But this time it won’t be as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. “He shall come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end” (1 Corinthians 15:23). Jesus is coming back as Judge and this is sobering. Are you ready?
A good place to start would be to know that you are truly saved. I know that when I stand before Him on that great day I want to hear “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23). No one wants to hear those horrifying words “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity” (Matt. 7:23).
It’s important to remember that God’s kingdom, Christ’s kingdom, is one of power and not pretense. It is one of righteousness and obedience and not a mere profession of fruitless words and empty show. For Jesus said, “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matt. 7:17).
A hard question to ask ourselves is: Would one characterize my life as righteous or religious? There is a difference. No one took more heat and condemnation from Jesus than the so-called ‘religious’ leaders of His day. He compared them to “whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27). Yikes. The King is coming back! It’s time to ask for life in these dead men’s bones!
Perhaps a good place to start is with confession of our sin. Yes, confession. It is silly to think that we won’t sin even after we have come to salvation in Christ. The Apostle John states that “If we say we have no sin then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:8). Don’t deceive yourself! Sin is still very much alive because of this old, sinful flesh of ours. This is why Jesus admonishes anyone who wishes to follow Him to “take up his cross daily” (Luke 9:23). Many of us think that once we’re saved we’ve got to maintain some kind of super-saint persona for everyone to admire. Stop it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confess! Something so simple and yet so hard to do at times and yet so much of our trouble and angst and health issues and mental health issues can be avoided if only we would confess our sins and pray for one another. (James 5:16)
Self-examination is hard. No one wants to discover that they’ve been a fraud. In anything. But it would be far better to discover now, before it’s too late. Better to reckon with sin now, and confess and to fall at the feet of the Savior and repent—than to find out at the throne of the Judge that He never knew us.
Make sure of your calling today while salvation may still be found.