Finish Your Heavenly Race

John 17:4-5 “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.  (5) And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

The Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter has taught us that Christ Jesus is our example and that we should follow in His footsteps (1 Peter 2:21). The passage of scripture quoted above is an account of our Lord Jesus praying to the Father the night before He was to be crucified. I want you to notice that the Lord Jesus stated that He had glorified God the Father on the earth. Jesus said that He had done that by completing the work that God the Father had given Him to do in the earth. And so as a reward for finishing His Father’s work on the earth, Jesus said that God would glorify Him together with Himself for all eternity. In other words, Jesus received His eternal reward from God the Father because He had completed the work given to Him to do in this life. If the Son of God was glorified by the Father because of His obedience in finishing the work of the Father, then we are no different. And so if we are going to receive our eternal rewards from God our Father, then we too are going to have completed the work given to us by the Father.

2 Timothy 4:7-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  (8)  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

In the passage of scripture quoted above Paul the apostle tells us that he had finished his race and that he had kept the faith. When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, his time on the earth was drawing to a close and he would soon depart to be with the Lord Jesus. I want you to notice that Paul was very confident that he had completed the work that he had been given to do on the earth, for he confidently stated that he had finished his race. As we read earlier, Paul likened his Christian walk to competing in a race. But I also want you to notice that not only was Paul confident that he had completed his race, but he was just as assured that he would receive the reward of his crown from the Lord on that day. And so in effect Paul was saying the same thing that Jesus said at the end of His time on the earth. Paul was saying that he had finished the work given to him by the Lord, and that he would receive the glory laid up for him in heaven as a reward for his obedience. Every believer, when their time comes to leave this life to be with the Lord Jesus, should be able to make that self-same statement, for this is the will of the Lord Jesus for each one of His saints. Now compare that statement with the believers that are just hoping for the best when they come to their day of judgement. From the examples given to us by our Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul, you can readily see that this is not how our Lord wants us to approach our day of judgement.

Romans 6:8 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”

We read earlier in Philippians that Paul stated that he deliberately chose to forget those things that were behind him. In other words Paul had learnt to forget everything from his past life because it counted for nothing in the kingdom of God. When Paul made that comment he was referring to his life before he was saved, for even though Paul had achieved more than most of his countrymen in his walk as an ultra-orthodox Jew, he counted all of that as rubbish for the sake of gaining Christ. No believer will reach their goal in Christ by constantly looking at the past which is behind them. We need to view our lives now as heaven does and look forward to the goal set before us in Christ Jesus. As far as heaven is concerned everything done by the believer prior to them being born-again no longer exists, because as revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, the person that lived before that time has in fact died. And so everything that they ever did is completely erased as if that life never existed. Many believers do not understand this concept and consequently they do not walk in this reality. When you talk to them they talk about their lives prior to salvation and after salvation as if it is one continuous life. Someone will say that it is foolishness to pretend that your life before salvation never existed because clearly it did. In other words if you were married before you were saved you are still married after you are saved, and if you incurred debt before you were saved then you still owe that debt after you are saved. People who make these types of comments however, struggle to differentiate between the natural and the spiritual, for in the natural we do have one continuous life, but in the spirit that is not the case.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

In the spirit, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we become a completely new creation that never existed before. This truth is clearly revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. So what am I saying? I am not saying that because we are born-again that we can now walk away from our previous life in the natural, for scripture plainly tells us to remain in the same calling in which we are called (1 Corinthians 7:20). What I am saying is that one should not dwell in the past. In other words believers should talk as little as possible about their lives before they were saved (unless it forms part of their testimony when witnessing to others). In a similar manner believers should think as little as possible about their lives before they were saved. Jesus said it this way, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62). And so why dwell on that which God Himself no longer acknowledges.

Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, (14) having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

On their day of judgement, believers will not be held to account for anything done before they were saved, no matter how sinful and wicked a life they may have led, for as revealed to us in the passage of scripture quoted above, everything has been wiped out by nailing it to the cross. But equally, believers will also not be rewarded for any supposedly good deed done before they were saved, for God declares that the “righteous” works of those in the world are counted as filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6). And so the point is very clear in scripture, i.e. nothing done before we were saved is recorded in heaven and will not therefore form part of the saint’s judgement.

Michael E.B. Maher

Eternal Judgement

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