Nice try, but you are twisting scriptures again.
When you hear the word and believe, you know Jesus. You have to only KNOW and BELIEVE about Jesus JUST ONCE. To GROW as a Christian, you have to obviously keep the commandments like go to church BUT that is NOT part of salvation.
Again, 1 John 2:3-4 indicates that you have to keep His commandments in order to say that we truly know Him. If you believe otherwise, please show me what this portion of Scripture is truly saying by giving me a word for word commentary on it.
As for the keeping of commandments as a part of eternal life:
Well, Jesus says "if you will enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17-19). Jesus agreed with the lawyer on the truth that to love God and to love your neighbor (the two greatest commandments) is a part of inheriting eternal life (See Luke 10:25-28). John says in his 1st epistle that if we hate our brother (the opposite of loving our brother) we are like a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15). John says in Revelation 22, "Blessed
are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without
are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." (Revelation 22:14-15).
1 John 3:23 says that believing in Jesus is a commandment. Do you believe you are saved by keeping this commandment? If so, then that means that you believe that keeping some kind of commandment of God relates to eternal life.
You said:
Jesus, in the end times, tells the non-believers....they NEVER KNEW him....NOT that "they USED to know him"...but they NEVER knew him.
Just a few verses above, Jesus said that there are those who are false prophets or wolves in sheeps clothing (See: Matthew 7:15).
According to the Bible, not everyone preaches the same Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4) and not everyone preaches the same gospel (Galatians 1:8). This is what Matthew 7:23 is referring to. For these individuals did wonderful works in Christ's name. So they are believers in Jesus. But Christ never knew them. This means that they either received another Christ, and or they received another gospel (that does not save). What was the problem in Matthew 7:23 as to WHY Christ never knew these kinds of believers?
They worked iniquity. Jesus told them to depart from Him because they worked iniquity. Iniquity is sin. They were working sin and they were not living holy or righteously. 1 John 3:4 says that sin is transgression of the Law. A Law is a commandment. Again, 1 John 2:4 says if a person says they know the Lord and yet they do not keep His commandments, they are a liar and "
the truth"
(i.e. Jesus is the Truth - John 14:6) is not in them.
To drive this point home even further in Matthew 7:23, in verses 26-27 (Matthew 7:26-27), we see that Jesus says that the person who does not do what He says is like a fool who built his house upon the sand, and when a storm came, great was the fall of that house.
Jesus said prior to Matthew 7:23, that we will know a tree by its fruit. He said a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Fruits are deeds.
A person's deeds or fruits determines a person's heart.
"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:" (Matthew 15:19).
Believers have the fruit of the Spirit, like love, joy, and peace, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23).
You said:
Jesus EVEN TELLS the reason why they never knew him.....BECAUSE THEY TRUSTED IN THEIR WORKS....they had confidence in their flesh to get them to heaven.
Sorry, that is not what Matthew 7:23 says. Jesus did not say to depart from Him because they did wonderful works in His name or because they did not trust in the finished work of Christ. Jesus simply said to depart from Him because they worked iniquity (Which is sin).
Isaiah 59:2 says,
"But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid
his face from you, that he will not hear."
This is what happened. Their iniquities or sins have separated them from God. They did not confess and put away grievous sin. They did not teach others to do this, as well.
Proverbs 28:13 says,
"He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy."
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7).
"And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;" (Hebrews 5:9).
But...
"...if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins," (Hebrews 10:26).
