"Rewards in Eternity"

Victory Can Be Yours!

Article # 20 – “Rewards in Eternity”

            The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords, and King of kings, will return to gather His Church.  His Church consists of everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:14-17)

The Church is the bride of Christ, the body of believers.  Jesus, at His own perfect time, will gather all of the believers together in Heaven.  Afterwards, we will come with Him, as His bride, back to earth as He comes to set up His Kingdom on earth.  And, we will spend the rest of eternity with Him.

            While we do not know the day or the hour of His coming, we should be expecting it to happen at any time and should be ready.  We, in our present life, are preparing in all that we do and say, for the time to come when we will spend eternity with Him.  We are to conduct our lives in such a way as to not be embarrassed when we come face to face with Him.  “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” (1 John 2:28)  To abide in Him would mean for us to maintain a loving fellowship with Him.  In having continuing fellowship with Him would mean that we would be confident to stand before Him.  However, if we do not abide with Him, there is the distinct possibility that we would be ashamed to stand in His presence.

There is even more reason for conducting ourselves in a way that would please Him.  We will come before Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ.  At that meeting, we will be judged according to our conduct as believers.  “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (1 Cor. 5:10)  This does not mean that our entry into eternity is in jeopardy but our rewards are at stake.  The judgment of what we have done will determine the quality and quantity of our rewards.   What kind of deeds we have done in this life preparing for the next life will determine what kind, if any, rewards we will receive at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

You, too, can have victory in Jesus!  More to follow.

Lowell Parrish