It is accepted as a fact among
most religious people that there will be degrees of reward in heaven, that some
of God's people will be required to suffer loss in heaven because of their
sins, or unfaithfulness, in this world. That commonly accepted notion of
fundamentalism is very little different from the papal doctrine of purgatory!
Both are the inventions of men. Both make the believer's standing before God to
be partly on the basis of works. Both make the finished work of Christ of no effect.
And both are blasphemously contrary to the gospel of the free grace of God.
My friends, the Lord Jesus Christ did not leave
anything undone for us to complete. He has purchased a full reward for all his
people. And that reward is not based upon our faithfulness, but upon his
faithfulness. All that almighty God can and will give to men, both for time and
eternity, was purchased for every believer by the blood of Christ. Our total
acceptance before God is through the blood of Christ, and the blood of Christ
alone! We are accepted in the Beloved. In him we are perfectly holy and
righteous. When we stand before God, we will be presented without spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing, glorious, unblameable, and unreproveable. Because
we are in Christ, the all-seeing eye of God cannot behold any fault in us. If
the holy and righteous God should see anything in us short of perfection, he
would not just take a star out of our crown, he would send us to hell:
It is contrary to all reason to suppose that God
would withhold any good thing from those who are redeemed by the blood of his
Son. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" In giving us his
Son, the Lord our God has given us a full reward. We want no more, for time and
eternity, than the Lord Jesus Christ in all his fulness. And we shall have no
less!