Matthew 12:36-37

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 7:21-23

“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.’

I’ve always wondered how that final judgement day meeting would go between myself and God. I’ve always wondered because I’ve always known in the back of my mind that I don’t live up to the standard that God desires. Matthew 7:21-23 is harsh and to the point; “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness”.

I fear, at this very point in time, my judgement day meeting would go like this:

“Next!” God calls, looking at a book before him. He flips through the pages to find my name. “Mark?”

“Yes, that’s me,” I would say cautiously.

God reads through my entry in the book. “How do you think you went?”

“Badly, horribly,” I will say quite honestly, because there’s no point being anything but honest to the omniscient God.

“Yes, I know,” God will say. “Your track record with sin is shocking. You didn’t even make an effort.”

“I did try.”

“Were those times of sin worth anything now that eternity is on the line?”

“No, I know.”

God closes the book. “Look behind you at the line. Look at all those people waiting for judgement. Not a single one of them did any better than you at defeating sins. Yes, they all sinned in different ways; there’s a murderer next in line followed by a Pastor who believed he was bringing people the gospel out of his own strength, but until the moment they died, they weren’t worthy to enter heaven out of anything they did or didn’t do. It was only through my son dying on the cross that you even have any hope of entering into an eternal relationship with me, rather than the lake of fire. Your sin is covered. It’s what you did next that I’m more interested in.”

“I put my faith in Jesus, I believe he died for me.”

“That’s excellent.”

“I prayed almost daily; I did my daily bible reading and studying.”

“That almost makes it worse for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your first manager at your fast food job when you were 15. What was your manager’s name?”

“I don’t remember.”

“His name was Raj. Do you remember sharing the gospel with him?”

“No I don’t.”

“The first person you met at your second job, the retail store. Do you remember who that was?”

“Craig?”

“Yes. Craig. Do you remember sharing the gospel with him, or doing anything that could build a relationship with him?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t think of it at the time.”

“Jesus told the disciples ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation’. Paul said in his letter to the Romans: ‘How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?’ There are people who could be in heaven who are not because you saw things in the world as more important than the salvation of the people around you. It wasn’t your life, Mark. It was life I gifted to you for you to use for my glory.”