yes.
I'm afraid I'm going to be one of the Christians that God says to, "I never knew you." I'm really afraid of going to hell. I know that we are supposed to believe that we are saved through grace, and that no one is perfect, and that it is through faith, not works, but what if I don't have enough faith? I sure as hell don't have enough good deeds to go to heaven. I used to believe I was going to heaven and everyone else had to walk on eggshells, but I was also very arrogant. I'm just not so sure I'm going to make it anymore. I don't deal with it. I either am petrified all of the time, or I try to forget about death altogether. Every time I drive a car (yes I FINALLY got a driver's license) I'm afraid I'm going to die and go to hell that day, therefore, I'm scared to even drive. I know I shouldn't be so scared to die, but I just can't shake the fear of hell. sometimes I try to convince myself that God will accept me despite everything I've done, and that I will see a bunch of Christians I met in this life again, but most of the time I'm just afraid I'm going to hell.
Just don't do what the people that Jesus said "I never knew you" did. Now what exactly did they do?
1. They depended on their works to get them to heaven. They pleaded their deeds as the reason why they should be let into heaven. They said Lord look at all the wonderful works we did. This is the reason they were not saved. They were not saved because they trusted in their behavior to get them into heaven instead of trusting in the blood of Jesus alone to get them there. So they didn't have saving faith.
2. They didn't depend on Jesus as Savior....They depended on their commitment to Christ as Lord to save them. They even said it twice... "LORD, LORD have we not done many wonderful works...." Yes, we are to believe that Jesus is the Lord... but we are not to depend on our willingness to submit to His Lordship as our reason for forgiveness and salvation. That is really just depending on our moral works.
Now if they would have trusted in Christ as Savior their sins would have been covered by the blood of Christ and so He wouldn't have seen them as sinners (workers of iniquity).
I myself had years and years of worrying about hell. We get rid of this by faith in the gospel.
Faith means to believe that even though I am so sinful I cannot do a single thing to save myself or to help save myself, nevertheless, I am now saved and forgiven simply because the blood of Jesus has satisfied the wrath of God for me. It means to trust and believe that Jesus' death on the cross has paid the penalty for my sin and so I am now accepted by God.
It isn't presumptuous to believe such a thing because Revelation 22:17 invites us to do that very thing... "whoever desires let him take the water of life (salvation) freely"
This means that anyone and everyone who desires salvation by Christ is invited to simply take salvation freely by faith. We can take it freely. There is no cost. We just claim it by faith.
So just say this to Jesus... Lord I permanently abandon all efforts to save myself by being good enough for salvation. You invited me to simply take the water of life freely. So I, this very day, believe that I am now forgiven and accepted by God simply because you died on the cross for me and paid for my sins. I know that since you invited me to do this I am not being presumptuous. Thank you for the forgiveness of sins and for the trustworthy promise that whosoever believeth in You shall not perish but shall have everlasting life."
