3. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: The New Man (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 190.
The Certainty of Judgement
elements of salvation. God will not declare a person righ teous without also making him or her righ teous. Salvation includes all God's work on our behalf, from His foreknowledge of us before the foundation of the world to our ultimate glorification in eternity future (Rom. 8:29 – 30). One cannot pick and choose, accepting eternal life while rejecting holiness and obedience. When God justifies people He also sanctifies them.2
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "Do we realize that if we truly understand the doctrine of justification by faith we have already grasped the essence and the nerve of the New Testament teaching about holiness and sanctification? Have we realized that to be justified by faith guarantees our sanctification, and that therefore we must never think of sanctification as a separate and subsequent experience?" (emphasis added).3
Scripture challenges those who define salvation as a purely judicial act with no practical consequences. Hebrews 12:14 speaks of "the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." The King James Version renders Hebrews 12:14: "Follow . . . holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." That verse does not make holiness a prerequisite for justification, but it recognizes it as the sure result. In other words, sanctification is a characteristic of all who are redeemed, not a condition for their receiving salvation. Those whose faith is authentic are certain to become holy, and those who lack true faith can never be holy. They have no hope of seeing God, except to stand before Him in judgment.
Many who think they are saved but live unholy lives will be shocked to discover in the final judgment that heaven is not their destiny. It is hard to picture a more horrifying scene than that described by Jesus in Matthew 7:21 – 23: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 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 will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' "
Those who think of salvation as merely a legal transaction, a reckoning apart from practical righ teous ness, will have a difficult time with this warning of Jesus. It puts salvation in very practical terms. It reiterates the key statement of the Sermon on the Mount: "I say to you, that unless your righ teous ness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20).
2. In 1 Co rin thi ans 1:2 and 6:11, for example, all believers are said to be sanctifi ed. 3. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Th e New Man (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 190.
Jesus Explains His Gospel
Here in Matthew 7, the Lord gives us a glimpse of the coming judgment and the tragedy of those who will stand before the throne with high expectations but only a verbal profession or mere intellectual knowledge. They will protest that they did things for the Lord, but their words and their hearts are empty. Tragically, Christ will turn them away from heaven.
Notice the key phrase in verse 21, identifying the kind of person who will inhabit heaven. It is "he who does the will of My Father." It is not the one who says he knows Jesus or who believes certain facts about Him. It is the one who does the Father's will. The one who practices lawlessness will be excluded (v. 23). The lesson here is that if a person lives a life of disobedience, it doesn't matter what he says or what good things that person has done. He or she is an unbeliever in danger of eternal damnation.
This is a very strong admonition, but it is an indispensable part of the gospel according to Jesus. These brief verses and those that follow immediately condemn two wrong responses to Christ: the first, professing belief but refusing to do what faith calls for (Matt. 7:22 – 23); and the second, hearing without obeying (vv. 24 – 27).
Saying without Doing: The Sin of Empty Words
Note that the "many" who will be turned away in judgment are not pagans. They are religious people who have chosen the road of human achievement. They are the same "many" we met in Matthew 7:13, who took the wide gate and broad way. Their plea will be the religious deeds they have done (v. 22). Paul said people like this hold "to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). They are much like the Pharisees, obsessed with religious activity, not necessarily apostates, heretics, antichrists, atheists, or agnostics — just people trying to earn God's favor through external works rather than living out the righ teous ness that is based on faith (cf. Rom. 10:5 – 10).
The works they do are only external. They are hypocrites who say the right things but do not do them from the heart. In fact, despite all the good things they will claim to have done, the reason they will be turned away is that they do not do the will of the Father (Matt. 7:21). They live lawlessly (v. 23). They know the right words and might appear good on the outside, but their character does not match. They are like many in the church today who affirm sound doctrine but are not saved.
These people even say, "Lord, Lord," (Matt. 7:21 – 22). Again, this reveals their basic orthodoxy. They know about Jesus' lordship and even give verbal assent to it, but they do not submit to Him as Lord. They are like those to whom Jesus spoke in Luke 6:46: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do