One of the most interesting and controversial passages anywhere in the Bible comes straight out of the mouth of Jesus Christ, and is recorded for us in Matthew 7:21-23:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"
Many are teaching that calling Jesus Lord guarantees a person a place in heaven, although Jesus here denies it. According to Jesus, many will call Him Lord, and even have supernatural signs of knowledge and power following their lives, who will not even enter heaven. What a sobering thought!
Some use this passage to condemn everyone in the 20th Century who believes in speaking in tongues, the gift of prophecy, the casting out of demons and miraculous healing being worked in the name of Jesus. Such people would see these practices as sure signs that a person had entered into apostacy, and was a deceiver of the people. I believe that this is a wrong conclusion to draw from the passage for many reasons - not least of all, that it goes beyond what is actually written.
If this was the correct application of that Scripture, then surely Peter, John, Paul and the other apostles were guilty! They did all these things - prophesying, casting out demons and performing wondrous signs in Jesus' name (Acts 2:43; Acts 16:18). Nor can we say that only the apostles ever did these things, for Philip the deacon (not one of the twelve) preached the gospel with miraculous signs following (see Acts 8:5-8). The Corinthian believers had spiritual gifts and prophesied, and Paul encouraged them to do that! (1 Cor. 14:1; 1 Cor. 1:7). Jesus said that anyone believing in Him would do these things (John 14:12; Mark 16:17,18). Those verses say nothing of being anything other than a believer.
Since church history provides strong evidence that these gifts and operations continued even in the sub-apostolic period and afterward to a lesser extent, we really don't have any basis - Scriptural or otherwise, for saying that the Words of Jesus changed their meaning after the Canon was put together. Not unless we are prepared to assert that partial knowledge has also passed away and that we see the Lord face to face (see 1 Cor. 13:8-13).
What then is Jesus wanting to say through in Matthew 7:21-23?
We can see from this passage that having the gifts of the Spirit or looking like you've got them is no guarantee that you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. We must acknowledge that Jesus said that many would come and claim to know Him on the basis of the fact that they moved in power in His name, and they called Him Lord. Since there have not been all that many who would claim that they have done these things, compared to the total number of professing Christians in history, we must conclude that many of the people doing these things today might well fall into the category of hell-bound sinners that Jesus is talking about.
But just who is Jesus talking about? He says it Himself. He is talking to, "you who practise lawlessness", "you whom I never knew", "those who do not do the will of the Father in heaven.". The problem then is not prophesying, casting out demons and doing the signs and wonders in Jesus' name: the problem is sin.
Many in the church today believe that th
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