From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening...
Philippians 3:10
The power of His resurrection.
The doctrine of a risen Saviour is exceedingly precious. The resurrection is
the corner-stone of the entire building of Christianity. It is the key-stone of
the arch of our salvation. It would take a volume to set forth all the streams
of living water which flow from this one sacred source, the resurrection of our
dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; but to know that He has risen, and to have
fellowship with Him as such-communing with the risen Saviour by possessing a
risen life-seeing Him leave the tomb by leaving the tomb of worldliness
ourselves, this is even still more precious. The doctrine is the basis of the
experience, but as the flower is more lovely than the root, so is the
experience of fellowship with the risen Saviour more lovely than the doctrine
itself. I would have you believe that Christ rose from the dead so as to sing
of it, and derive all the consolation which it is possible for you to extract
from this well-ascertained and well-witnessed fact; but I beseech you, rest not
contented even there. Though you cannot, like the disciples, see Him visibly,
yet I bid you aspire to see Christ Jesus by the eye of faith; and though, like
Mary Magdalene, you may not "touch" Him, yet may you be privileged to converse
with Him, and to know that He is risen, you yourselves being risen in Him to
newness of life. To know a crucified Saviour as having crucified all my sins,
is a high degree of knowledge; but to know a risen Saviour as having justified
me, and to realize that He has bestowed upon me new life, having given me to be
a new creature through His own newness of life, this is a noble style of
experience: short of it, none ought to rest satisfied. May you both "know Him,
and the power of His resurrection." Why should souls who are quickened with
Jesus, wear the grave-clothes of worldliness and unbelief? Rise, for the Lord
is risen.
Revelation 20:12-13
(12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books
were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according
to their works. (13) And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every
man according to their works.
Revelation 9:20
(20) And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet
repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils,
and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither
can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Revelation 14:13
(13) And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Revelation 18:6
(6) Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double
according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Works are very important to the book of Revelation—seven times in
chapters 2 and 3, and four or five other times in the rest of the book.
Christ's concern is that His people are working.
The main purpose of the book of Revelation is not merely to give us
insight into what is coming. It is also to convince the Christian that his
loyalty, his devotion, his steadfastness, his suffering, and perhaps even
martyrdom, is not in vain—that he is assured of a wonderful future. The reason
for the stress on works is that character is not formed merely by knowing
something but by knowledge combined with putting it to work until it becomes a
habit. Over time, habit becomes character, and character follows the person
right through the grave!
If we are not working, emphasizing loyalty to the Person of God and to
His way, making every effort to overcome Satan, the world, and the
self-centeredness within us, resisting with all of our being the temptations to
do what is natural, carnal—if we are not expending our energy, and spending our
time working out our own salvation with fear and trembling—it is very likely,
then, that we are not going to have the character necessary to go through the
grave. The wrong works will follow us, and we will not be prepared for the
Kingdom of God.
Thus, what a person has done, that is, what he has worked on in this
lifetime, follows him through the grave—either into the Lake of Fire or the
Kingdom of God.
The book is designed to focus attention on what is of greatest concern to
Christ for His people. He want to ensure that they do not give up or become
weary due to the great pressure of the times, and that they instead endure,
persevere, and be loyal and steadfast to the very end.
His concern at this time is not preaching the gospel as a witness, but
the salvation and continued growth of those He already has. The quality of the
witness is directly tied to the quality of those making the witness. What good
is it to have this wonderful, awesome message—the gospel of the Kingdom of
God—carried by those who are poor examples of what it says? Christ's first
priority is to ensure the spiritual quality of those who make the witness, and
then the quality of the witness is ensured. We cannot let the cart get ahead of
the horse. The one naturally follows the other. First things first.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From Revelation 2-3 and Works
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