JESUS' CAUTIONARY MISTHOLOGY- BY GREG ELKAN

_“My reward is with Me...”_ – Rev 22:12

Believers — those who have put their faith in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross —have God’s assurance of an eternity with Him, spared from the wrath of Hell and eternal damnation.

This, in itself, is a manifestly glorious gift. Heaven, after all, is the highest goal and utmost pursuit of all belief systems.

For the Believer, however, Heaven is only the beginning. The Scriptures clearly declare that there will be additional rewards for the faithful in Heaven based on their lives on Earth (Mt 10:32; 25:34-46; Lk 6:22-23; 1 Co 3:8; Rev 2:10, 17, 25-28; 22:12, etc.).

These additional prospects — of stars, robes, crowns, and stones, as well as mansions — have led many Christians to fantasize and theorize, while still here on Earth, about the rewards that are due to them; or the kinds of rewards that will be given to so-called “powerful” men and women of God, or even traditional “saints.”

The Apostle Peter, too, was gripped by this fantasy as well; so much so that he once confronted the Lord about it.

In Mat 19:27 he asked, _“We've left everything to be your followers! What will we get?”_ (CEV).

Our Lord’s reply was, _“In the future world, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, I promise that you will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. All who have given up home or brothers and sisters or father and mother or children or land for me will be given a hundred times as much. They will also have eternal life.”_ (Mt 19:28-29 CEV).

Note, however, the cautionary statement our Lord made after this: _“But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first”_ (Mat 19:30).

And just in case Peter didn’t get the drift of His cryptic answer, He went on to tell a parable of a master who hired labourers to work in His vineyard for him, and at the end of the day, gave them rewards that were *_fair but uneven!_* After which He then repeated His earlier phrase, _“So the last shall be first, and the first last.”_ (Mt 20:1-16).

Our Lord’s message to Peter should also serve as a lesson to us as well. While there’re surely rewards in Heaven, a needless fixation and obsession of who gets what will only lead disappointed and shock. Because God’s way of assessment, is infinitely different form ours (Isa 55:8-9). 

AMEN

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

- Nigeria 

+234 813 664 2912