Thursday, April 3, 2014

Lenten Devotional – Day 26

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” (1 Cor. 15:42-43)

Please God, don't let me be behind Mother Teresa at Judgment Day. - T-shirt seen at Chautauqua Institution

  God in Jesus Christ assures us that the final victory will be God’s and the establishment of God’s Kingdom into eternity will also include judgment. The Westminster Confession indicates that “God hath appointed a day, wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father.” All will be judged to “appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deed; and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.” The comfort of the disciple of Christ is the recognition that judgment will be carried out by Jesus Christ who is also our savior.

WellDone  20th Century theologian Karl Barth comments on this comfort by saying: “This future comforts the church in all affliction and persecution because it knows the Judge… The Judge is one who was judged for us. Through him we have been acquitted and from him we can now look forward to joy and glory.” - Karl Barth, The Heidelberg Catechism for Today, Richmond, John Knox Press, 1964, p. 82.

  “Jesus said, ‘God is not the God of the dead but of the living’” (Luke 20:38). His meaning was that those who love and are loved by God are not allowed to cease to exist, because they are God’s treasures. He delights in them and intends to hold onto them. He has even prepared for them an individualized eternal work in his vast universe.”...

  “On the day he (Jesus) died, he covenanted with another man being killed along with him to meet that very day in a place he called paradise. This term carries the suggestion of a lovely gardenlike area.”

  “Anyone who realizes that reality is God’s, and has seen a little bit of what God has already done, will understand that such a “Paradise” would be no problem at all. And there God will preserve every one of his treasured friends in the wholeness of their personal existence precisely because he treasures them in that form. Could he enjoy their fellowship, could they serve him, if they were “dead”?” - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 84-85

  “So as we think of our life and make plans for it, we should not be anticipating going through some terrible event called ‘death, to be avoided at all costs even though it can’t be avoided.... We should be anticipating what we will be doing three hundred or a thousand or ten thousand years from now in this marvelous universe.” Just as the hymn Amazing Grace states, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, Than when we first begun.” - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 86

  • When you stand before God on Judgment Day, would you rather be told you believed too much or you believed too little?
  • When you stand before God on Judgment Day, would you rather be told you cared too much or you cared too little?
  • When you stand before God on Judgment Day, would you rather be told you tried too hard or you didn't try hard enough?
  • When you stand before God on Judgment Day, would you rather be told you were too forgiving or you were too judgmental?
  • When you stand before God on Judgment Day, would you rather be told, "Well done, thou hyper-hopeful and risk-taking servant," or "Well done, thou sober and play-it-safe servant"?

  I have come to understand that on the Day of Judgment, we will all be called upon to give an accounting of our life. This judgment is not to condemn those of us who follow Jesus Christ, but to make it clear to us for all of eternity our need for God’s grace. Our accounting for our behavior is to help us understand we are not here because of anything we have done, but our eternity was secured with a price paid by God through Jesus Christ and given as a free gift. My hope is my gratefulness for this gift will help to make my accounting for my behavior less embarrassing than it could been without grace. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:10)

  When all is said and done on Judgment Day we want to hear those sweet words, “His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant;… enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23)

Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 39, 64
Evening Psalm: 132
Jeremiah 22:13-23
Romans 8:12-27
John 6:41-51

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