40: The big issue which comes immediately to the forefront here is works-based salvation. Jesus commends the sheep for what they have done and says nothing of what they have believed. Does this prove that salvation is by works alone? Notice what is said. These works are done for Jewish people in the time of their greatest trouble. Doing a work for one of them at that time will be the greatest indication of belief that could be conceived. None in that day would dare help his people who are not truly saved individuals.
This is different from the present time. Those who helped the Jews escape from the terrors of the Nazi executors did not automatically win for themselves eternal life. Although that was a great and good thing to do, the action itself could not prove a person’s devotion to Christ. During this future time, however, the man of sin, the antichrist, will be in greater power than old Hitler ever could have hoped to achieve. In that day, to refuse his authority and opt out of his kingdom on this earth will be deadly. Those who do so will be seen as mad men. Those who do so can only be children of God. Only that could motivate a person to make such a deadly choice. Only that will cause them to help the Jews against the wishes of the antichrist.
41: This makes sense then of his condemnation of the goats. Jesus is a good judge, not some kind of damnation-loving sicko. Those who throw in with the antichrist in the tribulation period will have no doubt that they are doing so against the wishes of the biblical Jesus, and the biblical Father. But, they will be willing to give their allegiance to a pretender. The antichrist will be seen as the holder of the christ-spirit, the greatest manifestation of the cosmic oneness, the reincarnation of every great and good person that men care to worship. He will be the ultimate phony.