Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Back in my Navy days, my chaplain used to say that Matthew 7:22-23 was the scariest passage in the whole Bible. I have tried, without success, to find a scarier one. Here it is in the King James translation. This is Jesus speaking:
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
This promise concerns the coming Judgment Day, when Christ shall return and render to every person what is due. He says there will be “many” who call him “Lord” who will be told to depart from his presence. What is terrifying about it is that they are able to point back to “wonderful works” they did in the name of Jesus.
These are not the usual suspects. They are not apathetic pew-warmers who yawn their way through the occasional sermon, or grumble as they toss a quarter in the offering. No, these are outstanding Christians. They even perform supernatural acts of power like foreseeing the future and exorcizing demons. Christ’s promise is that they wind up in hell.
The key is in the last word of that Scripture text. It’s rendered “iniquity” above. In the original Greek of the passage, it is anomia. This comes from the word for law, which is nomos; and, which is negated by the prefix a-. (In Biblical Greek, that prefix turns the word into the opposite of what it would be otherwise. So, for instance, a theist believes in God, but an atheist does not.) Anomia refers to the opposite of keeping God’s law. Modern English translations routinely render it as “lawlessness.”
So what we have in the passage is Christ, confronted with many super-heroic, apparent Christians, who do mighty works, supposedly in service to him. But, when they’re not astonishing multitudes, they are not following Christ’s law. They are doing something else.
By now, some readers are nervous about what my point is. So, here is what I am not saying. I’m not saying that law-keeping has something to do with getting saved.
You can’t earn your place in glory. The only rational conclusion to Paul’s argument in the first half of Romans, for instance, is that sinners are saved apart from their works, as a gift of God’s grace, through faith in Christ.
In preacher-speak, Christians do not have a performance-based relationship with God. What we are supposed to have, though, is relationship-based performance. Obedience doesn’t earn your heavenly ticket, but disobedience tends to prove you haven’t booked the trip.
My New Year’s encouragement for all of us is that we strive to live more consistent with what we believe. Jesus said that if we love him, we ought to keep his commandments. (John 14:15) This was no new concept when he said it, but is rather like a golden thread that is sewn into the whole Scripture.
It rings hollow for Christians to complain about how the world disrespects our faith, when we don’t respect it enough to live by it.
Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at: