Matthew 7:21 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 7:21

Comments

(Synoptics: Matthew 7:21-23) The great lesson here is the danger of presumption over our relationship with Christ and our eternal future. He has urged his hearers to enter into the kingdom of heaven whatever difficulties they meet with; he has warned them of false teachers who will devour them; and now he warns against a superficial approach to God. There will always be some who imagine that God has blessed them and given them life but who have not truly submitted to him as Lord. This was a particular danger for the Jews, who were convinced that the entire nation was in God’s favour. Their national covenant, they believed, gave them certain privileges, and convinced many that they belonged to God by birth. But this is not just for every Jew; it is addressed to the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees. Christ teaches that there is a distinctive difference between believer and unbeliever. What he has said about entering in needs to be taken very seriously. This language may well have left his hearers reeling. There are so many deeply significant assumptions packed into it. There is a kingdom of heaven to be entered and all who do not enter are lost eternally. There is a day coming when the fitness of each person to enter that kingdom will be considered individually. On that day, the one who will decide where we spend eternity will be the one now standing before them and warning them. They will know then that he is Lord over all. The Greek is Kurios, and the word is used to translate the Old Testament name for God, Jehovah, whenever the Hebrew is quoted in the Greek. Christ unhesitatingly teaches that it is right for men to regard him as Lord, Sovereign Ruler over all, a title that can only belong to God. Some on that day will plead with him for their souls, and realise that he is the one who decides their eternal future. He will not be satisfied with any superficial response that simply uses his title correctly, even though that is what he is. He will test every claim to submission to his Lordship by the obedience of the heart. He has perfect knowledge of the record of every human life. He does not simply listen to the sound of men’s voice, but reads their innermost thoughts. No obedience is real which does not come from the heart and start with true submission to Christ’s lordship. The Father has made known how human beings ought to life, and no submission expressed with the mouth can substitute for obedience to the Father’s will. The essential mark of discipleship is obedience, and there are no true disciples who lack this vital distinguishing characteristic. As the Lord has already said, words cost little and are easily uttered. If a person calls Christ ‘Lord’ it means nothing unless they also live as if he is Lord, or else it is an empty sound. There are false disciples as well as true. All this is said in these few words.The words used by this individual may have been used throughout life; they were probably found frequently on his lips and used easily and confidently, but nevertheless thoughtlessly. The repetition suggests an urgency which is anxious to gain the Lord’s attention and convince him of something of supreme importance, but the speaker does not know who he is dealing with. He has underestimated God’s scrutiny of his life; he has failed to grasp the perfect holiness of God. He imagines he can come to God as a sinner without his sin first being dealt with.

Application

Those who have oversight of local churches need to discern the counterfeit Christian, who will always be present, and especially in the end times. Some will have an experience of God which is quite false. Certain forms of evangelism are almost guaranteed to produce some of these: preaching which minimises sin, is high on emotion, or fails to present God in his glory as the holy one on high. No doubt many earnest people will join at the same time, but there are others we have to rescue. They are convinced only at an intellectual level, but they have never been convicted of sin and seen themselves as lost. We do not want to confirm the deluded in their self-deception. The evangelist has to preach the law to bring under conviction; he has to lay out the standard of holiness to which the gospel calls us; but he has to teach that salvation is through grace alone by faith without works. How terrible to be those who are found on the last day to have built only wood hay and stubble.

True believers strive to do God’s will. They strive and fail and want to do better, and they see themselves as God’s slaves. The false believe addresses Christ with presumption. He is untroubled about his soul. He imagines he acknowledges authority of God, yet he does not obey Christ. They fail to believe Christ’s analysis of their lives. If you live and die like that, you are eternally lost. The cruellest thing that the preacher can do is to say nothing to you. There is a tremendous difference between the converted Christian and the nominal believer. It is a gulf as wide as heaven and hell. To be converted is to be safe. Christ is full of warnings on this because of his pity for the lost.

Questions

But doesn’t Scripture tell us that ‘no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost’ (1 Corinthians 12:3). Together, these two Scriptures show that there is more to saying that Jesus is Lord than making a sound in the air. There is more even than meaning that we believe he is exalted to the highest position in heaven and now has authority over all things. It is the personal acceptance of him as Lord that is essential to salvation, and this personal acceptance must include obedience to the Father’s will. Lordship implies the right to rule and to command the behaviour of his subjects. If any part of his kingdom is in rebellion, that rebellion will be suppressed with omnipotent force.

Who can successfully do the will of the Father, and why does Christ appear to make entrance into heaven conditional on obedience to his will? Not because salvation can be paid for, nor because our works can earn a place in heaven – the Bible is too clear on this subject to allow us to think that. Salvation is by grace alone and it is only Christ’s perfect works that can secure us a place there. Nevertheless everyone who has trusted in the Saviour for life will have the mark of life put within them. The heart must be changed and a new principle of obedience put within us. This does not mean that we obey perfectly; it means that the prevailing disposition of the heart is to obey, whereas, before, the prevailing disposition was to disobey. Obedience is now a joy, an expression of gratitude and love. Disobedience is a grief and a pain, and a struggle has begun which will end with complete victory at the dissolution of the body. Christ does not hesitate to describe such people as those who do the will of the Father, because now for the first time there is sincerity in them. The dwelling of the Spirit of God within the believer ensures that he will strive to keep the law in a new spiritual way.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Matthew 7:21 Commentary and Bible Study