WHAT WILL GOD EXPECT FROM US WHEN HE RETURNS?
Jesus asked, “ When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth?” Luke 18:8. God will be looking for faith. But faith has to be defined. What evidence will God use to discover if faith is alive in a person? How will He sort out the “sheep from the goats” as stated in Matthew 25:31-32? The Scripture reveals that He will use two simple tests: one to determine if we Love God, the other to determine if we love our fellowman. These are the “two great commandments” that Jesus referred to in Matthew 22:36-40.
James calls us to be “doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” He also goes on to say that “faith without works is useless,” James 1:22; 2:20.
Salvation is based on faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross and what we are allowing the Spirit to do in our lives. There is nothing we can do of ourselves to be saved other than ask and allow. But, someday God will look for the evidence that we have allowed the Spirit to work in our lives.
What are the tests that God will use to “separate the sheep from the goats?” There are two, just as there are two great commandments. One is explicitly taught by Jesus in Matthew 25. The other is implicitly taught by Jesus in Revelation. Both are equally real.
In Matthew 25, Jesus said that the process of sorting out the saved from the lost will include the evidence of how they treated one another. Were they loving and selfless? Did they respond to needs that came to their attention? Did they have a heart of compassion as Jesus had? This test is taken right out of the 2nd great commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The second test is found in the book of Revelation. In it Jesus tells John that there will be an “hour of testing…to test those who dwell on the earth,” Revelation 3:10. What is this test about? We have to do some prophetic interpreting to discover it—it is not stated explicitly as is the test of Matthew 25. The explicit test has to do with the second great commandment, and this test has to do with the first great commandment: “Love God with all your heart.”
How is God going to test if we love Him with all our hearts? Is it by our words? Is it by our songs? Is it by how much time we spend with Him in study and prayer? These are all ways we relate to God, but they are not the evidence of love. Love is revealed when we follow Him even when the going gets tough. Love is when we obey even when it doesn’t make sense to obey. Love is putting his kingdom first and foremost at the expense of our possessions or even our lives. He said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” John 14:15.
The second test has to do with our obedience to God, even when it seems impossible. Follow the “decoding” of Revelation below to discover this second test. 1. Jesus warned of deceptions in the last days (Mathew 24). Sunday holiness is one of the popular non-Biblical traditions adhered to by many. 2. One of the final messages to the world is the call back to Creator worship (Revelation 14:7). The seventh-day Sabbath is the memorial of God’s creation (Exodus 20:8-11). 3. Prophecy foretold that the power ruling during the dark ages would attempt to change God’s law concerning time (Daniel 7:25). The Sabbath is both one of the Ten Commandments, and is the only one that concerns time. 4. Revelation predicts that a final power will coerce false worship, and God’s faithful people will resist compromising (Revelation 13:15 and 15:2). 5. One of the characteristics of those who survive the final crisis will be that they are commandment keepers (Revelation 12:17 and 14:12). 6. When God tests people’s trust, He typically uses tests that have an element of arbitrariness in them such as which tree Adam and Eve were not to eat of (Genesis 2 and 3). The Sabbath is the only command of the ten that cannot be arrived at purely by human reasoning. Which day is arbitrary, and it tests God’s followers as to whether they follow Him because it makes sense or out of complete submission to His will. Many Christians follow Christ because it makes sense to them. It is the most logical and workable way to live—and it is. But Jesus wants to know if it is our love or our reasoning that causes us to follow Him. So, He tests us. In summary, God will test those who dwell on the earth just before He receives them into glory. One test will discover their love for people, the other will test their love for God. We learn of the first through the explicit teachings of Jesus in Matthew, the other through the teachings of Jesus in Revelation. God is looking for faith when He comes back, and faith without evidence in ones actions is simply not faith.
Until Next Week,
Dennis
dennispumford.com
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