflex reaction to this is, “I am thankful that I am robed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Only His righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.” True. We will not enter the kingdom of heaven without Christ’s perfect righteousness, which is imputed to us and received by faith alone. And to say that Christ’s perfect righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees is an understatement. But Christ’s righteousness imputed to the believing sinner is not in view in verse 20 any more than it is in verse 19. Practical righteousness in daily kingdom life is still in view.

At this point in the sermon, Jesus contrasts the practical righteousness required by Old Testament Scripture with the phony righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, which was based on rabbinic tradition that had buried the true intent and full extent of God’s law under a mountain of twisted interpretations of Old Testament ethics.

Perverted Interpretations

From there, in verses 21–48, Jesus uses the formula “You have heard . . . but I say to you” several times. “You have heard” refers not to the Old Testament but to rabbinic tradition. This is clear when Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Matt. 5:43). The Old Testament does indeed require loving one’s neighbor. But search the Old Testament, and you will never find a hint, much less a command, to hate your enemy—quite the opposite. Leviticus 19:18, which requires love for one’s neighbor, is preceded by a command not to hate one’s enemy (Lev. 19:17).

Therefore, “but I say to you” is not Jesus versus Moses, offering us a higher, more spiritual ethic than the Old Testament requires; far from it. Christ’s command to love our enemies by praying for them (Matt. 5:44), along with other similar commands in the New Testament, is in complete harmony with the Old Testament (Prov. 25:21–22; Rom. 12:19–21).

Rabbinic tradition, embraced and promoted by the scribes and Pharisees, had corrupted the intent and scope of Old Testament ethics by reducing obedience to mere external conformity to the commandments (Matt. 5:27) and by limiting the full scope of their application to the grossest sins (Matt. 5:21–22).

Therefore, in this part of the sermon, Christ is restoring God’s law to its original intent and scope by teaching that:

1. The commandments are also meant to regulate the hidden desires of the heart (Matt. 5:28). We are to be as concerned and diligent about our hearts as we are about our outward behavior (Matt. 5:29–30).
2. The commandments condemn all outward actions, even the “less serious” ones that violate the spirit of God’s law (Matt. 5:22). They also guide us in the practical aspects of life (Matt. 5:23–24), and we are to be as concerned about these areas as we are about gross sin (Matt. 5:25–26).

The Old Testament required all of this. Jesus is teaching nothing new.

Perverted Intentions

Our Lord continues to expose the scribes’ and Pharisees’ phony righteousness by instructing His disciples not to practice their righteousness—their acts of religious devotion and benevolence—in order to be seen by others, but to do so inconspicuously, seeking to please their heavenly Father, and by promising that He “sees what is done in secret and will reward you” (Matt. 6:1–18).

Is Jesus setting forth true religious devotion to make us throw up our hands in despair because we cannot do these things without sin, so that we will cast ourselves upon Him who did them perfectly on our behalf? This is manifestly not the case for several reasons.
First, Jesus motivates His disciples to do what He prescribes. There is not the slightest hint that He is doing anything other than that.

Second, in light of the context, the reward Jesus promises for faithfulness in these matters will certainly be bestowed at the judgment, when He grants entrance into the eternal state of the kingdom.

Third, Jesus is fully aware that none of His disciples is completely free from the sin of spreading his feathers so that others will think highly of his piety. This is why, in this section of the sermon on how to pray, He instructs them to pray for pardon.

That petition in the Lord’s Prayer is especially significant. Perhaps more than any other statement in the sermon, it reveals that the righteousness surpassing that of the scribes and Pharisees is not the perfect, sinless righteousness that the naked law requires in a covenant of works. Rather, it is evangelical righteousness—that practical righteousness born of faith in Christ and flowing from a regenerate heart, sincere yet flawed by remaining sin.

A survey of the Old Testament shows that this genuine, though flawed, religious devotion has characterized all true saints. It is indispensable to doing the Father’s will and will characterize all who enter the kingdom on the last day.

In summary, “the will of the Father” in Matthew 7:21 refers to the righteous life that distinguishes true members of the kingdom from those who merely confess Christ as Lord. This is the central focus of the sermon.

But wait just a minute. Isn’t this works-righteousness salvation, in which we somehow merit entry into the kingdom at the judgment through self-effort?

If anything is made clear in Scripture, it is that salvation is entirely of grace and apart from works (Eph. 2:8–9). No one is justified before God by law-keeping (Rom. 3:20). The Apostle Paul declares his determination not to have a righteousness of his own based on law-keeping, but to be found in Christ, clothed with a righteousness that comes from God (Phil. 3:9). The gates of the kingdom do not swing on the hinges of human merit.

Precious hymns capture this soul-liberating truth of the gospel.

This is all my hope and plea,
That Jesus hath lived and died for me!
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Yet Scripture also reveals that the final judgment will be according to works. One text that states this as clearly as any other is Ecclesiastes 12:13–14:

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

• • The scope of the judgment will be every act.
  • The standard for judgment will be God’s commandments.
  • The specificity of judgment is that it will include hidden things, those done in private, concealed from the eyes of men, and the secret motives of the heart.

Jesus teaches judgment according to works (Matt. 16:27; Jn. 5:28–29), affirming its scope when He says we will be judged for our speech: “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36–37). Our Lord’s Apostles teach judgment according to works (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Pet. 1:17), affirming the specificity of the judgment at the Lord’s return, when He “will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor. 4:5).

How, then, can salvation be entirely of grace through faith apart from works, and yet Scripture repeatedly teaches that the final judgment will be according to works? There is no contradiction. Judgment according to works in no way undermines salvation by grace alone. On the contrary, there is a beautiful harmony between the two that helps us make sense of this text. The two are harmonized by a promised righteousness, a procured righteousness, and a proven righteousness.

Promised Righteousness

Central to the predictions of the Law and the Prophets is the promise of the New Covenant—not only that the Lord will forgive the sins of His people through the blood of Christ (Jer. 31:34; Matt. 26), but also that He will place His law within them and inscribe it on their hearts (Jer. 31:33).

From the very beginning, when God revealed His moral law through Moses, His design was that obedience to His law would flow from hearts that love Him. He promised that a day would come when this purpose of the Law would be fulfilled, when He would circumcise the hearts of His people (Deut. 30:6). Philip S. Ross writes:

According to the Shema (Deut. 6:6), God always intended that the law be internalized in the hearts of his people. Indeed, if they were to obey that command to love the LORD with all their heart and with all their soul, they needed his direct operation upon their hearts (Deut. 30:6). Jesus promotes this agenda with his definition of the first and great commandment (Matt. 22:37), in his frequent pinpointing of the heart as the source of Israel’s moral failure and covenant breaking (Matt. 13:14–15; 15:18–19), and in his exposition of the law as a matter of whole-hearted obedience (Matt. 5:21–48).[3]

This is the gospel blessing of regeneration—the New Birth (Jn. 3:1–8)—promised by the prophet Ezekiel.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances (Ezek. 36:26–27)

All of God’s New Covenant people have a new heart in which the Spirit dwells, empowering them to obey His laws. We find a New Testament counterpart to this promise when the Apostle Paul, immediately after writing that we are saved by grace and by faith apart from works, balances that statement by writing, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

All who are united to Christ by faith are both justified and sanctified (1 Cor. 1:31; 6:11). The two cannot be separated. A person cannot be justified by faith alone and remain untransformed. The final judgment will reveal those who have tragically separated them, not merely in doctrine but in practice.

Procured Righteousness

Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount as the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:6), the One who came to fulfill that promise—not only by teaching its true meaning and application, but also by dying to secure this moral blessing for His people, redeeming us “from every lawless deed” and transforming us into people who are “zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). By His death, Jesus procured the work of the indwelling Spirit so that “the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4–5).

When we stand before Christ in judgment, the evidence that we are those for whom He died is that the purpose of His redemptive work has been fulfilled in us.

Proven Righteousness

Though we are justified by faith alone, Scripture also speaks of justification in another sense—vindication or demonstration, as James uses the term when he says Abraham was “justified by works” for offering his son Isaac on the altar (Jam. 2:21). In this context, James contrasts dead faith with living faith (Jam. 2:18–26). The one with dead faith believes the right things and may even loudly profess trust in Christ alone, yet has no works to accompany that faith. Thus, Abraham was justified by works in that he demonstrated the genuineness of his faith through obedience to God’s command.

The one with living faith not only believes and professes trust in Christ alone. Good works accompany that profession. The faith that is the instrumental means by which a sinner receives the gift of Christ’s righteousness is a particular kind of faith—a living faith. Living faith in Christ is a faith that works through love (Gal. 5:13).

Good works validate our profession of faith. They show that we are the real thing rather than false—not only in this life, as with Abraham, but also at the final judgment (Rom. 2:6–13).

We must conclude, then, that the many who are denied entrance into the kingdom, as our Lord predicts, lack the kingdom’s practical righteousness. That is the issue at hand. This becomes even clearer as we consider the rest of the text.

Extraordinary Capabilities will be Rejected

No small part of their shock is that they arrive at the judgment with a plethora of remarkable works.

Their Protest

They protest their rejection by appealing to Jesus, citing everything they had done in His name:

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?” (Matt 7:22)

Their Problem

Jesus describes them as those “who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). Lawlessness means they lived contrary to God’s law. He shines the light on their character and manner of life, not on misplaced trust in their works rather than in Him. They are living immoral lives—living in sin. Jesus’ command for them to “leave” Him echoes Psalm 6:8: “Leave me, all you who practice injustice.”[4] The Psalmist’s desire is not that those void of imputed righteousness depart from him, but that those actually living unjust and wicked lives depart.

The promises of the gospel provide the rich soil in which the assurance of salvation sprouts and grows. Yet, Scripture also teaches that keeping God’s commandments is the tangible fruit of salvation, confirming that our faith in these promises is genuine (1 Jn. 2:3–4, 5:1–4; 2 Pet. 1:5–11). The fatal error of this crowd is basing their assurance of salvation on spiritual gifts and usefulness rather than on evangelical obedience to the Father’s will. Scripture nowhere teaches that spiritual gifts and usefulness in Christ’s name are evidence of one’s salvation and preparedness for judgment.

A Challenging Downpour

That lawless lives are their tragic mistake is further confirmed by an illustration our Lord uses to drive this point home to the consciences of his listeners.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears the words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall (Matt. 7:24–27).

A Strong Foundation

It is understandable to interpret the image of the wise builder who constructs his house on the rock as depicting one who endures life’s storms because he has built his life on the solid rock of Christ. That is indeed a blessed truth of Scripture; the imagery lends itself to that, but it is not the point of this illustration. Verse 24 begins with “therefore,” pointing us back to what He has just said: the challenging downpour is the coming Day of Judgment. The point is that those who are prepared for that great and final day are those who have wisely acted on Christ’s words—they obeyed His words in all the ways He set forth in this sermon.

A Sand Foundation

The foolish builder who constructs a house on the sand does not act on Christ’s words but is nevertheless deceived into believing he is prepared to stand before Him at the judgment. This is confirmed in another instance and stated even more plainly when Jesus uses the same illustration after asking, “Now why do you call Me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not what I say?” (Lk. 6:46–48). Again, the issue and focus of Jesus’ concern in the text is practical obedience to the Father’s will as expressed in His commandments.

It comes down to this: Jesus is offered to sinners in the gospel not only as Priest to atone for our sins but also as Prophet to teach us God’s will and as King to subdue our rebellious hearts, making us His obedient subjects in the kingdom (Acts 5:30–31; Heb. 5:9). At the final judgment, Christ will openly and unashamedly claim as His own those who embrace Him in His threefold office as Mediator of the New Covenant. This is what the “many” fail to do, and it will be revealed at the judgment.

In a follow-up article, I will address the question: How does this happen to a person? I will also offer several antidotes to prevent such a tragedy.

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[1] All Scripture quotations are from the NASB 1995 (Lockman Foundation).

[2] John Murray, Principles of Conduct: Aspects of Biblical Ethics (Chicago: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1957), 154.

[3] Philip Ross, From the Finger of God: The Biblical and Theological Basis for the Threefold Division of the Law (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2010), 203.

[4] It seems that Jesus might be quoting a verse. In investigating this, ChatGPT suggested Psalm 8:6.