Not Everyone That Saith Unto Me "Lord, Lord..."

   The scripture is clear. Matthew 7:21, "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." This scripture is also repeated in 3 Nephi 14:21. The first principle in the Gospel is faith in Jesus Christ. What does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ? Having faith in Him means you follow Him. You follow His teachings and strive to be like Him. The reason I bring this up is because there are many who say "I believe in Christ, so I'm saved." That is a very broad and generic statement. What does it mean to be saved? What does it even mean to believe in Christ?
   First of all, what is the definition of saved? The dictionary defines "saved" as: to rescue from danger or possible harm, injury, or loss. In that respect, we are all saved thanks to Jesus Christ. Christ rescued all of us from the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve. He rescued us from physical and spiritual death. So in this sense, we are "saved." But, this does not guarantee us a place in the kingdom of heaven. This does not eliminate our own personal responsibility to act. "For we labor diligently to write, to our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) After all we can do, then we are saved by the blood of Christ.
   Like I said before, having faith in Christ leads you to act and strive to be like Him. And if you have faith in Him, you believe what he taught. But part of having faith is acting on that belief. "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead." (James 2:17). How do we act on that faith? Like I mentioned in previous blogs, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has 5 components: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. All 5 of those components involve some sort of action. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of action. How do we follow Jesus Christ? We do what he says. What does he say? "Now this is the commandment: "Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day." (3 Nephi 27:20). Repent, be baptized and get the Holy Ghost. That is the "action" we must take with the faith we have. It's not enough to say you "believe." Believing requires action. To play professional sports, you can't just say "Yeah, I will play for your team, sure." You must sign a contract, by physically signing your name on the dotted line at the bottom of the contract. The Lord has written a contract for us, He asks us to sign it and follow it. But no one is forced to sign this contract. But I will say this, this contract is way better than a 10-year, $250 million contract. It is a eternal reward for a life contract.