Why Did Jesus Say "I Never Knew You" to the Damned?
What I blame for apostasy in the churches today is not the teaching of once saved, always saved but rather a watered down salvation message. In fact, how do you expect a true conversion of there is no repentance about themselves being sinners? Pretty much, one must realize either they are saved or not saved. The problem with conditional security lies in the sin of pride. In fact, one of the biggest questions towards conditional security is if they can answer this question on why Jesus said He NEVER knew them? In Matthew 7:21-23 and Matthew 25:12 are the phrase "I never knew you." and "I know you not." So why is that? Let's take a little bit of context. While they have used this verse to justify salvation by works or maintained by it, do they understand the real meaning of the word "never" here?
In Matthew 7:21-23 we read, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I NEVER knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity." While the conditional security and works salvation crowd would want to appeal unto that one, however notice the word "never". If people were once saved and lost it, then how can Jesus say, "I NEVER knew you." which drives to mere common sense in Scripture. To notice, notice they were also called "workers of iniquity". Why is that? When one reads the Bible step by step, in Romans 3 we read the sad fallen state of man. Romans 3:10-19 declares man as fallen sinners, none righteous and have gone astray and James 2:10-11 is clear you only need to break one of the ten commandments to fall short of God's sinless perfection. The problem of works salvation is that it ignores the righteousness of God, seeks to rob the glory from God and believes if your good works outweigh your bad works, you are fine which in turn grants a license to sin making it okay for the homosexual to be "good" as long as he or she gives money to charity or the habitual adulterer to be good as long as he keeps attending Masses or singing in the choir. That is something that is utterly crooked and twisted. In fact when Christ mentioned, "Workers of iniquity." their good works were plastic, not seeking to glorify God but themselves. Jesus warned about people who do good works for the approval of men than of God and that's the works salvationist and such people can be such dreadful sinners like adulterers, drunkards and cheaters.
Another example of "I never knew you." is the parable of the virgins and the wedding feast. Matthew 25:1-12 pictures the difference between the true convert and the false convert. The five wise virgins are pictures of the true convert- their readiness was there. The false converts were pictures of people who were just there to be there and the fact they didn't have oil for their lamps proved they weren't even saved. This also showed that salvation is personal and true Christians cannot even share their oil to the unsaved. Obviously, Jesus was putting a distinction between the true converts (wise virgins) and the false converts (foolish virgins). In the end, the bridegroom tells them, "I know you not." If Christ said that to those who are His, He would be lying because the fact He never knew them, was evidence that they weren't saved to begin with. The five wise virgins were really saved, the false virgins weren't saved to start with as illustrated in the parable of the virgins. In fact Matthew 25 has the rest of the chapter devoted to the parable of the talents (which revealed the false convert as the person who didn't invest) and later, the distinction between the saved and the unsaved. The good works of the saved were God honoring while God dismissed the faux charity of the unsaved which again is this, "Salvation is by faith alone but never by a faith that is alone." The Reformers, Baptist preachers and Apostles were clear on that stand that good works verify authentic faith or the statement, "You can have works without faith but never faith without works. You can have works without having salvation but never have salvation without having works." That is, true salvation though not required to work for it will always have works with it.