The Due Reward

What have we done and what is our reward? Well, it is pretty simple when we look at it. We have work to do in this world and for that work we will be rewarded.

“³⁹One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’” – Luke 23:39 (ESV)

We see here the words of those who were crucified along with Jesus. Knowing that Jesus is the Christ, the one knows that He could save Himself. The criminal also takes the selfish approach asking to be saved as well. The man was looking to get out of the death sentence that he was due as a result of the work he had done. The sentence he was receiving was in line with his deeds according to the law.

“⁴⁰But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’” – Luke 23:40-41 (ESV)

And then we have the other criminal crucified along with Jesus. The man understood who Jesus was and called Him out just the same. Except, He did not ask for his own redemption as he knew and understood the reward for his deeds was right where he was. But, he also knew that Jesus was doing something extraordinary. Jesus had done nothing wrong and was receiving an unjust reward for His deeds. Jesus was being crucified for the deeds of others and not His own.

Isn’t this something. We are accountable for the actions and deeds we undertake. We are to receive reward for those deeds, and the reward is not always something that we find pleasing. Our reward is in line with the action. We commit a crime, we are punished in the law. We avoid giving of ourselves and we do not receive help when we need it. When we provide for others, we receive the picture of joy on their faces. We show up, and we get to celebrate with those we showed up for.

The second criminal understood the reality of receiving the reward for the deeds committed. He may not have liked the idea of dying for it, but understood that he was accountable to the consequences of his actions. He also understood that Jesus had done nothing to receive death. He knew that Jesus could save Himself, yet was doing something extraordinary for others, even himself. This man knew of receiving due reward.

“⁴²And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ ⁴³And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” – Luke 23:42-43 (ESV)

This second man accepted the reward he was to receive. But he also accepted the gift Jesus was giving. He did not ask for something other than the reward he was due, but thanks to his accepting of Jesus for who He was and the gift He was giving, the man received the reward of eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

You see, we are due to receive rewards for our actions. Yet we can also receive redemption for those actions through Jesus. And we can receive justification through our faith in Him. And when we do, we receive the due reward that comes, eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

What is your due reward? Are you receiving that which you deserve based on your actions? What if you believe in your accountability and accept the consequences, and accept that Christ died for your actions and have faith in Him to wipe away your sin and provide the due reward of eternal life in heaven with Him?

One Man

Our sin and our forgiveness are each the result of one man’s actions. Adam sinned therefor we are now all sinners. Jesus took our sin upon Himself and died for us and therefor we all have salvation available.

“¹⁹For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” – Romans 5:19 (ESV)

Before I get more into the one man, I want to point out the verbiage in the verse above as it relates to my first paragraph. “many will be made righteous” are the words and “will be” is the focus. We are not guaranteed to be righteous only that it is available and that many will be. Each of us have to go through the acknowledgment of our sin and the acceptance of forgiveness in our hearts to be saved.

It is one man who made our fall into sin happen. Adam did the one thing that God instructed him not to do. Adam sinned and that opened the gate to our sin. He was made in the image of God and yet fell for the idea from the evil one that he could be like God. Thanks to the one man’s transgression, we all now fall for the evil one’s tricks and deception which lead to our sin and our fall from the grace of God.

Jesus. The one sent by God to remedy the results of the fall. Jesus came to take our sin and provide a path back to God and the grace He has for us all. He came and took our sin, dying in the process, and as a result, we are afforded the sparing of our lives due to the sins we commit. He did that, one man, sent by God to to provide the way to righteousness.

Again, I come to the fact that the way to righteousness is provided, but not all will take the way. We are given the choice to take the path of one man. Either we can take the path we are on which was provided by Adam that leads to death for the very sin we commit, or we can take the path to righteousness provided through the shed blood of Jesus who took our sin and atoned for it so that we could have life everlasting.

What is your choice? Are you going to choose the path of sin and destruction provided through the sin of Adam? What if you were to accept salvation from the one man, Jesus, who took your sin so you could have life everlasting?

The Way Out has Been Paid

Our way out of the consequences of sin has been paid. Yes, prepaid. We no longer have the payment for sin due. We only need accept the payment has been made and be grateful.

Notice what I wrote above, accept and be grateful. There is no repayment that can be made. I cannot make up the debt. God provided the payment for our sin and there is nothing we can do but accept that the payment has been made and be grateful for it.

“¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” – 1 John 4:10 (ESV)

“²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” – Romans 3:23 (ESV)

I am a sinner and will always be a sinner in this world. But, the escape from the consequences has been provided. Christ came to this world to walk as I do and take on the sin that I commit and then He died so I do not have to. Not that I will not die, but Christ died in my place as the consequence for my sin.

“²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 (ESV)

I was destined to die for my sin, and Jesus came, or rather was sent, to die in my place. It is the only way out and it was made so by God. God’s grace (getting what we don’t deserve) and mercy (not getting what we do deserve) is demonstrated in His offering of forgiveness for the sin that we are born with and will always have in this world. This offering of forgiveness is made possible only by payment and that payment was made by Jesus’ death.

Our role in all of this is to believe and choose the gift of salvation provided thanks to the payment for our sin. That payment was extreme and I will say, Thank you God for providing and Thank you Jesus for paying and Thank you Holy Spirit for walking with me daily. I believe and choose to escape the consequence of my sin through acceptance and gratefulness in you and your grace and mercy.

What is your understanding of the consequence for sin? Are you able to get out of it on you own? What if you accept that the payment has already been made and you should believe and choose to accept and be grateful for the grace and mercy of God?

We are Chosen

Chosen as the people of God.

“⁶For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” – Deuteronomy 7:6 (ESV)

Here we see the designation of chosen to the Israelite people. They were chosen to receive the promised land and were blessed beyond what they could imagine.

“¹³He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.” – Deuteronomy 7:13 (ESV)

As the chosen of the LORD, there was bounty given. And the people would experience great. The journey to this point was long and hard and those who were rescued from Egypt gave way to their families to come to experience the promised land. But, as the chosen people, the Israelite people would receive the LORD’s bounty.

And we are God’s chosen people as well. We all have the opportunity to accept Christ as our savior and when we do, we are added as heirs in heaven.

“¹³For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” – Romans 10:13 (ESV)

And yes, we ALL have the opportunity. We are chosen by God to receive His gift of salvation and we will receive His bounty. We have to reach out and ask for the gift and then not only are we given it, but we have to receive it. In other words I have to be sincere and treasure the gift of salvation and devote myself to the LORD in return.

When I do accept the gift of salvation and devote myself to the LORD, as the Israelite people were instructed, I will receive the gift fully. It will be demonstrated that I have been chosen by the LORD as His and my reward will be great.

We are chosen to be the people of God. We do however have to accept the gift of salvation for that to be demonstrated to the world. Wholly and fully we are to accept Him and devote ourselves to Him, and we are rewarded.

What is your thought on being chosen? Are you know that you are chosen? What if you looked at it from the perspective that you are chosen, but you do have to ask for salvation, and then receive the gift fully to demonstrate that you are chosen?

Come/Go to the Father

It is not enough that we exist in this world. We are to be going forward, or we might as well be going backward. Where better to be going that to the Father. Our Father is our comforter, protector, guidance counselor, and confidant. And how do I get to Him? Well I have to come/go to the Father through Jesus, the Son.

“⁶Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” – John 14:6 (ESV)

Thomas asks a similar question to which we can see the response from Jesus above. How do we get to the Father, through Jesus. Jesus was sent to this world to be God in human form. He is the Father for me to see and interact with. I should be taking Him at this and not looking for some other way. There is only the one way to get to the Father and that is through the Son.

Before Jesus, to get to God, we went through the priest. As good as that was, and yes, there were good God fearing priests, they were not always on my side or frankly the side of God. They were on their own side as in order to gain access to God, there was a “need” to provide more and more to the priest.

With Jesus, the only thing asked of me is that I accept the gift of salvation, accept that He died for my sins, and accept that He is LORD. Yes, that is it, there are no other ways to gain more access. There are not any monetary considerations. There is only the acceptance of Him as LORD and as he says, He is the Father.

“⁸Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ ⁹Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.’” – John 14:8-11 (ESV)

I have to come/go to the Father from this world and the way to Him is through the Son. I have to know that when I am with the Son, I am with the Father also.

What does your path to the Father look like? Are you trying to get there through some monetary means? What if you came/went to the Father through the Son by accepting His offer of salvation and accepting that He is LORD?

Accepted Gift or Just Received

This morning I was again reminded (has happened a lot over the past couple weeks) that the gift of grace and salvation from God is free to all, yet requires acceptance and not just receipt. I wrote first of the difference in the two about two weeks ago and it continues to manifest daily in my study of the word “gift”.

Receive: to come into possession of: acquire

Accept: to receive (something offered) willingly

— Merriam-Webster Online

Notice the difference in the definition above. Accepting is the willing acquisition of something where as receiving is just acquiring it. As pertains to grace and salvation, we all are provided the gift and receive them from God. Managing them in our lives and using them to bring glory to God requires acceptance.

Now, on to this mornings learning and reminders for me. Once I have truly accepted the gift of grace and salvation from God I have it forever. It is in the word “truly” in the previous sentence that drives that home. I can receive the gift and yet not accept it. I can be involved in the community of Christ yet not be a member. It is the acceptance of the gift and becoming a member of the family of God where I am found.

“⁴For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” — Hebrews 6:4-6 (ESV)

There are a lot of thoughts as to what is meant here. I happen to believe as I noted above that it refers to the difference in the receipt and acceptance of the gift of grace and salvation. It is possible for someone to be involved in the community of Christ and yet not be a member. There are many examples of those who have pretended to be followers of Christ for the optics of what that represents and then when they walk away after church, return to the life of secularism. These are those who have received the gift of grace and salvation, yet did not take the chance to accept the gift.

“⁷For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. ⁸But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” — Hebrews 6:7-8 (ESV)

And there it is, the difference in receiving and accepting in the example of land and rain. Rain will come and the land will receive it, yet whether or not it is accepting and using it in cultivation, that is the question. All of the land receives the gift of rain, yet not all of the land is accepting of the rain to be used in cultivation.

For me, I have to be thankful for the LORD and His gift of grace and salvation. I am in the position to receive the gift and for that I am also thankful. Where things get good are only when I have accepted the gift and as noted in Timothy, I have “fan into flame the gift of God”. This is where I will find the chance to truly bring glory to Him.

What is the status of the gift of grace and salvation in your life? Have you received it as others have and then go back to the world? What if you received and then accepted the gift to be used and cultivated into the glorification of God?

Receive and Accept the Gift

Receive: to come into possession of: acquire

Accept: to receive (something offered) willingly

— Merriam-Webster Online

I lead this morning with the two definitions above to give a little more understanding into the difference in Peter’s words and what we do.

“³⁸And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” — Acts 2:38 (ESV)

Peter is speaking to the group and explaining to them that they should repent of their sins and be baptized to receive the gift of salvation. Notice that he gives them an action to perform before receiving, which would indicate to them that they have to be willing to receive and therefore will be able to “accept” the gift, and not just receive. He was responding to their question of what to do to receive the gift.

“³⁷Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” — Acts 2:37 (ESV)

I have to remember that receiving something is passive and really without meaning. All can receive something, whether on the street from someone, the words given in a gathering, ticket stubs at an event, or many other things. But accepting is active. I have to be willing to receive for there to be meaning. I have to want that which is given and even ask for it in certain circumstances; the ticket to the concert (and attend), Prayer, and Salvation. And now I have accepted the gift.

Christ has a gift for all, and it is freely given and everyone can receive that gift. Yet, there are those who will receive and tuck it away without thinking twice about it. For those, the gift was simply received and holds little to no value. Then there are those who actively and willingly receive or accept the gift Christ has given. For them, there is value beyond belief.

“⁴²And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³And awed came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” — Acts 2:42-43 (ESV)

What have you received and yet not accepted? Have you missed out on something great as you have not willingly received? What if you asked for Salvation and accepted the gift freely given as opposed to simply receiving without action?