Am I a Christian?
Matthew 2:21-23 “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter God’s kingdom. The only people who will enter are those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that last Day many will call me Lord. They will say, ‘Lord, Lord, by the power of your name we spoke for God. And by your name we forced out demons and did many miracles.’ Then I will tell those people clearly, ‘Get away from me, you people who do wrong. I never knew you.’”
Faith is an interesting notion. We’re told that we gain a right-standing with God by believing in Jesus. But I wonder sometimes whether our notion of what it means to believe in Him is actually just a tad short-sighted.
There are plenty of people who claim to be Christians. They believe in God, they believe in Jesus, they believe that when they die they’re off to heaven. Fine. Perhaps that’s what you believe. But how can you be sure? Because frankly, whilst we’d like to think that those beliefs get us a ticket to heaven, Jesus had something very unsettling to say on this very subject:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter God’s kingdom. The only people who will enter are those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that last Day many will call me Lord. They will say, ‘Lord, Lord, by the power of your name we spoke for God. And by your name we forced out demons and did many miracles.’ Then I will tell those people clearly, ‘Get away from me, you people who do wrong. I never knew you.’”
That’s pretty straight up and down – no mucking around there. So what’s His point? Quite simply, this: That saying we believe, merely calling Him “Lord”, isn’t enough.
Nor, by the way, is getting out there and doing stuff, even good stuff … even really powerful stuff that we claim to be doing in His name.
On that last Day … I will tell those people clearly “Get away from me, you people who do wrong. I never knew you“.
Wow!
The only people who will enter the kingdom are those who do what my Father in Heaven wants.
The evidence of a genuine faith, a real faith, is obedience. That’s how you can be certain.
And that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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