oudepote (oo-DEH-poh-teh)
In 2016, Jerry Seinfeld, a well-known comedian and television star of his eponymous show, Seinfeld, sent 16 cars from his collection to a Gooding & Company auction at Amelia Island. An avid collector and connoisseur of Porsches, he had among them a 1958 Porsche 356 A 1500 GS/GT Carrera Speedster, one of roughly fifty-six built with an aluminum body and the only one ever finished in Auratium Green.¹
The car sold for just over $1.5 million that day. With it came a certificate of authenticity, a story of restoration by a respected shop, and an engine rebuilt by one of the leading experts on those rare four-cam motors. It had already taken first in its class at a Concours, judged and crowned in front of people who dedicate their lives to knowing these machines. The owner, his own expert, the auction house, and every authority involved agreed. It’s the real deal.
Excited about his purchase, the new owner shipped the car to a Porsche specialist in England to prepare it for resale. And that’s where the excitement ended abruptly. To this new specialist, something just felt off, so they refused to list it. His team began to ask why there were no photographs of the restoration and why the history file was so thin. The closer they looked, the more convinced they became that the car was not what it claimed to be.
It was a genuine Porsche 356, with authentic steel and badging. What it was not was the rare racing edition it had been dressed to imitate, the one designation that made it worth a million dollars instead of a fraction of that.
It was the real thing in every way except the way that counted. Not one expert, not one award, not one certificate caught it. The only examination that mattered was the last one, the one that came when the real experts stepped in to evaluate the claims.
Jesus paints the same picture in Matthew 7 with stakes worth far more than a car.
Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV): “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. 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?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
What makes verse 22 so unsettling is that these folks were not the irreligious. In fact, at least outwardly, these were the spiritual elite. They prophesied, cast out demons, and did many mighty works, all of them in His name. Their resume and results were real. But they were simply never the required inward proof. A man can hold every right answer, get every theological degree and accolade, and still carry an impressive file of spiritual accomplishment to his grave without once having belonged to the One he served.
Because the verdict does not run on works or righteous activity. It runs on a kind of knowing that results in obedience. When Jesus says “I never knew you,” the word is knowledge by relationship, by direct personal involvement, the same word the New Testament can use for the deepest intimacy between two people. Jesus is fully God and fully omniscient. Of course, He knows who these people are in the sense of information. What He denies is the relationship. He is saying there was never any communion, never any fellowship, never any belonging between us. And He stamps it with oudepote, never, not at any single point in time. Like the Porsche dressed up in disguise.
The kingdom’s final test of authenticity will always be exclusive and run through Jesus alone.
And the test is not what you did in His name. It is whether you ever did His will. Matthew 6:10 reminds us simply: “Thy will be done.” Our natural instinct recoils at the idea of submission and obedience. We don’t mind doing things that look like obedience so long as we get to pick the time, the location, the price, and how we get it done. It’s in our sinful nature to do it our way, which is neither submission nor obedience. Both require handing the controls to someone else, including the outcome.
Jesus asks it plainly in Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” James names the danger by its real name when he writes, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (1:22). That self-deception is the exact condition of the crowd in Matthew 7. And James adds, “Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (2:19). The demons hold better theology than most of us, and it does not save them. Correct belief is not the same as a saving relationship.
Tozer said.
“Faith and morals are two sides of the same coin. Indeed the very essence of faith is moral. Any professed faith in Christ as personal Saviour that does not bring the life under plenary obedience to Christ as Lord is inadequate and must betray its victim at the last. The man that believes will obey; failure to obey is convincing proof that there is not true faith present.”²
These are not believers who were saved and then lost it. They were never known at all. The same truth runs the other direction in John 10:14 and 27, where Jesus says, “I know my own and my own know me,” and gives them a life they will never lose.
So the decision in front of you was never really about information or dedication. It is always been about submission and obedience. It is a decision about whether the One you call Lord is the One who actually runs your life.
A perfectly lived life was never the requirement. But as we saw with the fruit devotional earlier, obedience is proof of the change. The one who enters is not the one who never stumbles. He is the one who is actually walking toward the Father, doing His will, however unevenly.
A closing thought.
Aulus Gellius, a second-century Roman writer, recorded the proverb. “Veritas temporis filia” or “Truth is the daughter of time.”³ Francis Bacon sharpened it in Novum Organum. “Truth is rightly named the daughter of time, not of authority.” Scripture said it first. “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17, ESV). Paul makes it the doctrine of the last day. The Lord “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4:5, ESV).
Counterfeits will eventually be exposed. And on that day, the only judgment that will matter is the one from the righteous Creator Himself. Lord, convict us and bring us toward full submission to your will in every way.
For reflection:
- If the works of verse 22 are not the proof, what is the real evidence that you are known by Christ, and where would someone see it in an ordinary week of your life?
- Is there a place where your life is quietly saying, “Lord, Lord” while you go on running as the lord of your own house?
Stay on Mission
FAQ’s:
Q1: What does “I never knew you” mean in Matthew 7:23? A: The word for “knew” describes knowing by relationship, not information. Jesus, who is omniscient, is not denying that He knows who these people are. He is denying that any relationship ever existed. The Greek “oudepote” means never, at no point in time.
Q2: Who are the people Jesus turns away in Matthew 7:21-23? A: Not the irreligious, but the outwardly devout. They prophesied, cast out demons, and did mighty works in Jesus’ name. Their works were real, but the works were never the proof. The proof is whether they did the will of the Father and were known by Him.
Q3: Does Matthew 7:21-23 teach that you can lose your salvation? A: No. Jesus says, “I never knew you,” not “I once knew you.” The word “never” rules out a relationship that once existed and is now lost. These were never His. John 10 paints a different picture: those Jesus knows receive a life they will never lose.
Footnotes
Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV). Matthew 6:10 is rendered here in its traditional liturgical form (“Thy will be done”); the ESV reads “Your will be done.”
- The car’s billing, the sale, and the inspection that followed are drawn from the Gooding & Company auction catalog and contemporaneous coverage (Hagerty, Fox News, FindLaw, The Drive). The buyer’s UK specialist declined to list the car and concluded it was not authentic. Seinfeld disputed that; the lawsuit was filed in 2019 and settled in 2022 on undisclosed terms, so the car’s authenticity was never decided in court.
- A. W. Tozer, “Faith: The Misunderstood Doctrine,” in Man: The Dwelling Place of God (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1966)
- Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 12.11.7.
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