Good works

We know from John 3:16 that we are not saved by any works that we do, but purely on the grounds of our belief in the fact that Jesus died for our sins in our place; that He conquered death by rising again on the third day as the Firstfruit of all of us who will be resurrected from the grave and follow His example; and that He now sits on the right hand of our Father in heaven, waiting for us to join Him there. Whether we go to heaven one day is not determined by weighing our good works in the scales against our sinful behaviour and seeing which weighs more - we cannot earn our salvation by doing good works.

This does not mean that we as Christians now do not have to do any good works at all, or that our good works are in vain. On the contrary. What it means is that we now do them with a distinct perspective in view – a heavenly perspective. Our Lord Jesus wants to reward us in heaven one day, as we read in 2 Cor 5:10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. (‘evil’ is translated as ‘worthless’ in many translations). If we have no good works to show, we will not be punished, but will suffer loss in heaven because we will not receive rewards, as we read in 1 Cor 3:13-14 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.

But what are the good works about which we are talking? Eph 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. This is the most incredible truth, displaying the matchless greatness of our God: every one of us was designed by Him to do certain good works, which no one else can do! Imagine for a moment how God the Master Planner had thought about certain works that He wanted done in a certain time and place; then thought about what characteristics and giftings and experiences the person that had to do it, had to have; and then He formed YOU to precisely match that profile! No other person on planet earth or in history can fit that space!

 God designed a plan of good works just for you. You were maybe not meant to be a Billy Graham, or a Mary Slessor. But what if your son or daughter is? What if your God-ordained good works are only to bring up your children to fulfil those roles, much like Mary was designed to be the mother of Jesus? We all need to become sensitive to the promptings of Holy Spirit, guiding us to do certain things which form part of God’s plan of good works for us, and stop persistently questioning our purpose in life, or striving to accomplish something which was never in God’s plan for us to do. Here is one way of knowing: you will experience joy in fulfilling God’s plans for you!

Points to ponder:

Consider Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. It shows that your rewards are meant for the time after Jesus’ second coming. It is not meant for you during your time here on earth. Be prepared therefore to face persecution and even hardship during your lifetime, using those experiences to earn your rewards in heaven!

Heaven's Reward

Heroes with humble beginnings

Heb 11:32-34

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.

These heroes of the faith are rightfully famous throughout history, as they did remarkable feats of bravery. But did you notice these two sentences: Their weakness was turned into strength, showing that they did not start out from a position of strength, but from weakness. And they became strong in battle, meaning that they certainly were not strong to begin with, they had to journey and transition into a position of strength where they were able to put whole armies to flight.

The Angel of the Lord found Gideon hiding in a winepress to beat out the wheat, as the Israelites were protecting themselves from the Midianites who regularly destroyed all their crops and left them with no livestock to live from. And when told that he would rescue Israel from them, Gideon responded by telling the Angel that his whole family is the weakest one in Manasseh and that he himself was the least important member of that family. Hardly the response of a brave man ready to face the enemy armies.

The Lord sent word to Barak through Deborah the prophet that he had to muster troops on Mount Tabor to fight against the Canaanites, and that the Lord would hand the whole enemy army over to him. His cowardly response was that he would only do this if Deborah would accompany him, he did not have the courage to trust the Lord’s word and just obey.

Samson might have received super-human physical strength from the Lord, but he had no moral strength and had to learn this throughout his lifetime. Only at his death did he fully accomplish that which the Lord had called him to do, namely the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines. His physical blindness might have finally led him to see spiritually.

When Gilead’s leaders went to search for Jephthah to ask him to lead their army against the Ammonites, they found him living in the land of Tob because his own half-brothers had thrown him out. He was surrounded by worthless men who accompanied him on raids. This is not the profile of a mighty man of valour who would lead Israel out to conquer the enemy.

David tended his father’s sheep, and his own family did not even consider him worthy to be invited to the meeting where Samuel would anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king of Israel.

Points to ponder:  Consider the humble beginnings of these men, and contrast this with the wonderful acts of great courage the Lord led them to accomplish. Would He not do the same for you? God’s strength works through people who own up to their own weaknesses. All He needs is a willing and humble spirit.

Whatever Your plan is 

Probability

 

Most of us find the whole concept of mathematical probability quite daunting. But simply put, probability just means how likely something is to happen.

We can also describe probability as odds, for instance the odds of your being struck by lightning on any given day are one in 250 million, making it quite a rare occurrence.

There is an event in the Bible that mathematicians have calculated to be (humanly speaking) impossible to arrive at, and yet it happened! It concerns 60 major prophecies made concerning the Messiah, and all being fulfilled in the life of one man, Jesus Christ. These prophecies were penned 500-700 years before His birth.

I will give only four of these as examples: Micah 5:2 designated Bethlehem to be the birthplace of the Messiah. Isaiah 7:14 says that he would be born of a virgin. Ps 22:16 prophecies that His hands and feet would be pierced. Malachi 3:1 mentions that Messiah would live contemporary to the temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in 70 AD.

The probability of Jesus of Nazareth fulfilling only eight of these 60 prophecies was calculated as being 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000! (calculations vouched for by the American Scientific Affiliation). If we add all the other prophecies to the equation as well, it is clearly not humanly possible to manipulate the outcome to let them all converge in the life of one man. It can only be explained by knowing that God supernaturally gave the prophets future knowledge about the details of the life of Jesus, who is the Messiah.

The following two passages also illustrate this: Zechariah describing his vision in Zech 11:12-13 So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. 13Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. This was written some 500 years before Christ.

Compare this with Matthew 27:3-7, written 500 years later, after Jesus’ death and resurrection:  ³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”⁵ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.⁶ The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.

Points to ponder: Do the scientifically proven calculations above, and the accuracy of the prophecies given hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus (as proven by history), convince you that the baby born in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago was not just an ordinary human baby, but Jesus Christ the Messiah?

Jesus Messiah