What We Might Gain – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The Bible speaks of two outcomes that await believers at the judgment seat of Christ. We face either gain or loss. On today's broadcast, we explore the first possibility, what we might gain if we live faithfully here on earth. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, do we have even the slightest idea what lies ahead for those of us who are faithful in this life? Well Dave, the way you put the question is very interesting. Do we have any idea?

We have a slight idea because the Bible talks about what it's like to give an account to Jesus Christ, but in the end, we cannot even visualize all that God has prepared for those who love him. And the way in which we live today determines the rewards we shall have tomorrow. I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of Running to Win. Because of you, we are in more than 20 different countries in five different languages, and we continue to expand. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts, and we depend on people just like that as we plan the future ministry of Running to Win. Here is what you can do to get some info. Go to rtwoffer.com.

When you're there, click on the endurance partner button, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let us always remember that the only thing that really matters is what matters forever. This past week, a letter arrived on my desk, and I would like to simply read it to you. It says, I know someone who has appeared in several X-rated films. Since then, she has become a Christian, but she worries that since these films are irretrievable and have been distributed all over the world, that the harm they are doing will continue even after she dies. Will this interfere with her salvation? In other words, how will she be able to share in the joy of heaven while, as a direct result of what she did on earth, others continue to sin?

She feels that she will be leaving a legacy of evil. Can you offer her any words of consolation? And the answer is yes, based on the promises of God. I believe that I can offer her some words of consolation. First of all, it will not interfere with her salvation. Jesus Christ died for sinners. He died for big sinners, people who do terrible things. And now that she has become a Christian and believed in Christ, Christ's sacrifice has been applied to her, and she's been reconciled to God, no matter how terrible the things are that she did. In fact, I know somebody who left a far worse legacy of evil, and I believe that he was saved, and that was Adam. Have you ever thought of that? I mean, here, Adam and Eve, they eat of the fruit of the tree and they leave a whole legacy, a whole earth, a whole universe of evil, and yet God sowed fig leaves for them so that they might recognize that there is clothing available, symbolic of Christ's coming.

What about the second question? Can she have joy in heaven? Can she have rewards?

That's the implication. Can she be happy in heaven? And the answer is yes, because when she gets to the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, she will be judged on the basis of what she did for when she received Christ as Savior.

Since that time, since that time, what she did as a child of God, and therefore it is possible, I'm not entirely sure, but it is possible that this woman, with all of her sense of guilt and shame, may someday get to rule with Christ. As you know, this is another message in a series on the judgment seat of Christ, sometimes referred to as the bema, because that is the Greek word that means judgment seat. And I need to remind you, as I have to from time to time during this series, that God is someday going to separate all of humanity into two large camps. There will be people coming from all the nations of the world and all the different religions of the world, from all the different parts of the globe, and they will be resurrected and they will come to what is known as the great white throne judgment. The issue will not be whether they go to heaven or hell. They will be in the lake of fire.

The issue will be the judgment of what they did with what they knew so that their punishment will be commensurate with justice. On the other hand, there will be another large company of those who fled to Christ and received his refuge and his forgiveness, and they will come to what is known as the judgment seat of Christ, and that's the topic of the series of messages. I must also distinguish between a reward and a gift. Salvation is absolutely free. Jesus Christ died for sinners and he offers us that gift freely. But if we wish to be rewarded, if we wish to have additional rewards other than the great reward of heaven, then of course we must be faithful here on earth. He who has been given few things and has been faithful will be given many things in the life to come.

Faithfulness is therefore important and required. Now, there is a difference then between a gift and a reward. Let's suppose that your employer came to you at the end of the week, handed you your check on Friday and said, now I want you to know this is a gift.

You wouldn't take that too kindly, would you? Now, he might be saying that sarcastically because he's saying, in effect, you didn't do a thing all week, I'll give it to you as a gift. No, but if he comes to you and says, we have an incentive and now you have a reward, you have, quote, earned it. Now, let me be very clear to say that when God rewards us, it is not as if he owes us the reward because he gives us so much more. It is a gift of generosity and immeasurable grace as we shall see today. But it is nonetheless compensation for faithfulness on earth. The title of the message today is, what can we gain?

What can we gain? We're going to begin on earth and we're going to end in heaven. And in effect, I'm going to be telling you a love story that comes in three acts, three acts. And today, I'm going to ask you to turn to a few passages of scripture, some I will quote because we're going to begin in the book of Genesis and we are going to end in the book of Revelation.

I'm so glad that you decided that you had nothing to do this afternoon. A love story in three acts. The first story is that of Adam and Eve. Would you take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter one?

This is important for you to see it in the text. God says in verse 26, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule, plural, them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female, he created them and God blessed them, said be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and rule over the fish of the sea and so forth. The creation of man is the first stage in this drama. God created man in his own image and after his own likeness, he did not create angels that way and he did not create animals that way. Because the image of God means not only that God gave to man some communicable attributes such as personality and truth and justice, but also God gave to man a capacity for God likeness that no other creature has, period. And when God created man, he created a unique being and as a result of that, we have what is known as family.

We have aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and this is going to become very important when we understand God's side of the love story. And now let's look very briefly at the creation of man himself. You know the story, although simply assume it. The Lord God took some mud. Adam was the first mud man apparently.

Somebody has said, somewhat unkindly, the first dirty old man, but that's not really found in the text. And God took him and he created this mud man and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. God began to give him all of the animals. The animals came to him and he began to name them, but it says, but there was no help meet found that was suitable for him. Despite the fact that angels were accessible, Adam walked with God in the cool of the day. God says, it is not good for man to be alone.

I shall find a help meet for him. So God begins a search for a bride for Adam. And of course the bride could not be found among the animals nor the angels. And God says, if you're going to have one Adam, I'm going to have to create her. And so the Lord God caused Adam to sleep and the Lord God took from Adam a rib and the femininity was separated out of masculinity and Eve was created and she is now woman.

And Adam said, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman. What in the world were Adam and Eve supposed to do? And they were in the world, but what were they supposed to do? Well, the answer is they were to rule. God says, Adam, I want you to rule over the fish of the sea, over the fowls of the air. And what was Eve to be doing? She was to be a co ruler. Very important. I read the text a moment ago.

Did you catch it? It says, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and let them rule. God says, Adam, I want you to have a wife. I want to find a bride for you. And she is going to be at your side as a co ruler, as a joint heir, and you will have the opportunity of ruling everything that I have created.

It is yours. Well, you know the rest of the story, of course, Adam and Eve sinned. As a result, the image of God was not erased, but it was effaced. And as a result of that, the human race was plunged into sin. The whole story of iniquity has been written throughout the centuries and everyone who is born and grows up in the human family, all of us have some of the features of those who are dysfunctional because we have imperfect parents. We are imperfect parents.

We give birth to imperfect children who look like us and unfortunately often act like we do. End of drama. End of drama. That's stage one.

Let's go on to stage two. God had a son. God had a son.

God had a son and he is known in the Bible as the second Adam, whereas the first Adam took the image of God and messed it up. This son is the perfect image of the invisible God. In fact, he is not just a replica of God like Adam was. He is God.

He is the invisible image of God, a very God. God says, I'm going to begin a new race. Adam is going to still be the head of the human race, but I'm going to begin a new race with Christ as the head, the second Adam, and I'm going to seek a help meet suitable for him.

Just like I found Eve for Adam, I am going to find someone who can sit at his side, someone who can rule with him, someone who can be a part of what he is doing and who will be to him an eternal companion. So what God says is, I'm going to reach into the mire of sin and I'm going to redeem some of these people who fell and I'm going to transform them into a bride for my son. And when you stop to think of it, because of the fact that you and I are born under Adam's legacy, we're all born sinners as the Bible is very clear, and we are born the scripture says out of corruptible seed, corruptible seed. We are not only sinners, but we decay and we die. When we are born again, and by the way, the scripture says that unless we are born again, we will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. I marvel at all the religious people that I meet on airplanes or friends in the neighborhood who somehow think that they are going to get into the kingdom of heaven and they have never been born again. It's a marvel to me when Jesus said that no man can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he should be born again of the Spirit. But the scripture says that when we are born again, we are now born of incorruptible, eternal seed. We have been made partakers of the divine nature. We have now been made one in Jesus Christ, and we now constitute what is known as the bride of the church that is being trained to be an eternal companion for God the Son, a helpmeet that is suitable for him that God is preparing for his son whom he loves so intensely. Now when you stop to think of it, you realize that God has something in mind for us that is absolutely mind-boggling, mind-boggling. What is God doing today?

We've talked about the past. Adam and Eve, we're talking about the present. God creating this new person, this bride.

You always say, well, yes, but there are millions of us who are redeemed. Yes, but we will have, when we sit with the Son, we will have a shared consciousness. Paul says as the body has many members and yet it is one body in the very same way, though there are many people who constitute the body of Jesus Christ, yet in effect there is only one body and there is only one bride, and that is made up of believers, the church. Turn to another passage, and that is the fifth chapter of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 5. We use this in weddings all the time, but maybe it will take on now a new meaning. Ephesians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul says in verse 25, husbands love your wives.

And by the way, the rustle of leaves as you are turning to this passage of Scripture is music to my ears. Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her. Oh, that's what he's doing. Yeah, he's sanctifying us. Having cleansed her by the washing of water through the word, he is cleansing her, he is purifying her that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.

That's what God is doing. He is purifying the church. Because actually, even though we are spoken of as the bride, we are really now only engaged to the Lord Jesus Christ, and someday we shall be married to him. There is a marriage ceremony that is coming. There is a marriage supper to which we have been invited.

But now as a parenthesis, just think about this. The relationship that I have with my wife is to mirror the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. What is Christ doing to the church? He is loving her. He gave himself up for her. He redeemed her.

He is washing her. He is cleansing her, and he is making her pure and clean. And that's the responsibility that we as husbands have toward our wives. We are to honor her as Christ is honoring us. That's why Peter said, he said, husbands dwell with your wives according to knowledge, that you may honor her as a fellow heir of the grace of life that your prayers will not be hindered.

What a picture they're supposed to be in the world. And that's why marriage is so important. That's why our relationships with our wives are so important is because God says that on earth I want a visible representation of what is going to take place someday in heaven as I am preparing the bride to rule with me.

Right, we've looked at the past, Adam and Eve, and they blew it. We've looked at the present, the church, and Jesus Christ. What about the future, and how does this tie in with rewards?

What about the future? Well, let's just realize now that because of what Jesus Christ did for us, this gives us an incredibly high honor. Don't be confused about the fact that there are many different images and many different relationships that are spoken of, all of them conveying an understanding as to what kind of relationship we have with God. For example, we are the bride, but we are also Christ's brother.

Now let's think this through very carefully. When Jesus Christ came to Bethlehem, he did not take upon himself the nature of angels. He did not take upon himself the nature of an animal. He took upon himself the nature of man.

He became one with us. Take your Bibles now and turn to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, another very important passage for us to look at because it will help us put all the pieces together and I know there are different pieces to this message, but it is all coming together.

Just hang on. You'll notice it says in chapter 2 verse 10, for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons into glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Do you notice by the way that God had one son, namely Christ, and he said, I want many sons who are just going to be like him, like him to the extent that a creature can be like the creator, like him to the extent that the finite can be like the infinite.

And so Christ comes and God gets as many sons, verse 11, for both he who sanctifies, that is Christ, and those who are sanctified, they are all from, that is us, we're all from one father. That's what makes us brothers. And you see someone and you say, you know, I'm the brother of so and so.

Well, how can you claim that? Well, you've got a common father. We have the same father for which reason Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers. Wow. You realize that we may be ashamed of Christ and if we are, he says he'll be ashamed of us. That's going to be mentioned in another message.

But for now, let's concentrate on this. There are many families that have a renegade brother. They don't even want to know that he exists. We've written them off because he's such an embarrassment to the family. Well, aren't we an embarrassment to God's family?

Oftentimes we are. But Jesus said, I'm not going to deny you and I'm not ashamed of you because you were purchased at high cost. We have the same father. I am a son.

You are a son. That makes us brothers, brothers of Christ. What does that mean for the future? Well, it says that we are heirs of God's fortune. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. I mean, it only makes sense when a father dies and the will is read.

The brothers share equally. Now, in this case, the father doesn't die, but the kids die. We die. And after we go to heaven, the will is read and Jesus is the heir of all things. That includes quite a bit, come to think of it, the heir of all things. And we are heirs of God and joint heirs with him. You know, as I think about that, I'm reminded of a poem I learned many years ago that thou canst think so well of me and be the God thou art is darkness to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart. We here at Running to Win are so encouraged when we receive letters.

I'm holding in my hands a letter from a woman who is in her 20s. She says, getting into the word of God through the ministry of Running to Win, I no longer find myself running away from the Bible. It's been my refuge. I'm reading the Bible more than ever on my own. I'm really grateful for someone who guides me to the word and helps me every day. You, my friend, are a part of testimonies just like that. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner?

Now that's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. They are the ones on whom we also depend as we think about the future and plan the expansion of the ministry of Running to Win. Of course, you need info, so here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com, and when you're there, click on the endurance partner button. That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Thanks in advance for helping us. Your prayers mean a great deal to us, and together we are making a difference. Go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button for the info you need. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Pastor Erwin Lutzer, with part one of What We Might Gain, the second of six messages in his series, Your Eternal Reward. Next time, tune in for more details on the great drama of redemption, a drama that runs from Genesis to Revelation. Thanks for listening. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.