| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Heaven” Our Bible verse for today: “For we (believers will be called to account and) must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or bad (that is, each will be held responsible for his actions, purposes, goals, motives – the use or misuse of his time, opportunities, and abilities). 2 Corinthians 5:10 (Amplified Bible) Our thought for today: “There will be rewards in heaven” Yes, there will be rewards in heaven. Jesus Himself taught that truth in in the Sermon on the Mount when he promised “great is your reward in heaven (MT 5:10). In Matthew 6: 19-20 He encouraged us to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, the Apostle Paul taught that one day we believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ so that our deeds and discipleship habits can be evaluated and rewarded accordingly. (The translators of the Amplified Bible did a good job of drawing out this truth by including all the English words necessary to capture the full meaning of the original Greek.) In his classic work, “The Doctrine of Salvation,” Dr. Darrell Robinson offers a great illustration of how this might work. He writes: “Believers will enter heaven as the same persons but as transformed persons to realize God’s true purpose for His children. The persons we are at death or at the second coming of Christ we will continue to be in heaven. This life is the time for developing Christlikeness in character. All of God’s children will be true children of God and will share the same eternal life, but we will not be of the same spiritual stature.” Robinson goes on, “Capacity for God and for spiritual experience is an important factor for life in heaven. Maturing in Christlikeness is central in our developing a capacity for enjoyment in heaven. A Bible professor illustrated this point by comparing the Christian life to containers. One person, having developed in Christian maturity, has become like a gallon container. Another has developed a life like a pint container. In heaven each will be filled to overflowing. Each fully enjoys heaven to his capacity for spiritual appreciation.” “Each fully enjoys heaven to his capacity for spiritual appreciation” – they just have vastly different capacities. We can certainly see the truth of that illustration now, in this lifetime. We all know Christians who are very spiritually mature and who seem to have great spiritual capacity; and we know others of whom that is less true. Christians span the spectrum of spiritual maturity, and their capacity to appreciate and enjoy spiritual things varies greatly, so why would that not be true in heaven as well? I agree with Dr. Robinson, I believe one of the rewards we experience in heaven is that we get to fully enjoy the spiritual capacity we developed in this lifetime. Tomorrow we will explore this idea of rewards in heaven a little further by considering something very revealing that Jesus said about this. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville |
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