What if you needed a reference letter?

I’ve recently spent some time helping to collect and put together reference letters for someone close to me. These letters were basic in what they required, they needed to only tell a little about the person in question, tell who was writing the letter and how the person effected the writers life. Nothing big. Nothing major. But the letters were very important.

What if the Lord required us to collect reference letters if we are to belong to Him? What if we had to have a stack of papers from people we knew and interacted with before we could gain access to Christ?

We don’t need any such letter like that because Christ is all the reference we need.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28

Christ’s sheep hear his voice and He knows them. No reference letters needed. He also tells us…

“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. ²² 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?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23

True believers in Christ don’t need reference letters because we already belong to Christ. We are chosen to be His. And when He calls to us…when He calls us to Him…we hear His voice and we follow Him. Because He already knows us. But those that aren’t His don’t have that. They aren’t His. They will be turned away no matter how much they may cry out to Him begging to enter heaven. He doesn’t know them because their profession of faith in Him is only that…a profession.

They went into the world and they did all these things in the name of God, in the name of  the Lord, in Jesus’ name, They did these works in His name believing that that was what was going to get them into heaven. Or at least believing that those works were required because they were ‘believers.’

I was in a ‘church’ building once that had spent months collecting money to send to a certain mission organization. The day came to collect the final offering. They were still well under the goal that the leaders of the ‘church’ had set for the collection amount they wanted to reach. The offering plates were passed and everyone was encouraged to dig deep, to donate to this wonderful cause. I don’t remember what was said but I know the implication was there that God expected them to donate, and I know there was plenty of pressure from the ‘church’ leaders that day, and in the weeks leading up to that final day, for the congregation to give large sums of money to this collection. The assumption was there that you would donate all you could.

For those people, like me, that didn’t believe in funding that particular thing…and I couldn’t have given much at that time if I had believed in it…if you didn’t plan on giving anything…well, you knew better than to say anything because the reaction from the leaders and the congregation wouldn’t have been nice.

After the Sunday service when they made that final collection they held a celebration lunch. All of the ‘church’ was invited. While everyone made their way to another area to prepare for the lunch the mission offering was counted. The final tally taken.

When the time came for the total amount collected to be announced instead of telling everyone how much was raised and what a good job they did and how grateful they were…the preacher announced that they were still $10,000.00 short of the goal and that they were going to take up another collection. Everyone was told to dig deep, to give all they could and then give just a little more. After all they were doing this for God. This money was going to a mission organization that was doing God’s work.

And the congregation gave again. Checks were written, people dug money out of their pockets, their purses, and their cars. They gave more money because they were told to. They gave more money because this was for an important cause, it was for God. It was to do God’s work.

They did it because they thought they were doing it for God.

‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’

They were doing this in in the Lord’s name. I saw this first hand that day. The people of that ‘church’ gave because they believed they were doing a mighty work in His name. They believed they were doing it for Him. And so they gave…and gave…and gave again.

But Scripture tells us that did them no good. It got them no closer to Christ. And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Whether these people gave to this cause or not, whether they did any of the other things this ‘church’ was supporting, whether they went out an built houses, or dug wells, or any of the other millions of things ‘Christians’ do in the name of God made no difference on their salvation. There wasn’t a single thing any of them might have done to earn the right to be known by Christ. No amount of money given would have done it. No amount of work would do it.

Whether or not they were known by Him didn’t rest in what they did or didn’t do. It rested in their faith in Christ.

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; Matthew 15:8

They claim to be His, they claim to know Him but their hearts do not belong to Him. They do not belong to Him.

On the day that the people He speaks of stand before judgement no amount of crying out to Christ, no amount of begging or pleading will get them into heaven. If they showed up with stacks and stacks of reference letters those wouldn’t get them in either. Nothing anyone wrote on those letters would gain them entrance into heaven.

But what if they were required? What would your reference letters say? Would the people in your life write things on your letters that would show you were regenerate, that you belonged to Christ? Or would they show something totally different?

Would they say something like…

Dear God,

I’ve known this person for years. They’ve been a good friend to me and to others. We have enjoyed the same hobbies and activities and are members of the same ‘church’. I know this person to be a very involved member of the ‘church’. He/she is on several committees, they help with the food pantry and teach Sunday school. When they aren’t at ‘church’ I understand they work hard at their job, and enjoy their family. I know this person read their Bible because they knew Bible verses from memory and could tell the stories from the Bible. Please take all this into consideration when determining whether or not to let them into heaven.

Thank you

Would that be enough to satisfy Christ? Here is God, an all-powerful, sovereign Lord that came to earth as a human to die so that we could be saved. What would you ask in return for your life? If you suffered for someone, were tortured for them, died to save them…would knowing the stories of the Bible and serving in a building be enough to make you feel they truly appreciated what you did for them? Would it be enough to keep them in your good favor?

Or would you feel like they were going through the motions?

As I’ve helped collect letters for this person in my life I’ve read over them. I’ve read what people had to say about this person. I’ve heard what they said to and about this person when discussing the letters and this persons impact on their lives.

And you know what? Other than the parts of the letters that specifically address the reason why the letters were being written most of them could easily be reference letters to be handed over to Christ, to gain access to heaven…if such a thing were required.

Because this person lives out the teachings of Scripture to the best of their ability. And the comments from the people in this person’s life show that. There’s nothing in any of them about going to ‘church’ but there’s plenty in all of them about the help this person gave to the writer and others. They speak of this persons faith, not in terms of what they did in and for a ‘church’ building but in how they lived their life, how they treated others.

Thankfully we don’t need reference letters to gain access to heaven. Christ is our reference letter.

But if we did…

How would yours read?