<p>7:22&nbsp;<em>Many</em>- The Greek often means 'the majority'. Here perhaps we have the clearest implication that only a minority of those who come to Christ shall ultimately be saved. Hebrews, Romans and 1 Cor. 10 suggest that if we think that natural Israel were far worse than spiritual Israel in terms of percentage coming to salvation- then we must take heed lest we fall.</p>
<p><em>Will say to Me in that day</em>- Judgment will be a process, with the rejected initially protesting, seeking to change the Lord's mind- and then slinking away in shame. Nobody will be passive in that day. The only thing important will be acceptance at His hand and a place in the Kingdom. We will come to that position either by loving obedience to His ways in this life- or all too late, in condemnation. The logic is powerful- we must choose that desire for the Kingdom life&nbsp;<em>now</em>&nbsp;as the dominant emotion, overarching all our emotions, decision making and formation of our deepest desires.</p>
<p><em>Lord, Lord</em>- Mt. 7:22 = 1 Cor. 13:2. To say &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; without really&nbsp;<em>knowing</em>&nbsp;Christ is living without love. Thus Paul saw an association between a lack of true love and an external show of appreciation of Christ's Lordship. Not doing what Christ says is a lack of love, in Paul's mind. If we appreciate this, we will see that those who are ignorant of Christ's words cannot show true love. Biblically ignorant Christians need to think through the implications of this. Those who insincerely say &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; now, will say the same then, at the judgment, with the same lack of reality (Mt. 7:21,22). The repetition of &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; shows that our attitude to Him in this life will be that we have when we meet in the last day. The sensation of working for the Lord can be so self-deceptive. He draws the difference between doing many wonderful works in His name, saying &ldquo;Lord, Lord&rdquo;; and&nbsp;<em>really</em>&nbsp;doing the will of the Father (Mt. 7:21,22). The parallel Lk. 6:46 has that men will say &ldquo;Lord, Lord&rdquo; but not really hear His words. To hear them is to do the will of the Father. Putting all this together, it is perfectly possible to bear His Name, call Him Lord, work hard for Him- and yet never really hear His words, and thereby never really know the will of our Father. From this parallel we can conclude that our attitude to Christ in this life (e.g. &quot;Lord, Lord!&quot;) will be our attitude to Him at the judgment seat. If we think He is a hard, unreasonable Lord: that is how He will be. To the froward (in this life), He will show Himself froward. Straight away we are met head on with a major challenge: Our attitude to Christ in this life will be our attitude to Him at the judgment seat. John's letters reason down the same line: &ldquo;If (in this life) our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence (now) toward God... this is the confidence that we have in him... abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence... before him (at the judgment) at His coming&quot; (1 Jn. 3:21; 5:14; 2:28). The confidence we have towards Christ now will be the confidence we have at judgment day. This fact should pull us up out of the spiritual indifference which characterizes so much of our lives. If we see Christ as an abstract theological necessity, a black box in our brain called 'Christ'; if we don't have a dynamic, two- way relationship with Him now- then this too is how we will regard Him then.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Did we not prophesy in your name</em>- When we consider the Lord's teaching of Mt. 7:22,23 and 25:42-44 together, He's saying that those rejected at the day of judgment will be so on account of their&nbsp;<em>omissions</em>- hence their surprise, and anger because they knew that they had&nbsp;<em>done</em>&nbsp;good works; they thought that what they had&nbsp;<em>committed</em>&nbsp;was morally acceptable to God, and this would usher them into the Kingdom. But their sins of&nbsp;<em>omission</em>&nbsp;cost them the Kingdom. The mention of prophesying must be seen in the context of the Lord's warning in 7:15 about&nbsp;<em>false</em>&nbsp;prophets. To claim to have spoken / prophesied in His Name (cp. 'in sheep's clothing', appearing as Jesus) implies these people had considered themselves followers of Jesus in this life.&nbsp;</p>
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<em>And in your name cast out demons and in your name do many mighty works?</em>- The possession of Holy Spirit gifts which enabled healings and miracles to be performed was no guarantee of final acceptance at the last day. Pentecostal theology needs to take note of this- for the power to do miracles is simply not any guarantee of salvation, as they wrongly suppose. And we who live in an era when the miraculous gifts have been withdrawn can still take a powerful lesson- no matter how dramatically we may be a channel for God's activity in the lives of others, this is irrelevant to our final salvation. The essence of the life in Christ, the life of the Kingdom, is internal spiritual mindedness. The contrast is between 'doing' wonderful works and 'doing' (the same Greek word is used in :21) the will of the Father. The language of 'doing the Father's will' is used about the Lord's life and final death on the cross. To be as Him, to give our deepest life as He did, is not the same as doing external works for others. &nbsp;</span></p>