Dear John and Doves -

Paul gave his gospel message in 1 Cor. 15 - that Christ died according to the scriptures (that is, the OT scriptures that said He would die), that He was buried, and that He rose again, and that He was subsequently seen by many.  So it was a resurrection message.  It was also implicitly a Lordship message.

And yet, when the Philippian jailer (most certainly a Gentile) asked Paul, "what must I do to be saved?" then none of this came up except Lordship.  It was "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" - followed, it should be noted, by baptism.

But in Matthew 7:21 none of this comes up.  Jesus does not say, "you believed the wrong stuff," or "you weren't baptized," or "you never really opened the door of your heart" or any such thing.  It was He not knowing them.  Odd.  How does that work?

I think a similar question is, "what must I do to fall in love?"  There's no five-step procedure.  Ask someone who's in love and they may not know WHAT happened, or how.  Maybe not even when. 

It seems to me we have a lot of emphasis on head-knowledge and things we believe about Jesus.  My subjective conclusion is that because there's a relationship between us, EVERYTHING in my life is open to Him and is subject to His inspection and change.  I trust Him so completely that I am willing to do, change, abandon, replace ... whatever He wants and however He may direct.  And He does, usually through His word.

Here's a conversation that should probably take place more often:

Q.  If you were to become a Christian, would you have to make some changes in your life?

if 'yes' then ask:

Q.  Are you willing to make those changes?

Now, at this point people stop being disciples and start becoming theologians, and the whole 'faith v works' thing becomes front and center.  But the fact is that we are His workmanship, and His desire is to fashion us so we conform to Christ.  That may be what Jesus is referring to in Matthew 7:23.  He says He never "knew" them but in verse 21 the issue is "he who does the will of My Father in heaven."  And a search for "will of God" or "God's will" or the like turns up all sorts of interesting things - things that arguably only flow from a heart in love with God.

For myself, I love Him.  I fully understand that my eternity is in His hands, but the only way I can go to hell is if Jesus didn't suffer enough, and that's clearly impossible.  I have my assurance based totally on what he's done for me.

Cheers!

Steve