*Scriptures taken from Biblegateway.com
To be perfectly honest, I have hesitated in writing this final devotional for our series on the sermon on the mount. The lesson I learned and will soon share comes with a stern but entirely doable commandment – one that I, nonetheless, have not done. If experience qualifies the teacher, then I certainly should not be teaching this one. But in humility I will present my case, and I hope you all will take the challenge as seriously as I have.
Here we see Jesus's warning of "wolves in sheep's clothing." Their appearance is deceptive but their fruits are not. "You will know them by their fruits." [verse 16] He blatantly states that it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit and for a bad tree to bear good fruit. Their fruits are the ultimate sign of their veracity. So what is the fruit?
Let's first address what composes one's appearance. Off the top of my head, appearances comprise of first impressions, mannerisms, clothes, and style preferences. You all will probably compose a similar list. I would never think to add works to that list. After all, should not works be considered the fruit? Do we not frequently quote James's declaration, "Faith without works is dead" [James 2:17]? When we continue reading, however, we see that Jesus admonishes about a group of people who will be able to prophesy, cast out demons, and do many wonders in His very name. Yet to these same people He says, "I never knew you." What a disappointment. And what a somber reminder that it is perfectly possible to "bestow all [our] goods to the poor" and "give [our bodies] to be burned," but, without love, it profits us nothing [1 Corinthians 13:3].
At first, this really upset me. Can you imagine, doing such wonderful things in the name of the one true Savior Jesus Christ, and then be completely shunned? It is one thing if He said, "Alisha, you have disappointed Me." I can say I have heard that one more than once. But to have Him say, "I never knew you" would be worse than eternal fire and brimstone. I cannot be rejected by my Savior, the Lover of my soul. And I know those of you who have drawn close to Him would feel the same way. But what hope have I, having done so little for him, when there are those who do these incredible things who will be turned away?
My hope comes in the next phrase: "Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" [verse 23]. You see, Jesus does not care about the magnitude of the works we commit. He cares about us practicing the law. Now this obviously does not mean the strict levitical commands that, even at that time, were virtually impossible to fulfill. What had He to say about the Pharisees, who made a spectacle of their commandment-obeying? "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" [Matthew 5:20]. If those who made it their career and pastime to perform the law could not do it, what hope, again have we?
The real question is, who then can fulfill the law? That is easy enough to answer, since we did so in a previous devotional. Jesus earlier said, "I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill" [Matthew 5:17]. Jesus alone has the righteousness needed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ alone. We need His righteousness to enter in. And if we seek it, we shall surely have it, because He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" [Matthew 5:6].
So what shall we do to obtain this righteousness? Paul tells the Romans, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes … If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" [Romans 10:4, 9, 10]. It is imperative that we believe in Lord Jesus, the Christ. This is more than just an altar call, though. Belief, in its truest form, always precipitates action. Luke 6:46-49 connects this section with Jesus's analogy of building a house on the rock. Christ does this by bluntly saying that we have no right to call out "Lord, Lord" and not do the things He says (in other words, all the things mentioned beforehand in the sermon). If we are to call Him Lord, then should He not be just that – our Lord? And make no mistake, we are going to be held accountable for what we have learned. If we choose not to obey, we will be the foolish man who built his house of the sand. When the storms come in our lives, we will find everything we have built up will be swept away in a flood. But if we choose to obey, we will not be shaken, for our house will be built on the solid Rock of Christ.
What will be your decision?
God bless,
Alisha
