2 Gates, 2 Trees, 2 Houses, 2 Professions of Faith, & 2 "Ways" to follow Christ

Copenhagen, Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount:
Are Cultural Christians really Christians? Are self-proclaimed believers, prayed the prayer when I was in third grade but haven't done anything about it since, truly saved? Are these Christian Atheists who say they believe God exists, but live like He doesn't, guaranteed to inherit the kingdom or eternal judgment?  

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In the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest man whoever lived, Jesus explains in a series of contrasts that “faith and obedience are inextricably bound together in the Kingdom of God” (Howell, 115):

• "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14). If it wasn't obvious from the context, the Greek is abundantly clear that Jesus commands us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven through the narrow gate. Our choices determine one of two “ways” which lead to the gates in question, for “the unstated assumptions are that everyone must go through a gate and end up somewhere and that only two gates exist” (Nolland 332). The very fact that there is even an alternative to the narrow gate in Christ's preaching should debunk any universalism theology. Faith in Christ and obedience to His commands is clearly revealed as the way to the narrow gate, while the myriad “other ways” to God are encompassed by the broad road that leads to the wide gate of destruction.
  
  
• “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20). Jesus warned His disciples, and by extension all subsequent believers, that false prophets would come in disguise with clever words and arguments that would lead them astray. Since they can be difficult to identify when they “profess allegiance to the King and even prophesy, exorcise demons and perform miracles in his name” (Howell, 116), Christ told them to look at their fruit and question the “outworking[s] in the lives of these people of what they stand for” (Nolland 337). For we do not want to share in their fate, destruction. Since, the “fruit” or words, actions, or obedience reveal the hearts of men, we too can see how even those expressing “impressive outward piety, fine-sounding confession, or dynamic miracle-producing ministry” may not be walking in a true relationship with Christ as marked by the fruit of obedience (Howell, 116).
  
  
• "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” (Matthew 7:21-23). These are by far the scariest words in the bible, for people are approaching Christ as judge on the day of judgment (“on that day”) and addressing Christ as “Lord, Lord” in a form of protest against refusal of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven (Nolland, 340). Despite their “works,” Christ points to a lack of relationship with Him, which He designates is tantamount as failure to do the will of the Father. Our relationship with Christ is the starting point of our obedience to His commands, for “one's relationship with Jesus is seen as established in the readiness to do the will of his father” (Nolland, 341). Worse yet, Jesus tells them not only to “go away,” but ominously calls them “ye who practice lawlessness,” a term used only three other times in Matthew's gospel (13:41, 23:28, 24:12) for the absence of God's love and thus destruction. In other words, without a relationship with Christ, our destruction deserving natures always dominate.
  
  
• "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:24-28). Jesus ended His entire sermon focusing on what imperatives come about because of the indicatives, meaning what actions of obedience (the doing) should come about through recognizing and understanding His words (the hearing). In this context, the words of Paul, that we are saved by faith alone, and the words of James, that faith without works is dead, come into brilliant clarity. Our salvation is indeed by faith, but it is by the works or the fruits of that faith that we will know that the saving transaction has occurred. With the two houses Christ is subtlety alluding to the fact that when God's judgment and “...eschatological upheaval...engulf God's people along with everyone else” (Nolland 344) that those who chose to build their lives in Him, the rock of salvation, will survive while those who did not obey realized too late that “all other ground is sinking sand.” Thus, Christ calls those who have faith AND obey the wise, but those with only one the foolish. For “Jesus disallows any notion of two tiers or two categories of kingdom citizens,” there will not be one “who is obedient and rewarded” and another “whom is disobedient and unrewarded” (Howell, 115), there are simply those who have a relationship with Christ as evidenced by good fruit and those who don't as evidence by bad fruit.