"I Never Knew You"

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 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 7:21-23

Note that Jesus answers those who protest that they have done ministry, even signs and wonders, in His name, and who refer to Him as Lord, "I never knew you."  He does not say that they turned away, or fell from His grace; no, He states that they were never His at all.  This is significant.  At no point do the scriptures indicate that one who was saved by Christ's blood, forgiven, redeemed, made new, will ever cease to be redeemed.  Those who turn from God prove that God never indwelt them to begin with.  The Apostle John notes this clearly, saying of those who join with the church and then turn away from God that "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us." (1 John 2:19)

These are the ones whom Jesus refers to in the Parable of the Sower (see Matthew 13), those who "spring up quickly", embracing the message of Christ outwardly, but fall away as soon as persecution or hardship arises.  Likewise they are the seed who spring up, but are choked and become unfruitful because of the cares of this world.  Those who fall away and die are not redeemed, though they seem for a time to rejoice in God.  Likewise those who are unfruitful, who embrace the world and its temptations, though they appear at the first to have accepted Christ, are not redeemed, because God cannot indwell a soul without that soul bearing fruit.  "You can identify them by their fruit" Jesus said in Matthew 7:16. What is the fruit of a true believer? "the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)

This is not to say that the believer cannot sin; he can, and when he does, God will bring discipline, as a father disciplines his child (Hebrews 12:7).  But the believer never ceases to be God's child, and God will produce fruit in the child's life.  Jesus indicates that some will produce more fruit than others (see Matthew 13:8), but fruit they will produce.  A life that is unchanged by the Gospel is a life that has not embraced it, a life that has not been redeemed.  A true child of God may bear fruit slowly, but it is not possible that he will not bear any.

Thus it becomes clear that those who embrace God solely out of a desire to escape Hell, yet live how they please, are presumptuous, thinking that they are cleverly taking advantage of the grace of God.  Take heed, God is not mocked.  It is not possible that a child of God, be he ever so rebellious, can be indwelt by the Spirit of God and yet show no love for God, and there is no love in the heart of one who presumes upon God's grace, all the while caring nothing for God's commands.  Jesus said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15).  Those who care nothing for the commandments of God prove that they have no love for Him in their heart.  The true believer will be repentant of his sins, not arrogant and presumptuous.