Question from a reader:

If there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus in Romans 8:1, why is there a real danger of still going to hell in Mathew 7:21-23? This concerns and perplexes me.

Answer from Doreen Button, EPM staff:

Thank you for wanting to know what Scripture says about Jesus and His work.

Romans 8:1 reads, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And as someone cleverly explained, the “therefore” is ‘there for’ a reason. The original letter Paul wrote did not come with all those handy verse and chapter divisions. Sometimes they cause us trouble if we don’t look at the whole context of the verse.

Previous verses give us a clue about the condemnation Paul is talking about. Romans 7:22-25 summarize Paul’s struggle with sin that he’s so frustrated with. “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”

Romans 8:1 is the rest of his victory cry, begun in 7:25.

To understand the message of Matthew 7:21-23, again it’s critical to look at the whole passage and consider who Jesus is talking to and about:

“Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”

In the Romans passage, Paul takes us through every believer’s battle with sin and shows us why we need not be weighed down by it. When we trust Jesus wholly for our salvation and still fail at perfect obedience, it’s really frustrating.  We who love God, want to please Him—not to earn our salvation, but because He’s loved us so much. Yet, “thanks be to God,” He’s covered that sin and we can walk in “freedom and newness of life,” no longer condemned.

Jesus, on the other hand, is speaking of an entirely different group of people in Matthew.

Luke 6:46-49 is a parallel passage that helps us understand His message and its context more fully:

“Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them: He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid his foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the torrent crashed against that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

“But the one who hears My words and does not act on them is like a man who built his house on ground without a foundation. The torrent crashed against that house, and immediately it fell—and great was its destruction!”

Everyone has a choice. They can choose Jesus as their foundation, or they can choose to rule their own little kingdom built on shifting sand (that’s our enemy’s favorite choice—it makes his job so easy). Jesus’ teaching is aimed toward those who don’t want Him as anything more than an interesting teacher they can cherry-pick ideas and philosophies from. He’s also targeting the religious leaders who saw Him as a blasphemous mad-man.

Lots of people call themselves Christians and it terrifies me. They don’t love Jesus and they don’t obey His Father or rely on His Spirit and yet, because they once prayed to “receive Jesus into their heart” then continued to live their own lives their own way, they think they’ll spend eternity with Jesus.

As C. S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, says so eloquently: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”

And by the way, the “ask, seek, knock” passage is part of the broader context of Matthew’s teachings. Jesus taught about this in multiple ways, using the vine and branches metaphor, sheep and shepherd imagery, etc.

So, if you’ve chosen Jesus and put your life in His hands, there is no condemnation for you. And, if you’ve chosen your own path and ignore His claim as The Way, The Truth, and The Life (see John 14:6), regardless of whether your mouth has called Him “Lord,” He will not recognize you as His own on the final Day.

Keep asking, seeking and knocking! He’s right there waiting to hear from you.