Matt 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work lawlessness.
What does Christ mean exactly by saying to these believers that He never knew them?
Below is my understanding from scripture of what Christ meant. Can anyone add to it?
For mankind in this present age to be saved, we must become the wife of Christ so that the new child of God can be born. When Christ says to these believers that He never “knew” them, He is saying that they are not is wife with whom He has produced offspring (child of God).
Please keep in mind that the analogy of a husband and wife used by Christ to teach how He saves each of His Elect is a spiritual analogy. That means it all happens "within" us. Mankind is the woman. When a person is "called out", they are betrothed to Christ. When Christ comes a second time to them, the marriage occurs. When the marriage is consummated, a new child of God is produced.
Here are some scriptures that teach this relationship between Christ and mankind:
Isa 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Someday, all mankind will spiritually become descendants of Abraham after they converted but only those saved in this present age will become the bride (wife) of Christ. They are the Firstfruits/Elect/Heirs/Overcomers/Chosen/Saints. Below are some scriptures that support my understanding:
The parable of the Ten Virgins is a detailed teaching on our marriage relationship with Christ.
Mat 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto TEN virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in flasks with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
The parable begins by showing us Ten Virgins. The term “Virgins” symbolizes all believers who have been “Called out from the world”. All ten virgins have received the Early Rain of the Spirit at this point but not the Latter Rain. The number TEN represents the completeness of their carnality. They have all been made “worse than before”.
The Lamp in verse 1 represents the Word of God (Christ/Truth) and the “Oil” with which it is filled represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This original filling of Oil in the lamps represent the Early Rain of the Spirit within each “called out” believer. The Light that the Lamp gives off is “truth” which lights the pathway to Christ.
Psa 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
The “truth” of the original filling of Oil that lights the way to Christ is the Old Covenant of Law (works).
Mat 25:2 And FIVE of them were Wise, and FIVE were Foolish.
The parable continues with two additional symbols: FIVE Wise Virgins and FIVE Foolish Virgins. The number FIVE is a symbol for the two ways mankind relates to God. Those two ways are by “works” (Old Covenant of Law) or by “faith” (New Covenant of Grace through Faith).
The FIVE Foolish Virgins represent those who have been Called Out but are not chosen to be the bride of Christ. They approach Christ by “works”. They will remain under the Law until their physical deaths.
The FIVE Wise Virgins represent those who have been Called Out and Chosen to be the Bride of Christ. They will for a time approach Christ by “works” alongside the 5 Foolish Virgins but they will eventually change their approach to “Grace through Faith”.
Mat 25:3-5 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in flasks with their lamps. 5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
While the Ten Virgins wait for the Bridegroom to come a second time (the first time was when the betrothal was made/Early Rain), they all slumber & sleep and do not keep watch. The symbol “slumbered and slept” represents the time when we are spiritually blind and are spiritually dead. At this time, the Wise Virgins are no different from the Foolish Virgins. They too, are in a worsened spiritual state and still carry the Lamp that gives off the light of the Old Covenant of Law.
However, verse 4 lets us know that the 5 Wise Virgins are those who have been 'chosen from the foundation of the world" to be the Bride of Christ because they carry an extra flask of Oil.
Mat 25:6-9 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
At midnight, the deepest part of our spiritual darkness, the call goes out to announce the Bridegroom’s approach. This is the same call that was made by John the Baptist to the Nation of Israel and later by the Apostle John to “Called Out” Christian believers. It is a call to repent from the Works of the Law so as to prepare the way for us to receive Christ and the New Covenant.
When both the Wise Virgins and the Foolish Virgins hear “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Luke 3:4) and “come out of her my people” (Rev 18:4), it tells them the Bridegroom is coming. They all awake from their slumber and trim their Lamps. As they do, the Lamps begin to go out. A second filling of Oil is needed. For the 5 wise Virgins, since they brought a second filling of Oil, they receive the Latter Rain of the Spirit and go out to meet Christ. They now start following the new light given off from the Lamp which represents the New Covenant of Grace through Faith. But because the 5 Foolish Virgins do not have a second filling of Oil, they are forced to “turn back” from whence they came. They will remain under Law.
This time of turning back is symbolized by Lot’s wife who turned back.
Luke 17:31-32 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. 32 Remember Lot's wife.
It is also shown to us in John 6:66 when some of the Christ’s disciples turned away from following Him after responding to the cry of John the Baptist.
John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
The 5 Foolish Virgins cannot continue on to meet the Bridegroom because they did not receive a second filling of Oil for their Lamps. This New Oil symbolizes the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit which would have lighted their way to walk by the New Covenant of Grace through Faith. The 5 Foolish Virgins simply were not Chosen from the foundation of the world and had no choice but to remain under Law. Because they never became the wife of Christ, Christ never “knew” them so as to produce a new child of God. As a result, they remained under Law and were not saved.
Joe
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said that only those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom Heaven and that he would tell the workers of lawlessness to depart from him and that he never knew them, and the Father has made His will known through His law (Psalms 40:8). However, you've matched this with the parable of the 10 virgins as saying that the 5 virgins who won't enter the supper that Jesus did not know are those those who obeyed the Mosaic Law, as though Jesus had said that only those who reject the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and that he would tell workers of the law to depart from him.
If Christ never knew them because they were workers of lawlessness, then God's laws are His instructions for how to know Christ. In Genesis 18:19, God knew Abraham that so he will teach his children and those of His household to keep His ways by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to him all that He has promised him, namely that through his offspring all of the nations of the earth would be blessed. In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by making known to him His ways that he might know Him and Israel too, and there are many verses that describe the Mosaic Law as being instructions for how to walk in God's ways, such as Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Isaiah 2:2-3, Joshua 22:5, and Psalms 103:7, and God's ways are aspects of His nature. In Jeremiah 9:3 and 9:6, they did not know God and refuse to know Him because in 9:13, they had forsaken the Mosaic Law, while in 9:24, those who know God know that He delights in practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in all the earth, so delight in expressing those and other aspects of God's nature through our obedience to His law is the way to know God and Jesus, who is the exact expression of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3). In 1 John 2:4, those who say that they know Christ, but don't obey his commands a liars and the truth is not in them, and in 1 John 3:4, sin is the transgression of God's law and those who continue to practice sin have neither seen or known him. In John 17:3, eternal life is knowing God and Jesus, and in Matthew 19:17, Jesus said that the way to enter eternal life is by obeying God's commands.
Furthermore, this knowledge is referring to an experiential knowledge in the same sense that Adam knew Eve and had children. A chip off of the old block is someone who has the same character or nature as their Father, so this is the sense that Christ is the Son of God, and the sense that we are sons of God grace and peace is multiplies to us in knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord and when we become partaker in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-4), which is why those who do not practice righteousness are not children of God (1 John 3:10). In Psalms 119:1, blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord, so the God's law is how the Israelites knew how to be blessed, which means that the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham comes through blessing the nations by turning their from their wicked ways and how to walk in God's ways in obedience to His law, which has its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, who came to bless the nations by turning us from our wicked ways (Acts 3:25-26). So this is the sense that we are to be fruitful and multiply as children of God. In Psalms 119:29-30, David wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey the Mosaic Law, and to choose the way of faithfulness, so this has always been the way of salvation by grace through faith.
In Romans 2:26-29, the way to recognize that a Gentile has a circumcised heart is by observing their obedience to the Mosaic Law, which is the same way to tell for a Jew (Deuteronomy 10:12-16, 30:6), while having an uncircumcised heart is associated with refusing to submit to the Mosaic Law (Jeremiah 9:25-26, Acts 7:51-53).
John the Baptist calling for people to make straight (just) the way of the Lord is calling for people to return to obedience to the Mosaic Law, not to repent from our obedience to it. Likewise, he was calling for people to repent from their sins, and the Mosaic Law was how they knew what sin is.
In Psalms 119:105-106, David said that God's word is a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path and that he has sworn and oath and confirmed that that he would keep God's righteous laws. In Proverbs 6:23, the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life. So the elements of the lamp and the oil are the Mosaic Law and the keeping of it. The Law of God is nothing but head knowledge unless we keep it in the same way that a lamp is nothing without oil. In Jewish tradition, oil symbolizes good deeds:
"Now oil symbolizes good deeds, as it is written: “A good name is better than good oil” (Kohelet 7:1). We also read in Tanna D’vei Eliyahu Rabba: “Oil always represents good deeds. In fact, ‘Your oils are better than fragrance’ means: ‘Your deeds are better than fragrance.’ ” "
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Mixed with oil – that is Torah, which is required to be mixed with good deeds; like that which we learned (
Avot 2:2)" (Bamidbar Rabbah 13).
Likewise:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:15-16).
In Matthew 25:1, Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heave is like 10 virgins, so all 10 are in the Kingdom, but only 5 made it to the supper. Jesus went on to say in Matthew 5:19 that those who breaks the least of these commandments or teaches others to do the same would be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, while whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. In James 2:18, faith without deeds is useless just as a lamp without oil is useless. The five foolish virgins had the lamp, so they had Mosaic Law and the words of Jesus, but they had no good deeds, which served to judge them as not being worthy of the supper because they knew to do good, but did not do it. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so our deed don't get us into the Kingdom because our entrance only comes through faith, but they do determine whether we are invited to the supper:
"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God” (Revelation 19:6-9).
