Rewards

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

REWARDS

Rev 22:12-13

12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 

NIV

We now have Jesus giving his final words, his words of approval of all that has been revealed to John and thus to us. He also confirms that he is coming soon. His return is imminent, impending, fast at hand, near, forthcoming, looming or whatever words describe soon he will be here. Again we have to notice it has been nearly two thousand years since he was first here and many have thought his coming soon was in their lifetime, but he did not come for his people. Since we have been born again and studied the scriptures we certainly thought he could come at any moment in our lifetime, but here we are getting older and older and we have not yet heard the last trumpet call of God and looked up to see our lord waiting for us in the clouds. We have not seen the dead be raised and we that are alive have yet to be caught up with them to meet our Jesus. This begs the discussion of what does soon mean. We might think that Jesus comes for each one of us at the moment of our death. This would be in agreement with what we are told about being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Then we would have to determine at what point we are absent from the body. This would have to use the concept that, as we are made in the image of God, we are a spirit, with a soul that lives in a body, three in one. Our spirit is who we actually are, our soul is our personality portion or our brain, and our body is of course our physical appearance. It would seem right to think at the moment of our death, when the body no longer has life in it, we have departed from it. Both the physical appearance of us and our brain or personality no longer are functioning, but our spirit is still alive and it is gone, left. Then we have to ask, how to we get to heaven, how do we know where our Lord is unless he or an angel sent by him is there waiting for us when are bodies die to escort us to his presence. How do we know the way? His disciples ask him the very question.

John 14:1-4

4:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 

NIV

John 14:5-7

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way ?"

6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 

NIV

Of course being a follower of Jesus is the way to insure we go to be with him when we die, but the exact path of our journey to this place that we must travel is in the spirit world which we have no idea exactly what that means. Although we live in the spirit we are still bound in this body. So it would make the most sense as we have already thought, someone, either Jesus or an angel will be there to guide us to his presence. So then he is coming soon. He also is bringing his reward. He will give to everyone according to what we have done. Now this could mean several things. It could imply that some of us will get more than others, as some are of the opinion. This would agree with the idea of people having different amounts of jewels in their crown. But there is no place in the scripture that confirms that concept, thus it would be a false teaching. However the word reward in the Greek carries the idea of wages paid for, pay for services either good or bad. Then we would have to think of what the Apostle Paul wrote under the influence of the Spirit.

Rom 6:23

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NIV

Jesus gives his reward or payment for that which we have done. If we are living a life of sin, refusing to accept him as our Lord and Savior, then he pays us with death, spiritual death, the second death. But if we accept him as Lord and Savior, if that is our deed, or our act, then we are given the free gift of eternal life. So the reward is for both, the good and the bad, just a different type of payment for services rendered. All this agrees with all that has been written in this revelation.

So what do we learn? The fact is we are born again, we are saved, we have done the only good deed we can ever truly do in order to gain eternal life. We can attempt to live as good a life as we can in this physical body keeping ourselves as pure as we can, but we will never be able to do any deeds in the physical which will earn us anymore then what we already have. That does not mean we should go forth living in any manner as we please, so that God’s grace may abound, no way!

Rom 6:1-2

6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means!

NIV

But the fact is we have been born again, we are new creatures, yet we are faced with many temptations every day and some we fail to resist, some temptations we fall prey to. They may not be actual deeds, but only thoughts but some might be in our responses, our attitudes and yes even in our actions.

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

NIV

Some would say this only applies to before we were saved and that once we are saved we then have no more sin in us, we stop sinning. That would mean once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we simply stop all sin in our lives and we become perfect human beings. If that were true than perhaps we have not yet been saved as we still struggle with sin. This idea of not sinning once we are saved is just another false teaching. We will never attain perfection until we have laid this body to rest and our spirit is in the presence of Jesus.

Thus we are here waiting, living the best life we can live, with the help of the Spirit, for our reward, eternal life.

Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.