Depart From Me . . .

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’"

Matthew 7:21-23

Many will ask, essentially, "Haven't we done this?" or "Haven't we done that?" or "Didn't we lead so many to You?" and "Didn't we do this and that for You?"

But this has me thinking . . . Who do we do it for?
Do we spread the gospel of Christ crucified so that they may be saved or maybe to further the kingdom of God? Or is our reason self-serving?
We can't ever earn our way into Heaven. It's impossible. Even if we help lead souls to Christ, we still don't deserve eternal life. But nevertheless, there will be some who ask "Didn't we do this?" and "Didn't we do that?"
In other words, "Didn't we deserve it?"
Basically, "I did this for You so i could get in to Heaven."
Many see the great commission as a ticket into Heaven, like a way to compensate for a worldly/sinful life. But such is not the case.

"Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him."
1 John 3:6

 Sin is sin. Sin keeps us from God. We can't proclaim His name enough to make up for even one simple slip. Only by His grace can we not face judgement.

We can't compensate for our sin. We can't have a perverse sense of humor and make up for it in another area of our life and say "Oh, it's fine, i'm a good Christian because i don't cuss."
We can't have uncontrollable anger, yet say "It's alright because i'm not sexually immoral."
We can't have a mouth like the world (cussing/vulgarities) and say "It's okay, i led someone to Christ yesterday."
Paul had a "thorn" that he asked Jesus to remove, but He didn't. It emphasized Paul's weakness and Jesus' strength. We will always have a struggle to overcome, but that's just it; we have to fight it and not let it get the best of us. We have to realize that this struggle, this vice, this burden emphasizes our need for Christ.

In essence, we can't earn our way into Heaven, and we can't be righteous because we're not as bad in some area(s) of our lives as other might be.

I have my own vice. I get annoyed. Very annoyed. Specifically annoyed. But it's my struggle. It might never go away. It emphasizes the fact that i need a Savior.