First,
there are two sides. Those on the right are the sheep, the children of God,
those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, received the gospel, and entered
into the life of the Church. Those on the left are the goats, the lost, the
unbelievers, the children of the evil one, those who have rejected the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In
the parable of the Great White Throne Judgment of Matthew 25, Jesus makes the
issue that the sheep were unaware they were doing so much good in Jesus’ name,
while the goats were unaware that they had missed so many opportunities to do
good. That difference serves the purpose of that parable, giving people the
picture of how serious it is to be sure we are ready for the coming of Christ.
However,
when we make that division, that there are sheep on the right and goats on the
left,[2] we
can add to the list with other Scriptures that make parallel descriptions.
There are believers and unbelievers. There are saints and sinners. There are
the children of God and the children of Satan. There are people of faith and
people of the flesh. The point is that there are two distinct groups, and the
Scriptures describe what kinds of people are in these two groups.
The
one description that is standing out the most for me is that, while the goats
of Matthew 25 are bewildered by how they missed so many opportunities to do
good for Jesus, that is also the side on which we would need to put the people
who are bewildered about how all their good works in Jesus’ name did not get
them on the right side of his throne. Near the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the
Mount he declared:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is
in heaven. On that day many will
say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons
in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And
then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness.’[3]
The
point here is that there will be people on the left of Jesus’ throne who
thought for sure they would be on the right of his throne. They say, “Lord, Lord,” as those who are on the
right would also confess, but they are lacking something that would put them on
the right. It is not that they lack good works, because they give testimony of
plenty of good works. It is not that they were consciously preaching a
different name than Jesus, or calling on the spiritual powers of the evil one.
And yet, they were not Jesus’ disciples no matter what they thought they were
doing in Jesus’ name.
This
brought me to this Scripture: “…while
evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”[4]There
is the explanation of why people who were not truly doing their good works in
Jesus’ name could think they were doing their signs and wonders in Jesus’ name.
It was because they were both “deceiving
and being deceived”.
I
have no doubt that there are many deceivers who know full well what they are
doing to turn people’s hearts away from Jesus Christ. However, the ones who
will end up thoroughly shocked that they are on the left instead of the right
will be those that were deceived in their own work of deceiving. In other
words, they bought their own story hook, line and sinker before casting out their
line to catch more fish.
What
are we to do with this knowledge that, among the antichrists of the world, will
be those who are deceived into thinking they are serving Christ while deceiving
others with their signs and wonders? Right after Paul warns about these
deceived deceivers, he exhorted young Timothy in this way:
But as for you, continue in
what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned
it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred
writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete,
equipped for every good work.[5]
While
Timothy had learned these things from his childhood, the same teaching can be
applied to believers in any level of maturity. What we must do is “continue in what you have learned and
firmly believed.” We can trust the “breathed
out” words of God. They are fully able to equip us for “every good work”. So, let us be sure that we are saved by grace
through faith, not depending on any good works of our own to give us “right”
standing before Jesus’ throne,[6] and
then we will know that “…we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”[7]
Let’s spend as much time as we need in God’s word so that
we will know and understand how to walk in God’s good works while people all
around us are deceiving and being deceived. God’s word equips us for all the
good works he prepared in advance for us to do. That means that, even today,
while we rely on the same grace that saved us without any good works helping out
at all, we can also do the good works God has prepared for any given day.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
No comments:
Post a Comment