In the parable in Luke 19:11-26…Some of Christ’s servants used what He gave them and were productive Christians. Others were somewhat productive. One was totally unproductive. Those who were the most productive received more authority (rewards) in heaven. They received greater responsibilities than those who were less productive. In the parable, the rewards are described as ruling over cities. Whatever that may mean, it is very clear that some in heaven will be greatly rewarded for faithfulness, while others will be rewarded less, and perhaps for some their reward is being there “with their coattails smoking” as the saying goes! Yet, all will be redeemed because of their common faith in Jesus. Whatever the rewards of heaven consist of, those who possess them will enjoy them for all eternity. Those who lack rewards will experience that lack for all eternity. Think of it. How will you stand in that day? Will you approach Him with confidence or will you stand before Him red-faced and embarrassed over a life of waste and neglect?

It is something that we as Christians will all have to do.

    There are a lot of people building haystacks, and everybody hears about what they are doing and how wonderful they are. The haystacks are going to be tested some day, and then there won’t be one haystack left, because the testing is going to be by fire. The same thing will be true of works of wood or stubble. When the motive is love and nothing else, there will be great reward!   

    From the Book of Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, great and small, (Non-Christians) standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead (those who died without faith in Christ) were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” And, Revelation 20:13; “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged  according to what they had done.”

    In other words, all are judged according to their faith or their lack of it! But, the Word says “blessed are those who have part in the first resurrection, for the second death has no power over them!” In one of my other books I have said that we can be “born once and die twice, or we can be born twice and die once!”

Now, listen to the rest of Revelation 20 verse 14; “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire; the lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

    So, Paul says in Romans 8:1 – “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” This is where our peace and our hope come from! God is a righteous judge who judges all men rightfully; to those who believe, according to their faith – and to those who do not believe, according to the Law.

    Paul is trying to show that “all are justified by faith” and there is no difference between the way God will judge Jews and Gentiles, or in today’s thinking, Christians and the world or non-Christians. We can go back to Romans 3:9 and we find the following under the heading; “No One Is Righteous” -

Romans 3:9 -  “What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”…verse 18 -  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

    Romans 2:12; “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” And also 1 Corinthians 5:10; “For we must all (Christians) appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

    Let me insert something here that is very important. Immediately after the rapture of the church, every believer will stand before Christ to be judged by Him. This is not a blanket judgment of Christians but an individual judgment because it says, “each one may receive what is due him”. Neither is it a judgment of sin, because that takes place at the Cross. It is a judgment of rewards.

    The good works that we do in the name of Jesus will earn eternal rewards. Salvation is free to all who trust the Savior, but heaven will not be a society where all are treated alike. Paul says some of those who are redeemed will learn that they have wasted their lives doing works having no eternal value. He uses a figure of speech to make this point. Some of the redeemed in heaven will find that that their life effort is made of wood and hay, fit only to be burned in fire. They had faith, but they lived for self, and they will enter heaven realizing that they wasted their lives on trivialities. If all we have to show at the end of life is our fine homes, our high priced cars, and all the other worldly signs of success, all of that will go up in smoke. It has no eternal value. One of the great rewards will be the approval of Christ Himself. To hear His words “well done thou good and faithful servant” will be a priceless reward.

    A second part of our reward in heaven will be the “Thank you” rewards. The presence of persons we have helped spiritually. Some of which we don’t even know. I cannot imagine the joy one would feel to find someone in heaven who said, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.” When you encourage a fellow Christian, when you pray for another’s salvation or spiritual growth, when you feed the hungry and clothe the naked, when you practice forgiveness and offer a good or encouraging word, when you give or help someone financially, not expecting anything in return, these are the kind of good works that can help others in their spiritual life. These are the kind of works that will be rewarded, and to know that we have helped another in their spiritual journey will in itself be a great reward.

    First of all, the Roman church was not founded by Paul. The reason we know this is because he had not been to Rome at the time he wrote this letter. In verse 13 of chapter 1 he says “I planned many times to come to you, but have been prevented from doing so”… The Roman church was also not planted by Peter because we know from the Book of Acts that Peter never strayed far from Jerusalem.  In fact, it is believed that the church in Rome was not started by any of the Apostles, but rather as the result of the witnessing Roman Jews who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:10-11 )  They were there when the Holy Spirit gave his first “Hell fire and brimstone” sermon through Peter, and 3,000 were added to the church that day.  Now, what do you suppose they did or said when they got back home to Rome and people began to ask, “So, how did it go in Jerusalem?”

    Although Paul did not have a part in establishing this Roman church, there are three leading theories as to why Paul wrote this letter. One says that there was a crisis in the life of the church because of heretical teaching - which was also the problem in Galatia. A second theory was that Paul planned to visit Spain and felt he needed to win the support of the Roman church for that mission. And, a third view is because of Paul’s personal conviction and conflict with unbelieving Jews.  The conclusion of most Theologians is that all three reasons are probably true and make sense in light of the entire letter.

    The main purpose of course, is stated in verses 14-17… “I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

    The key word and focus of the Book of Romans is “righteousness”.  The root word of course is “right”. To be right means to be in accordance with truth or fact or to be conformed to a certain standard. For instance, if I was to say “this (whatever) is (whatever) color”…you could say “That’s (right) because it is true and a fact and meets the standard for (that color).  So, if I was to say (whoever) is a Christian, how would you know if I was right or if he or she was “right”? Well, their life would be in accordance with the truth, with the facts, and with the standard - set by whom? God of course.

    So, part of Paul’s letter is written to give them “God’s standard” for righteousness. However,    Paul also writes to let them know that there is a “wrong righteousness”. Although there is a righteousness revealed in the scriptures by God, there is also a “self-righteousness” and there is a “legalistic righteousness” and Paul points out how far they are from the standard that God requires.

    Let me say this; no matter how we see or think we can obtain a righteous life, whether by faith or by the law, God’s Word says that we will be ultimately judged accordingly.

    Remembering that the word “therefore” means “for this reason” – referring to something previously stated, we must therefore look back to what precedes Paul’s use of the word.

Continued next Sunday…

    One night as I was reading my Bible and searching for what might be God’s desire in my life at that time, I could not get a crazy thought out of my mind. It went like this; “Therefore, you know what I’m here for!” I don’t know where this line came from, but it was strong, and it was distracting my reading. Of course, before long I began to notice the word “therefore” in God’s Word. I was prompted to go to the concordance, and discovered that the word “therefore” is found 442 times in the Old Testament, and 279 times in the New Testament. As I began to look at the many references, I soon understood what I was there for!

    Now, of all of the references to the word “therefore” I began to see a book forming in my mind’s eye. What followed is certainly not an exhaustive writing on the word, but those that stirred my heart and mind as I read.

    It is my prayer that through this, God’s Holy Spirit will teach, lead, and stir your hearts as well. “Therefore” let’s get started;

"Judged by Faith" from Romans 5:1 and 8:1 – “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." – "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

    The influence of Romans on the course of Christianity and the history of the church as well as the history of the world is beyond measure. Its message concerning the “righteousness of God” is what stirred Martin Luther to call it the “gateway to heaven” and start a religious revolution that would spread all over the world. Luther’s commentary on the Book of Romans says “It deserves to be known by every Christian and the subject of his daily meditation, the daily bread of his Soul.” And, he said “the more time one spends on it, the more precious it becomes”.  You may also recall from church history, that it was while Luther’s preface to the Book of Romans was being read publically at a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate St. in London, that John Wesley wrote in his journal he “felt his heart strangely warmed”…which was when he realized that salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ alone and no other way. This was the spark of the Holy Spirit that was about to ignite a revival through John Wesley’s preaching.
    I have found that when it comes to history or having an interest in history, there are two kinds of people; those who do and those who don’t.  To those who do, we are going to start with a little history lesson…to those who don’t, we are going to start with a little history lesson.
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I'm back!!!
I have decided to blog once again. I have been very busy in the last year and a half. I have two new books now on the market and available; "Therefore" and "Let Earth Receive Her King". I also received a promotion to Electrical Department Supervisor at Home Depot here in Aiken SC and so have had a lot going on. I am only going to post once a week - on Sundays - to begin with, and I will be posting thoughts from these latest two books. Again, if you would like daily reading you can go to archives and follow previous years. Thanks for following, and remember that all my books are available on Amazon.com as well as local bookstores. If they are not displayed, you can ask to order them. Happy reading! May the Lord grow your faith.