Jesus When You Came We Didnt Know It Was You

Question

What did Jesus mean when He said, "I never knew you. Depart from me"?

Answer

Jesus said, "And then I volition tell them plainly, 'I never knew yous. Abroad from me, you evildoers!'" (Matthew seven:23). It seems strange to hear our all-knowing Lord say there's something—or someone—He doesn't know. Jesus refers non to an intellectual noesis here only to a relational noesis.

To empathize a verse, always start with the context. Jesus is wrapping upward His Sermon on the Mount with a final warning about true faith. Jesus predicts that simulated Christian prophets will be coming every bit wolves in sheep's habiliment (Matthew 7:15). They may utilise all the right "God talk" and fifty-fifty make impressive displays of ability, but they volition non belong to the Lord:

"Non everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, merely only the one who does the will of my Begetter who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your proper noun perform many miracles?' And then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Abroad from me, you evildoers!'" (Matthew 7:21–23).

In Jesus' words on Judgment Twenty-four hours, we see several important truths: information technology's non a exact claim that one follows Jesus that saves (Matthew 7:21). Nominal Christianity cannot save. Too, it'south not a demonstration of spiritual insight or ability that saves (poetry 22). A person can seem like a Christian in the eyes of other people, yet still exist an "evildoer" in God'due south sight and sent away from His presence (poesy 23). Only those who do the Father'south will and who are known of God volition enter heaven.

So, what is the Father's volition? Some men came to Jesus once with a question about what God required of them: "They asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?' Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent'" (John 6:28–29). God wants united states to have faith in His Son: "This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ" (ane John 3:23). Those who are built-in once more by faith in Christ volition produce skillful works to the celebrity of God (Ephesians 2:x).

When Jesus said, "I never knew y'all," to the feigned disciples, He meant that He never recognized them as His truthful disciples or His friends. He never had anything in common with them nor approved of them. They were no relations of His (Mark 3:34–35). Christ did not dwell in their hearts (Ephesians 3:17), nor did they have His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16). In all these ways and more, Jesus never knew them. Note that Jesus is not breaking off the human relationship here—there was never a relationship to break off. Despite their high-sounding words and showy displays of religious fervor, they had no intimacy with Christ.

Then information technology turns out that what matters isn't and then much that we know God on some level, only that God knows us. Equally Paul explained, "Whoever loves God is known by God" (1 Corinthians eight:3; likewise see Galatians iv:9). The Lord "tends His flock like a shepherd" (Isaiah twoscore:11), and He knows who are His sheep (John 10:14).

Those somber words "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that piece of work iniquity" in Matthew 7:23 (KJV) show that Jesus is indeed omniscient. He did non "know" them in the sense He would if they were His followers, but He knew their hearts—they were full of iniquity! Isaiah'due south condemnation of hypocrisy fits this group well: "These people come near to me with their oral fissure and laurels me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isaiah 29:xiii). The evildoers whom Jesus does not know are fake Christians, false teachers, and nominal adherents of religion.

Those who are bid depart from the presence of the Lord volition not partake of the blessings of the kingdom: "Exterior are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood" (Revelation 22:15). They volition be bandage "into the darkness, where in that location volition be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12). Those simulated Christians whom Jesus says He never knew will not produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23); rather, they will produce the opposite, the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:xix–21).

Jesus warns that 1 mean solar day He will tell a grouping of religious practitioners, "I never knew you lot." God takes no delight in sending people to hell (two Peter 3:9). But those who are told to depart take rejected God's eternal purpose and program for their lives (Luke 7:thirty). They accept spurned the light of the gospel (two Corinthians 4:four), choosing the darkness instead, because their deeds were evil (John iii:19). At the judgment, they endeavour to justify themselves as worthy of heaven on the basis of their works (prophecies, exorcisms, miracles, etc.), simply no one will be justified by his ain works (Galatians two:16). While claiming to practise all these good works in Christ's proper name, they failed to do the merely work of God that counts: "to have faith in the i he sent" (John vi:29, CEV). And and then Jesus, the Righteous Judge, condemns them to eternal separation from Him.

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