The Great Doctrines of the Bible, Rev. William Evans [mind reading books .txt] 📗

the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this world… . And they shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Why did not the Master explain what he meant by the figurative word “fire”? He explained all the other figurative words, why not this one? Did He forget? Or did He intend that His disciples should have the impression that He was speaking of literal fire? Here was His opportunity to explain His use of words, for the disciples were asking for just that very thing. Was there any significance in the fact that Jesus did not explain the word “fire”? Whether we believe in literal fire or not, we certainly ought to ask for a reason for the Master’s failure to literalize the figurative word “fire.”

4. “DARKNESS.”

This word is used to describe the condition of the lost: “Cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Seven times these terms are found together: Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28. The picture is that of a banquet which was usually held at night. The wicked are thrust out from the light, joy, and festivity into the darkness and gloom without, as into the remote gloom and anguish of a dungeon in which are found agony, wrath, and despair. Is this a description of hell —absence of spiritual light; separation from the company of the saved; lamentation; impotent rage?

E. THE FINAL REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

I. THE BELIEVER NEVER DIES.

II. THE BELIEVER GOES TO BE WITH CHRIST.

III. THE BODY OF THE BELIEVER IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD.

IV. THE BELIEVER IS REWARDED.

V. THE NATURE OF THE BELIEVER’S REWARD.

 

1. THE “CROWNS” OF SCRIPTURE. 2. THE SEVEN “OVERCOMES” (REV. 2 AND 3).

 

VI. THE NEW CONDITION AND ABODE OF LIFE FOR THE SAINTS.

 

1. NEW SPHERE OF LIFE. 2. A NEW HOME. 3. NEW CONDITIONS.

 

E. THE FINAL REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

If, says the Apostle Paul, in this present life we have a hope resting on Christ, and nothing more, we are more to be pitied than all the rest of the world (1 Cor. 15:19). The idea is that if this hope in Christ which the believer has is a delusive hope, with no prospect of fulfillment in the future, the Christian is indeed in a sad state. He has chosen a life of self-denial; he will not indulge in the pleasures of the world, and if there are no pleasures in the darkness into which he is about to enter, then he has miscalculated, he has chosen a life that shall end in self-obliteration. If he has no home to go to, no God to welcome him, no King to say, “Well done, exchange mortality for life,” then he is indeed in a pitiable plight. But such is not the case. The hope of the Christian enters beyond the vail, into the very presence of God Himself, and endures throughout all the eternities.

I. THE CHRISTIAN NEVER DIES.

1 John 8:51—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” 11:25, 26—“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

What Jesus means here is not that the believer shall not pass through the experience that we call death, but that in reality it is not death, at least, not in the sense in which it is death to the unbeliever. Jesus has taken the sting out of death. How sharply the contrast between death and the experience through which the believer passes is presented in 1 Thess. 4:13, 14—“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Jesus “died”—He tasted the awfulness of death; the believer in Him “falls asleep.” Cf. John 11:11—“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” We have no ground in these words for the modern doctrine of soul-sleeping. Christ did not mean to say that the soul is unconscious between the time of death and the resurrection. For, when the disciples did not understand His figurative language, He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead” (11:11-15). What Jesus meant was that death is something like that which takes place when we go to sleep. What takes place when we go to sleep? Surely the current of life does not cease, but flows on, and when we awake we feel better and stronger than before. There is a shutting out of all the scenes of the world and time. Just so it is in the case of the believer’s death. Three ideas are contained in the word “sleep”: continued existence,—for the mind is active even though the body is still; repose—we lose our hold on and forget the things of the world; wakening—we always think of sleep as followed by awakening.

The word “see” in John 8:51 means that the believer shall not gaze at death protractedly, steadily, exhaustively. Death is not the objective of his gaze. The believer’s outlook is that of life not death. The death of the body is to be reckoned no more as death than the life of the body is life (1 Tim. 5:6). The believer’s back is turned upon death; he faces and gazes upon life. The temporary separation of the soul and body does not even interrupt, much less impair, the eternal life given by Jesus.

II. THE BELIEVER GOES TO BE WITH CHRIST.

2 Cor. 5:6, R. V.—“Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” Phil. 1:23, R. V.—“But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better.”

The experience (death-sleep) through which the believer passes ushers him at once into the presence of Christ. It takes him instantly to be “at home” with the Lord. Surely there can be no hint of unconsciousness or the sleeping of the soul in these words. It would seem from Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 that some kind of spiritual body is given to the believer during the period of his waiting for the resurrection body. What Paul longs for is not to be in a bodiless state, but to put on another body which shall not be subject to death. “At home with the Lord”—that is what “death” (?) means to the believer.

III. THE BODY OF THE BELIEVER IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD.

See under the Doctrine of the Resurrection for the full discussion of the believer’s resurrection body, its characteristics, etc.

IV. THE BELIEVER SHALL RECEIVE HIS FINAL REWARD IN THE FUTURE.

1 Matt. 25:20-23—“And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Luke 19:12-19.—“He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.”

Matthew 24 exhorts us to watch and wait for Christ’s coming; chapter 25 shows us how we may obey this exhortation. Chapter 25 illustrates to us, in the parable of the Virgins (vv. 1-13) the necessity of caring for the inward spiritual life; while the parable of the Talents (vv. 14-30), emphasizes the necessity of activity for Christ while awaiting His return.

While both parables deal with the matter of the rewarding of the saints, they nevertheless present the subject from different viewpoints. The parable of the Pounds was delivered before the entry into Jerusalem; that of the Talents, three days after; the Pounds, to the multitudes; the Talents, to the disciples. The Pounds was given because the people thought that the kingdom would immediately appear, hence the idea of a long journey. In the Pounds there is opposition to Christ; in the Talents, none. In the Talents unequal sums are multiplied in the same proportion; in the Pounds, equal sums in differed proportions. The parable of the Pounds was uttered to repress impatience; that of the Talents, to stimulate activity until Christ should return.

The talents are distributed not capriciously but according to each man’s ability to handle them. He who had five talents was able to use five, and was therefore held responsible for the use of this number; so with the two, and the one. The question is not so much “How many talents have I received,” but “To what use am I putting them?” The rewards for faithfulness are the same in each case—“Be thou ruler over many cities.” In the parable of the Pounds it is different. All start out with the same number of pounds. As men differ in their use of them, in their fidelity, zeal and labor, so they differ in spiritual gains and rewards (ten cities, five cities). The reward of the believer will be in proportion to the faithfulness of his service for God with the use of the talents with which God has endowed him. The rewards therefore will differ according to the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of our service and life.

Faith in Jesus Christ saves the believer, but his position in the future life together with the measure of his reward will depend upon his faithfulness in the use of the gifts with which he has been endowed by God. Thus it comes to pass that a man may be saved “yet so as by fire,” i.e., saved because of his faith in Christ, but minus his reward. See 1 Cor. 3:10-15—“In discharge of the task which God graciously entrusted to me, I—like a competent master-builder—have laid a foundation, and others are building upon it. But let every one be careful how and what he builds. For no one can lay any other foundation in addition to that which is already laid, namely,