The Sermon on the Mount has been romanticized by some without taking what Jesus said to a deeper level. We could call the Sermon on the Mount the Sermon of Doing. Jesus is speaking into a religious system of works that suit the presence of imposters, not a true follower of Christ.

In the closing verses of His sermon, Jesus said these startling words, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’” (7:21-23).

Think of what the Lord said. Not all those who call out Jesus’s name are following His truth. They will say “We have a powerful ministry! We prophesied in your name, performed miracles, and cast our demons!” The most chilling words that Jesus will someday speak to those who assumed they were following the Lord will be eternally painful, “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.” Jesus, the spokesman of our grace, spoke of a day of judgment when He will utter those sad words.

Whenever I read the Lord’s concluding words to the Sermon on the Mount, I am startled by its stark truth. I then look back through the content in the Sermon on the Mount to see where I live as an imposter of true faith. We all need to be startled from time to time motivating us to go deeper into the place of our hidden motives. This is a righteous fear of the Lord kind of experience. That healthy fear is driven by the great concern that the Lord would ever need to say to any of us, “I never knew you.” 

This wonderful covenant of grace and freedom expressed in the Sermon on the Mount is not without consequence if we fail to do what the Lord commanded. When we read the “I never knew you words” words of Jesus, we all need to pause in that startling moment and ask some serious questions about our faith. The decisions we make at that moment will someday have eternal consequences if we fail to do what the Lord has commanded.

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26).