The Great Disqualification Text: Matthew 7:21-23
Introduction: The Age of Religious Performance
We live in an age that has mastered the art of religious performance. We have the lights, the sound systems, the branding, and the carefully curated online personas. We have conferences that draw tens of thousands, where charismatic speakers perform mighty rhetorical works in the name of Jesus. We have ministries that cast out the demons of social injustice, and we have no shortage of people who can point to the many miracles of their massive budgets and global reach. By all external metrics, the modern evangelical enterprise is a stunning success. And it is precisely this situation that ought to make the words of our Lord in this text land on us with the force of a physical blow.
At the conclusion of His great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is not interested in giving out participation trophies. He is drawing the starkest possible line between two kinds of disciples, two kinds of righteousness, two kinds of gates, two kinds of trees, and two kinds of houses. And here, He concludes with two kinds of final destinations. The issue is not sincerity. The people He describes in this passage are not atheists or pagans; they are professing Christians, and they are utterly sincere. They are also utterly damned.
This passage is one of the most terrifying in all of Scripture, and it is meant to be. It is a divine bucket of ice water thrown on the face of a sleepy, complacent church. It is designed to disrupt our casual assumptions and force us to ask the most fundamental questions. What is saving faith? What is the nature of true discipleship? Is my confidence in Christ, or is it in my spiritual resume? These are not abstract theological questions for a seminary classroom. These are the questions that will determine your eternal address. We must understand that it is entirely possible to live a life filled with impressive religious activity, to be respected in the Christian world, and to arrive on the last day full of confident expectation, only to be met with the seven most horrifying words a human being can hear: "I never knew you; depart from Me."
Let us be clear. Jesus is not attacking good works. He has just spent three chapters commanding them. He is attacking the reliance upon good works as the ground of our standing before Him. He is attacking a faith that is all sizzle and no steak, all talk and no walk, all performance and no person. He is telling us that the foundation of our eternal life is not what we do for Him, but whether He knows us.
The Text
"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 will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"
(Matthew 7:21-23 LSB)
The Useless Confession (v. 21)
Jesus begins by establishing the great divide between profession and possession.
"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 will enter." (Matthew 7:21 LSB)
The first thing to notice is the address: "Lord, Lord." This is not a casual identifier. This is the language of worship, the language of submission. These are people who have the right vocabulary. They are orthodox in their confession. They are not Unitarians or Jehovah's Witnesses. They correctly identify Jesus as Kyrios, as Lord. The repetition, "Lord, Lord," indicates a kind of earnestness, perhaps even familiarity. This is the language of the church assembly. This is what we say.
But this correct, and even earnest, confession is not enough. A verbal password will not get you past the pearly gates. This is a direct assault on any form of "easy-believism" that reduces salvation to a formulaic prayer or a doctrinal checklist. The demons have a more robust doctrinal statement than many evangelicals, and they tremble (James 2:19). They are not saved. So, a correct confession, by itself, is no proof of regeneration.
The contrast is set immediately. It is not the one who says, but the one who does. And what must be done? "The will of My Father who is in heaven." This is the great theme of the entire sermon. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works. Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is not a contradiction of salvation by grace through faith. It is the definition of what living faith looks like. Faith is not a static noun; it is an active verb. It is a root that necessarily and inevitably produces the fruit of obedience. If there is no fruit, it is because the root is dead.
And what is the will of the Father? John tells us plainly: "And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another" (1 John 3:23). And Jesus Himself says, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life" (John 6:40). The will of the Father is not a grim, joyless moralism. It begins with, is centered on, and is empowered by, faith in the Son. But it does not end there. That faith works itself out in love, in obedience, in a transformed life. To say you believe in the Son while disregarding His commands is to lie to yourself and to God.
The Impressive Resume (v. 22)
In the next verse, Jesus gives us a glimpse of the final judgment, and the arguments presented by the self-deceived.
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?'" (Matthew 7:22 LSB)
Notice the word "many." This is not a fringe group of oddballs. Jesus says many will be in this condition. This should cause a holy fear to settle upon us. The road to destruction is broad, and many there are who go in by it, and some of them are apparently carrying very large Bibles and leading very impressive ministries.
Look at their resume. It is not filled with small things. These are not people saying, "Lord, Lord, did we not attend a small group and put twenty dollars in the plate most weeks?" No, their claims are spectacular. Prophecy, exorcism, and many miracles. These are the most dramatic and powerful gifts of the Spirit. They did these things "in Your name," which means they were acting as His public representatives. They were, in the eyes of the world and in their own eyes, front-line warriors for the kingdom.
This tells us something crucial. It is possible to be a conduit of God's power without being a child of God. God can speak a true word through a false prophet, just as He spoke through Balaam's donkey. Judas was sent out with the other disciples and no doubt participated in casting out demons and healing the sick (Luke 9:1). God can use a person for His sovereign purposes without saving that person. This is a terrifying thought. You can have a successful ministry and a lost soul.
The central error is revealed in their plea. Their focus is entirely on what they did. "Did we not prophesy? Did we not cast out demons? Did we not do miracles?" Their confidence is in their performance. They are standing before the Judge of all the earth and presenting their spiritual C.V. They believe their works have obligated God to them. But on that day, the only plea that will be heard is, "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling." Their eyes are on their hands, not on His.
The Final Verdict (v. 23)
Jesus's response is not a negotiation. It is a final, unappealable, judicial declaration.
"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" (Matthew 7:23 LSB)
He will "declare" to them. This is a formal, public announcement. The word for "knew" here is not about intellectual awareness. God is omniscient; He knows everything about everyone. The word ginosko in this context, as it often is in Scripture, is the language of intimate, covenantal relationship. It is the word used for a husband knowing his wife. When God says of Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2), He did not mean He was unaware of the Egyptians. He meant He was in a covenant relationship with Israel alone.
So when Jesus says, "I never knew you," He is saying, "We never had a relationship. We were never covenantally bound. You used my name, but you were not mine." Notice He does not say, "I knew you once, but then you fell away." He says, "I never knew you." From the beginning, despite all the outward activity, there was no life, no union, no saving faith.
And then He gives the reason for their exclusion, the true nature of their lives. They are "you who practice lawlessness." The Greek word is anomia. It literally means "no-law-ness." This is staggering. The very people who thought their mighty works were their ticket into heaven are identified by the one thing that defines their character: lawlessness. How can this be? Because their works, however spectacular, were not done from a heart of loving submission to the will of the Father. They were operating by their own rules, for their own glory, under their own steam. They used the name of Jesus, but they did not submit to the law of Jesus, which is the law of love for God and neighbor.
Lawlessness is the essence of sin. It is the desire to be your own god, to set your own standards, to live outside the bounds of God's revealed will. These people were functionally autonomous. They may have been busy, but they were not obedient. They were active, but they were rebels. And so the command is simple and final: "DEPART FROM ME." This is the essence of Hell. Hell is not just a place of fire; it is a place of final separation from the source of all goodness, joy, and life. And the great irony is that they get what they always wanted. They wanted to live on their own terms, without truly knowing Him. And so, for all eternity, they will be left on their own, without Him.
Conclusion: Known by Him
So how do we avoid this dreadful end? This passage is not given to us to drive us to despair, but to drive us to Christ. The solution is not to try harder at our religious performances. The solution is not to generate a longer list of miracles to present on that day. The solution is to abandon all confidence in our own works and to flee to Christ alone.
The fundamental question is not, "What have you done for Jesus?" but rather, "Do you know Jesus, and more importantly, does He know you?" True assurance is not found by looking inward at the quality of our faith or the quantity of our works. True assurance is found by looking outward to the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to His objective promises in the gospel.
A true Christian is not someone who can boast of casting out demons. A true Christian is someone whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life (Luke 10:20). Our confidence is not in our power, but in His grace. Our plea is not our righteousness, but His.
And the evidence that He knows us, the proof that we are truly His, is that we will begin to love what He loves and hate what He hates. We will love His law. We will desire to do the will of His Father. We will fail, and we will stumble, but the orientation of our heart will be toward obedience, not lawlessness. The fruit will be there, not because the fruit saves us, but because we have been saved, and a good tree cannot help but bear good fruit.
Therefore, let this text search us. Let it dismantle our pride. Let it expose our self-reliance. And having done so, let it drive us to our knees before the one who does not cast out any who come to Him in genuine, humble, and obedient faith. For our salvation rests not on the fact that we know Him, but on the glorious, unshakable, and eternal fact that He knows us.