“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 iniquity.” Matthew 7:21-23
What is, “...the will of my Father which is in heaven...”?
Clearly it is not this list of works these deluded souls list out to the Lord in an attempt to justify themselves. But if not, then what IS it? Jesus tell us in John 6:29.
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” This is the much hated doctrine of justification by faith alone as taught by the Lord Himself.
Note that those who list out their works of piety are damned, not having believed the Gospel even though they are very actively ‘Christian’ and very religious, no doubt.
But Christ tells us that when we have done all that we should do, the best we can say about ourselves is that we are unprofitable servants. Note how different the attitude is from these false Christians in Matthew 7 who boast of their works.
Matthew 7:21-23 describes all Roman Catholicism and most Protestantism. Hell will be full of very religious people.
May God Help you. You isolated that scripture from the rest, that person or persons are saying that quote to Jesus from his statement. It can mean they are complete liars and never did it just to say anything to get into heaven. Also Matthew 25:31-46 [the Sheep and the Goats] -Depart from me........into the eternal fire... For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me,I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.” ....... He will reply , ‘I tell you the truth,whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment,but the righteous to eternal fire.” So the righteous are Christians doing christian works. What does I will spit you out neither hot nor cold but lukewarm in Revelation- Its an action You don’t just say your a Christian or I’m imputed. You act too. When Paul talks about works he is talking about Temple works[Mosaic law and offerings] which were still going on as he wrote the epistles. As James reads whats faith without works. Please reread bible on your own carefully . In His Love Jesus Bye
Truer words were never spoken.