Matthew 7:21 (NIV) Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Acts 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
If everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, how then will some who call Him ‘Lord’ not enter His Kingdom?
READ ALSO: TIMELINE OF THE AGES (PART 1)
THE BIBLE MEANING:
Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can SEE the kingdom of God unless they are born again”…“Very truly I tell you, no one can ENTER the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5, NIV).
Acts 2:21 is addressing the matter of justification—the salvation of the spirit—which occurs when a person gets born again. When you “confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,” your spirit is saved (Romans 10:9). This initial salvation enables you to SEE the Kingdom of God.
However, this experience differs from the salvation of the soul, which involves sanctification—a process also known as the renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2). This transformation is necessary for a believer to ENTER the Kingdom of God.
From John 3, we learn that seeing the Kingdom and entering the Kingdom require different things. To see the Kingdom of God, one must be born again by calling on the name of the Lord and believing in their heart. However, to enter the Kingdom, one must be born of water and the Spirit. This involves the cleansing of the soul through the washing of water by the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26) and a life submitted to the leading of the Spirit.
READ NEXT: BIBLE CONTRADICTIONS (PART 4)
What is the Kingdom of God?
Those who yield to the Word and the Spirit will experience the Kingdom. Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
You will no longer only hear it with your ears that it is possible to live righteously, and have supernatural peace or a joy you cannot explain even amid the trials of this world, you will experience it. You can enter into a life that enjoys these things even now before the Lord returns. Calling on the name of the Lord is to partake in justification, but you must obey Him to be sanctified.
Is sexual incompatibility a good ground for divorce? Let’s see what the bible has to say about this new trend.
