Oops, God can forget righteousness (Ez 18:24),
No oops. Ezekiel 18:29 - But the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Are My ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right? But the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Are My ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right?
Ezekiel 33:13 - When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he
trusts in his OWN righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.
Did you read that? "If he
trusts in his OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS." This is the heart of the matter here. This is describing a righteousness which is by the law rather than that which is by faith. The New Testament states in
Romans 10:3 - "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
establish their OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that BELIEVES.
so He can validly say "I never knew you" to people who don't ENDURE (Hebrews 3, 10) in the faith, because "faith is completed by works" (Ja 2), yet their lawless works did not accord with faith, thus, having not tested themselves to see if they were still in the faith, they fall away from that faith they professed (saying, "Lord, Lord" to Him, not knowing they are no longer in the faith),
Jesus said I NEVER knew you (Matthew 7:23) and not I once knew you but I don't anymore. Those who fail to endure in faith demonstrate that their faith was never firmly rooted and established from the start.
In Hebrews 3:8-10, we read - Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation, and said,
'They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' *Not descriptive of genuine believers. *There is no loss of salvation here. *Only a failure to receive it. Verses 18-19 - And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of
unbelief. That explains the hardened heart. It took them in the opposite direction of God. Considered the truth for a time, then hardened heart and departing from God became their final answer.
In Hebrews 10:26, the term "sin willfully" carries the idea of deliberate intention which is habitual and
stems from rejecting Christ deliberately. This is continuous action, a matter of
practice. Now we don't walk along our daily life and "accidentally" fall into a pit called sin. We exercise our will but, the use of the participle clearly shows willful, continuous action. The
unrighteous practice sin (
1 Corinthians 6:9-10;
Galatians 5:19-21);
not the righteous, who are born of God. (
1 Corinthians 6:11;
1 John 3:9) Verse 39 - But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. Those who draw back to perdition do not believe to the saving of our soul and those who believe to saving of the soul do not draw back to perdition.
thus, as He says, "Whoever denies Me before men I will deny before My Father", and "in their works they deny Him"--and "faith is counted as righteousness", but He forgets their "faith counted as righteousness", thus, "I never knew you".
That is your eisegesis. Matthew 10:32 - Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
In context, this passage relates to the fact that the Pharisees had continuously denied Jesus while the disciples continued to speak about Him everywhere they went. To paraphrase His teaching this way: "Whoever confesses me before men (such as you disciples), I will confess him before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before men (like the Pharisees), I will deny him before my Father in heaven.
Those who confess Jesus (Romans 10:8-10) are those who recognize Him as being the true Messiah and trust in Him as the ALL-sufficient means of their salvation (Acts 10:43; 13:39; 16:31 etc..). Those who deny Jesus (and those who give mere lip service confession) but refuse to trust in Him alone for salvation place themselves beyond any possibility of salvation, since salvation is found only in Him (John 3:15,16,18; 10:9; 14:6).
The word for "deny" is an aorist tense. This points to the fact that Jesus is not talking about a single instance of denial (as was the case with Peter, who actually denied Jesus three times (Luke 22:56-62) but is referring to life in its entirety. Hence, the person who throughout his life denies Christ (as was typically the case with the Pharisess and includes unbelievers who may even give mere "lip service confession" - Matthew 7:22-23, but lack saving faith in Christ) will be denied by Christ before the Father.