"Oue Proving Ground"

Victory Can Be Yours!

Article #61 – “Our Proving Ground”

               We concluded last article with speculation as to what life on the new heaven and new earth would look like.  We need only to look at the economy that we currently have.  We have industries, production, life, and authority on various levels from kings, queens, and presidents to the common laborers.  This is the life and economy that God has given us beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  This all began with God creating male and female and placing them in the Garden to cultivate it and to eat of the produce of the garden.   Why would we consider that life in the new earth and heaven would be different, except for having no sin?  God created the institution of Church, marriage and family, government, and business.  The question might be, what determines who does what in the new life?

               Works determines what happens to us and determines who will do what in the new life.  Many people believe that it is by works that a person is saved and that works keep a person saved.  That position is held by many big named, so-called preachers and comes from chapter one in the book of Malarkey.  There are many places in the Bible that speak of works to save ones temporal life, such as the case with the people of Nineveh in the book of Jonah.  They repented to be saved from God’s destruction.  That salvation was from temporal destruction not saved to eternal life with God.  Works have absolutely nothing to do with spiritual salvation only temporal salvation.  Works that count spiritually are the works that are done by a person following belief through faith in Jesus Christ.  Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8)  Following the conversion to Jesus Christ by faith, a person’s works for God is stored up in Heaven in the form of rewards to be given to the one who earns them and endures until the end.  Those works, depending on the measure of them, will determine a person’s place or station in the new life on the new earth.  You could be a king or you could be one who cultivates the garden, depending on what you do in the name of Christ while you are here on this earth.  This is our proving ground or area of preparation for what is to be in the new life with God in the new world.

               Many people talk of losing salvation but the truth is; if you are not working to praise and please Jesus, you are not losing your salvation but, losing your eternal rewards.  Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6: 19-21)  Then, if we have worked to earn our rewards in the life to come we must endure to the end.  “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Tim. 2:11-13)

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

Lowell Parrish