The Daily Word of Righteousness

Salvation Through Judgment and Suffering, continued

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7,8)

We are going to reap what we are sowing, whether for good or evil.

Let us say we follow the Lord Jesus and do His will with all our might. When we die we still will follow the Lord Jesus and do His will with all our might. Death or the coming of the Lord, or even the making visible of the invisible world, will not change this. When we die there may be more distractions than there are now. At least Satan found it so!

If we are spiritually lazy, careless in the things of God, more interested in our physical relationships and circumstances than we are in Jesus Christ, when we die we will continue to be spiritually lazy, careless in the things of God, and more interested in our surroundings than we are in Jesus Christ. And so in the Day of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord will not transform our basic personality, it will reveal our basic personality. The change that then will take place will be according to our revealed personality.

Take, for example, the individual who wasted his talent. When the Lord came He did not make the person industrious. Rather He took the talent from him and gave it to the believer who had been industrious. The lazy believer was scathingly rebuked for his laziness and sent into the outer darkness.

"But he wasn't saved in the first place!" Oh? The Bible says the lazy individual was one of the Lord's servants and entrusted with one of the Lord's talents. Maybe grace doesn't work according to the way it is being preached today. Maybe we better go back to the Bible and see what it says.

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. (Matthew 25:14).

His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: (Matthew 25:26)

The man who was dismissed to the outer darkness was one of the Lord's "own servants."

But what about grace? We are forgiven by grace and then if we are wise we will be diligent with our talents, also given to us by grace. But if we are careless with what God has given us we are facing the outer darkness.

I do not know how God's "answer men" will get around the passages of Scripture that tell of the anger waiting for the careless Christian but I have no doubt they will find a way. But don't you follow them. They are blind leading the blind. Beware of their leaven. It will blind you also. I have seen it happen.

To be continued.