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NASB | Matthew 7:21 ¶ "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. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 7:21 ¶ "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. |
Bible Question:
All right, sola fida experts.... This statement by Jesus seems to indicate that one needs more than faith in Jesus to enter heaven. Is this perhaps analogous to James 2:14, whereby saving faith is accompanied by works? Please help! Thanks, reilly |
Bible Answer: Hello Reilly, Well, I'm no expert but I do play one on TV! :-) The first thing is to determine what the will of God is for us. Matt 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect...". Uh-oh! How in the world can you or I, or anyone else for that matter, be perfect? The answer is simple. We can't! At least within ourselves and relying on our own strength and resources we can't. How then can we qualify for heaven? We do so by being IN Christ. When God calls a person, He takes away their unbelieving heart and places within them a heart that longs to believe. Ezek 11:19 "And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, Along with a new heart God also grants to us repentance. We realize that we are sinners and that the only hope for us is to flee to Christ and cry out for Him to save us. We admit that it is Christ alone who is our only hope. Eph 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Martin Luther was a Catholic priest who depaired of ever pleasing God. He spent most of his time going to confession and upon his knees begging God for forgiveness. The problem that Father Luther had was he was truly trying his best to be perfect and in his heart he knew he could not attain to it. But God heard his prayers and ne day while reading in the book of Romans, Luther's life was changed forever. This is what he read... Rom 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." What this means for imperfect guys like you and me is that, our faith in Christ's perfect righteousness is seen by God as if it were our own. That is a part of ou being IN Christ. Praise God! Now, when we sin we are to confess it to God and the Bible says He is faithfull to forgive us and to cleanse us from it. This is not a license to sin however. Because now we love our Lord so much that we begin to hate sinning and feel real sorrow over our weaknesses. This sorrow is new to us at first, but is a result of what God hs done and will continue to do in our new spiritual hearts of flesh. James said " But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?" (James 2:20). What he meant was that if we claim to have faith but do not have any fruit (good works), then we should examine ourselves to see if we truly have faith at all!" I grew up Catholic and went to parochial school for 8 years. Although I love the Catholic people, I believe the Catholic Church to be very wrong on how we are saved and how we are to attain to eternal life. I hope this helps. God Bless Rielly, John Reformed |