Jesus loves you with an unfamiliar love. His love says what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Take these words for example, from Matthew's gospel, chapter 7:

Do you recognize the love in those words? Usually we don’t. We’re trained not to. Our training comes from a hundred scenarios like this: You’re having dinner with Christian friends. Some time after the meal, now that the conversation has grown comfortable and intimate, one friend begins grieving her bad day at the office. She confesses behavior unbecoming a follower of Jesus: anger, malice, insult. But her confession is met by all with sweeping reassurances: “It could not have been that bad.” “You were just having an off day.” “Don’t fret, that is not the real you.” And so the convicting work of the Holy Spirit is trampled by the comfort brigades.

Because we are regularly reassured by nearly everyone over nearly everything we hear Christ’s assault on false assurance as simply rude. At worst, we might suspect he’s a bungling prophet with a sour disposition. At best, we suspect he’s talking about other people, yet we can not imagine who. Therefore, finding us too dense for pleasant persuasion, Jesus must drop a bomb at our feet: “Some of you profess me (Lord, Lord) but you don’t actually possess me (I never knew you)."

With this warning Jesus penetrates the comfort of religious activists with shocking news: displays of religious enthusiasm and power can blind you to impending doom just as sure as abject worldliness blinds others. How? Because if we engage in self-selected religious activity for the purpose of glorying in ourselves we will remain darkened and dead to the glory of God in Christ crucified and risen. In short, we can cleverly reject Christ by even doing the works He did all the while refusing to do the one work He demands: Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:28-29).

   

Notice what Jesus calls the religious enthusiasts in Matthew 7: evildoers. This is the last thing they thought they were but it is the only thing Jesus sees them to be.  They name him - Lord, Lord - they mimic his works - prophesies, exorcisms, miracles - but Jesus does not know them. As much as they seem to have a part in him they do not.  They have been fooled, for the works they do are the works of Satan who gladly replicates all the works of Christ except the atonement (2 Thess. 2:9).  These religiously enthusiastic folk do not serve Jesus they serve Satan! They would rather cast out demons and raise the dead for their justification than have to trust Jesus for it. And so the love of self and lust for self-justification remains unbroken. They have never loved the Lord they easily named for there is no love for Jesus in hearts that trust in their own works. 

Is there an alternative to all this satanic and counterfeit religion? Yes, but it is not "no religion" it is rather pure and undefiled religion. Jesus speaks of this in the Matthew 7 passage as well. The one who knows Jesus and enters the kingdom is "the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (v. 21). 

Now we have touched on something enormous, something far beyond self-selected visible religious enthusiasm. "Does the will of my Father" - notice how Jesus presents this identifying statement without specifics. Those whom He knows do not just do a few specific religious functions, no, they do the will of his Father - it is an all consuming way of life. This is the opposite of self-selected religious enthusiasm. Those whom Jesus knows are those who have been taken over in all of life's nooks and crannies by an interest in his Father's will - a religion with a wide berth that originates in the inner man. Psalm 51:6 - "Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart." Such is the new creation of the Spirit.

Do you pursue God's will when no one is around? Is God’s will visible in you when you’re invisible to others? Does your religion control your tongue (James 1:26)? Does your religion direct you in compassion for orphans and widows (James 1:27)? Does your religion cause you to abstain from worldly lusts and worldly aspirations (James 1:27)? If so, it is because by faith you see in the Father's heaven sent Son, Jesus Christ, all the goodness of the Father being given to you and now God's Spirit has opened your heart to the goodness of doing his will.

  

What if you have no broad all-of-life interest in the will of the heavenly Father? Then humble yourself under the grave warning of Matthew 7. Confess to the Lord that you were hoping to get around needing Christ's righteousness and sacrifice by offering to the Lord on judgment day some nostalgic recollections of your own filthy works. Repent of trusting both your good works and your selective religious performances and trust in Christ alone. It is not too late. Jesus spoke the warning in Matthew 7 preemptively to save us from trying to save ourselves. Call on his name today. No, not to tell him what you have done, but to trust in the great work He has done on the cursed tree.