The Saddest Words

I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Matthew 7:23

Imagine you have been living on a piece of property for twenty years, and you decide to sell. When it is time to have an updated survey of the property prepared, the surveyor gives you bad news: you are not the registered owner of your property! Somehow, your name was never entered in the county’s book of deeds and registrations. You know you own the property, but the county registrar does not.

The absence of a name in a deed book can usually be remedied with supporting documentation. But there is one book of names that, once it is opened by God, cannot be changed. And that is the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). In that book are the names of all who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. “I never knew you; depart from Me” will be the saddest words an individual could ever hear when his or her name can’t be found. The only thing that could be as bad would be for a Christian to hear those words spoken to a person he or she had the opportunity to influence toward a decision for Christ. What will Jesus say to such a person?

If you know someone to whom Jesus may one day say, “I never knew you,” tell that person how to avoid that sad day.

Every single believer is a God-ordained agent of evangelism.

R. B. KUIPER