SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/8/2022 10:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The
Parousia”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 16:27
Message of the verse: “27 “For the Son of
Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will
reward each according to his works.”
We
begin with something that I spoke about in our last SD: “Parousia
is a noun form of the Greek verb behind to come and is often used to refer to
Christ’s second coming, of which this is the first mention in the New
Testament.”
Jesus,
here is talking about a day of judgment, a day which is coming, which is what
Jesus is reminding His disciples and also those who were around Him listening
to Him speak. John 5:22 tells us “"For
not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” Now as we continue to look at our verse today
we see that “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His
angels.” This event is spoken of in the 24th and 25th chapters of
Matthew, a section that actually goes along with what John wrote about in
Revelation chapters 6-19. It is during
this time of judgment that Jesus will reward each according to His works.” (The
NASB uses the word “recompense” instead of reward as the NKJV uses.) Now we have talked in earlier SD’s of how it
will be the angels who are the instruments of Jesus’ service and His judgment,
and when He comes to earth again they will come with Him, to raise “those who
did the good deeds to a resurrection of Life” and “those who committed the evil
deeds to a resurrection of judgment as seen in John 5:29.
Let
us now look at Psalm 62:12 where we read “Thou dost recompense a man according
to his work.” Now remember we are not
talking about a works kind of salvation as that is not what it means, but as
Ephesians 2:10 talks about doing the works that God has called for His children
to do after they are saved, as described in Ephesians 2:8-9. It is important to fully understand
this.
Now
we go back to talking about recompensing a man according to his works which
Paul speaks of in Romans 2:5-8:
“5 But because of your stubbornness and
unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who WILL RENDER TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS
DEEDS: 7 to those who by perseverance in
doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do
not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
Later
on Paul world write the following in Romans 14:12 “Each one of us shall give
account of himself to God.” In Matthew
25 we read about the Lord’s teaching about the judgment of the nations. They, too, will be judged by their works as
seen in verses 31-46.
John
MacArthur writes “As the Lord reviews the life of each person who has ever
lived, He will say, as it were, ‘There is a believer. I can tell by his works, because they are the
product of My Holy Spirit. There is an
unbeliever, as I can also tell by his works, because they are the product of
the flesh.’ It is not that works save,
but that they are the product of salvation.
James teaches that the only kind of faith that saves is the kind that
results in righteous behavior (James 2:14-26; cf. Eph. 2:10).
“Those
whose works are pleasing to the Lord are those who, but God’s sovereign grace
and power, have trusted in Christ as saving Lord, while denying self, taking up
their crosses, and following Him. They
will receive everlasting life and all the blessings of heaven. Those whose works are rejected by the Lord
are those who put their hope and trust in the ephemeral things of this
life. They will receive eternal damnation
and all the torments of hell.
“The
call to salvation is a call to discipleship as described in this passage. When God saves, He produces this kind of
follower.”
10/8/2022 10:43 AM
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