Lord, Lord

When I first moved to Austin, I began corresponding with the producers of a local access television program on Bible matters. The first program I saw was on devil worship and it was actually very informative. But the last segment struck me as terribly misleading. It was some sort of an invitation for viewers to supposedly become Christians. The narrator told the audience to pray a simple prayer after his fashion and they would be automatically forgiven of their sins without anything else.
I wrote my first letter to the producer and asked where this prayer came from, for I could not find it in my Bible. I asked why he had neglected to encourage people to repent of the sins for which they wanted mercy. I asked him why he did not mention baptism and why he said nothing of a faithful life afterward that leads to heaven's gate.
He wrote back and told me that most of those things were good, but unnecessary to salvation. All one needed to do was to pray his "sinner's prayer" to be forgiven. Where he received this revelation, I still know not.
In my next letter, I quoted the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21: "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."
I received my own letter back, covered with red ink markings as if a school teacher had failed it for poor grammar. In fact, the correspondent had corrected everything I had written about salvation of the Bible. Where I had simply quoted Matthew 7:21, he had used his red pen to circle the words of Jesus and write in capital letters, "NO!!!!!!."
At some point, he crossed over from correcting me to correcting the Lord. Jesus taught his disciples that confessing him, "Lord," was insufficient in the pursuit of divine peace. Rather, he who does God's will would enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Saul is one example, for on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, he witnessed the glorified Jesus and upon learning His identity, asked, "Lord, what do You want me to do?". Was he saved yet? No, Jesus sent him into town to meet Ananias, who told him to "Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16)."
Saul, like Jesus said, had to do something to find God's mercy. He had to call on the Lord's name by being immersed for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).
J. S. Smith

Return To Voice Of The Valley Main Index

Return To April, 1997 Volume 3 Issue 2