All Who Call on the Name of the Lord Will be Saved

Scripture teaches us that “with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved,” and also “everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:10-11). Romans 10:13 says “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Scripture also says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

These verses seem to tell us that God has invited us all to His table. All we have to do is accept the invitation and we will be saved. But Jesus told a parable in Matthew that seems to contradict this. We call it the parable of the wedding feast.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

Let’s take a look at the parable before we get started:

 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, ³ and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. ⁴ Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶ while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. ⁷ The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. ¹² And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:1-14 ESV)

The beginning of the parable is easy enough to understand. The king is God the Father, and the bridegroom is Jesus. The servants are the prophets who God sent out to spread the Word, and some of them were killed. This provoked God’s anger, and His punishment followed.

The original guests who were invited to the feast are the Jewish people in general, or probably more specifically, the Pharisees and Sadducees. They rejected the invitation. The outsiders who were invited later represent the Gentiles who accepted the invitation.

The Wedding Garment

But this is where the parable gets much harder to understand. The king saw one man who accepted the invitation and came to the feast, but was not dressed properly. The king threw the guest out into the darkness. Considering the man was invited late and probably didn’t have time to prepare, isn’t it understandable that he might not have had time to dress properly?

This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven and if, as Romans tells us, all who confess Christ are saved, why is someone being thrown out who accepted God’s invitation? And just for being dressed differently?

What does this mean? How do we rectify this apparent contradiction?

Put on the Clothes of Righteousness

The key to this parable comes from understanding the significance of the wedding garment and what it represents here. This is not about the man’s outward appearance.

In this culture the wedding garment most likely would have been provided by the king. The man was not expected to come dressed properly, the proper attire would have been provided to him. But he would have been expected to change into it. He must have refused to put it on.

The reason we have trouble with this parable is that we get hung up on the idea that the man was rejected because of his clothing. But the clothing is a symbol of what is in his heart. It was about his attitude.

It’s true that we don’t have to be perfect before we accept God’s invitation. We can come to Him as we are, and He will work within us to sanctify us over time. We are expected to clothe ourselves in Christ (Romans 13:14). If we are truly repentant, we will not want to stay the way we were. This man didn’t want to change.

He represents one who looks righteous but is not truly repentant. Somebody who has professed Christ but refuses to change inwardly. The outside of the cup may be clean, but the inside is full of greed and self-indulgence (see Matthew 23:25).

Looking back to Romans now: you must believe in your heart, not just confess with your lips (Romans 10:9). When we look at Romans in this light we see there’s no contradiction. This is the difference between confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart.

The man in the parable didn’t come to the feast to honor the bridegroom. He came for what he thought the king could give him. He wasn’t really interested in the change that was expected of him. We need to make sure we aren’t looking for a free ride into heaven with Jesus in our back pocket.

Which One Are You?

We’ve all been invited to the wedding feast, but many of us have other business, so we reject the invitation. Either we believe there will be time later, or we just aren’t interested. Like the first invitees in the parable, our priorities are in the wrong place.

Some of us accept the invitation, but our hearts aren’t really in it. We don’t put on the righteous clothing of Christ. Outwardly we are doing the right things, but our hearts don’t change. These are the ones Jesus was referring to when he said many are called, but few are chosen.

When we accept Christ’s invitation, we need to put on His righteous clothing (Romans 13:14). This means that when we accept Christ, we need to be willing to surrender our whole life to him. Even those parts we would rather hold on to.

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