Originally posted by Zahlanzi
it simply says that actual christian acts are more important than declaring yourself a christian and praising the lords name. that you have to actually practice what you preach.
"Christian acts" will never come out of an atheist.
The atheist who practices what he preaches will still die unjustified and condemned.
In the Gospel of John that is very easy to see. But where in the Gospel of Matthew can we see it? We can see it when Jesus speaks of His redemptive death for the forgivness of sins:
" And He took a cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, For this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for the forgiveness of sins." (Matt. 26:28)
We have to discriminate between receiving the forgiveness of sins for eternal redemption and the gift of eternal life and the entering into the kingdom of the heavens as a reward.
Don't trust any kind of explanation that doing the Father's will does not need the forgiveness of sins through believing for one's self the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus.
His name is called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.
"And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21)
No teaching is reliable that a person refusing to one of
"His people" will be saved. Anyone rejecting and refusing to be one of
"His people" has no promise that they will be saved from their sins. For the FIRST item of the will of the Father is that we be cleansed from our sins in the blood of Jesus and be saved from eternal judgment.
for example, tea baggers that praise the lord in every sentence while refusing to give to the poor and/or hating those different than them fit perfectly.
For some reason this passage in
Matthew 7:21-23 is one of those passages the self confident like to grasp and say something like "Yea, Get em! Get em Jesus! You know ... THOSE ones. You know THOSE OTHER GUYS over there. Those religious ones that I am better than."
Because you can POINT OUT the errors of others, does that make you one bit more righteous? No it does not. That is what we call
"the knowledge of good and evil" . And it is something that man is very proud of.
Just because you can point out the moral failures of other people does not necessarily mean you are one once, one bit
more righteous before God.
Matthew 7:21-23 is not a passage that a Christian should always read for OTHER people. He or she could read it considering their own walk before God.
And the person not yet having receive Jesus as Lord should first ask to be cleansed from his sins in the redeeming blood of Christ poured out for the forgiveness of sins, to have a new beginning.