Reward According To Faithfulness

Yesterday, we began to see that judgement and salvation are two sides of the same coin. And then when Paul was preaching In Athens he was preaching to people who were not mainly from a Jewish background. He said in Acts 17:30 and following:

“Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.”

There are no omissions and no exceptions. God requires all men everywhere to repent.

And then he gives a reason:

“Because God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

So the man whom God raised from the dead, Jesus, is the one who is God’s appointed judge over all men. He’s just as efficient, just as thorough and just as faithful as a judge as He is as a savior. As a savior He omits nothing, and as a judge, likewise, He omits nothing.

There’s the parable in Luke 19 of the pounds or minas. It’s about a wealthy ruler who took a journey and committed to his servants certain money to handle on his behalf. He gave to each of them a mina which they say is about three month’s salary. And then he came back after a long while and reckoned with them. He said, “What have you done with my mina?” And the first one said, “I’ve made ten more minas.” The lord said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have authority over ten cities in my kingdom.” To the second servant, he said, “What have you done with my mina?” And he said, “I’ve made five minas.” And he said, “Well done,” but he didn’t say good and faithful. He said, “Have authority over five cities.”

So, the principle is this: according to the faithfulness with which we serve the Lord in this age we will be apportioned our sphere of authority in the coming age. There will be no favoritism. But there was one other servant who made nothing. He said, “I was afraid of you so I just went and hid your mina and here it is, I’m giving it back to you.” And the lord said, “You wicked and lazy servant!” Do we realize that laziness is also wickedness? We have such an unbalanced scale of values in the church. If a man gets drunk we think that’s awful. But, how many lazy people do we have in church, people who never really take time to study the Bible or get down in prayer? Or who can’t do a thorough job anywhere. And the Bible calls them wicked.

But I want you to see the end of this parable because when this man went away to get his kingdom in return, his citizens sent a message after him saying, “We don’t want this man to rule over us.” And when he returned at the end of the parable, the final words are these:

“But bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.”

I was shocked when I felt the impact of those words because the man is a picture of Jesus. He says, “Those who have rejected My rule, bring them here and slay them before Me.” He is just as thorough and faithful as judge as He is as savior. He’s both. The same one whom God has made as savior He has also made a judge.