Shame at the JSC; Rewards and Inheritance; 1 John 2:28

We now get into the main body of the epistle which extends to 4:19 and the main message is that the believer must mature to the level of loving God as loving one another if he is going to be bold before the judgment seat of Christ. He must reach a level of maturity in order to be bold before the judgment seat of Christ. This begins and in introduced in the first verse of this section. 1 John 2:28 ^NASB “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

“And now” uses a construction that is simply a form of transition—kai nun. It indicates moving from one point to another. Even though nun often has a temporal meaning, here it is used simply as a means of transition. That is indicated by the use of the word teknion, “little children,” a term of endearment. This is how John is expressing himself and his love for the congregation: by teaching them what is necessary to advance to spiritual maturity. The term does not refer to them as spiritual infants but simply as those who are under his pastoral care. Then we have the primary command, and this is the primary command of the Gospel of John: “abide in Him.” This is a present active indicative of the verb meno, a word relating to fellowship, ongoing, continued intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ based on the Word of God, application of His Word, being in fellowship. This introduces the main idea, the main theme, of the section from 2:28-4:19. Then he gives the purpose clause, indicated by the Greek particle hina. Why is it important to abide in Him? We don’t just abide in Him simply to grow, to glorify God; there is more to it than that. There are many dimensions to that and the one that John is emphasising here is for the purpose that “when He appears, we may have confidence.” There are two words that are important to understand here. The first is the present passive subjunctive of the verb phaneroo, which is often used of either the Rapture or the Second Coming. The other is the last word in the English, “coming,” which is the Greek word parousia. These two words are words that are general terms for the coming of Christ. Context is going to determine whether they refer to the Rapture of the church or whether they refer to the Second Coming of Christ. The context here is that John is addressing church age believers.

Why would we shrink away from Him in shame? The reason is that the event that immediately follows the Rapture for the church age believer is the judgment seat of Christ. This is explained in two key passages in the New Testament. The first is in 2 Corinthians 5:10 ^NASB “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” This is not referring to our eternal destiny; that is already settled. This has to do with our roles and responsibilities in the Millennial kingdom, with rewards for spiritual growth, not for spiritual service. As we advance to spiritual maturity that is going to impact and affect the function of our priesthood—witnessing, giving, and all of the other things that relate to our priesthood—but our rewards at the judgment seat of Christ are not based on that, they are based on our spiritual growth. 2 Corinthians 5:6, 7 ^NASB “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight…” That is the principle for the spiritual life; we are to walk by faith and not by sight. This is trust in the Word of God. Faith means that the Word of God is more real to us than our experience, our feelings, than our circumstances; and if the Word of God is more real to us than the events of our lives then we are walking by faith and not by sight. [8] “we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” This is our sixth spiritual skill or stress-buster and what we call a personal sense of our eternal destiny. We know where we are headed. We know that our citizenship is in heaven, we know that we have an eternal destiny, that our destiny is to rule and reign with Jesus Christ, and therefore because our focus is on heaven we want to be there. But we understand that there is a purpose for our life and time here on earth, it is a training ground and where we are developing our maturity so that we have the capacity and the ability to rule and reign with Him during the millennial kingdom. There is a purpose to this; it is like boot camp in the military. How well we do is going to determine what our position is after the judgment seat of Christ. [9] “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we have the statement that we are going to be recompensed “according to what he has done.” This is the Greek word prasso, “what he has practised,” what has continuously been a practice of this individual’s life. So God is going to evaluate us on that basis and there is going to be a recompense for that.

Galatians 5:19-21 explains the manifestations of the sin nature. “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” So here we learn that those who have a habit practice, those who live on the basis of the sin nature, forfeit inheritance—not salvation but inheritance.

1 Corinthians 6 tells us that believers have a destiny that is related to judgment. The problem in Corinth at this time was that when they had a problem with one another they would take them to court. That is, they would take other believers before the court in order to solve their differences. Paul challenges them on this and tells them that basically under no conditions is a believer to take another believer into court because an unbeliever doesn’t have a right frame of reference to be able to adjudicate when there are differences between believers. [1] “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? [2] Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent {to} {constitute} the smallest law courts?” Believers are eventually going to judge the world. We are going to be placed in a position where we are going to judge in the Millennium. [3] “Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?” This is our destiny. So in order to be able to properly judge angels and the world we have to be prepared. We have to go through a training ground and that is part of the purpose of living life right now, learning to have victory over our sin nature, learning to abide in Christ, so that we are prepared for our future roles and responsibilities in the millennial kingdom.

1 Corinthians 6:9 ^NASB “Or do you [second person plural: you all] not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, [10] nor thieves, nor {the} covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Notice how similar this list is to the list in Galatians 5:19-21 and that is says that these will not inherit the kingdom of God. The way this is normally taken is that if you continue to do these things then you weren’t really saved and therefore you are not going to get into heaven, and if you were really saved then you would not continue to practice them. But that violates the whole principle of salvation by grace. [11] “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” Most of those in the congregation at Corinth were living according to the sin nature and there was just a minority who were actually applying doctrine, staying in fellowship, and advancing to spiritual maturity. So there was a situation where perhaps five per cent were advancing through spiritual growth and about ninety-five per cent who were carnal. Now Paul says: “Some of you were” involved in these practices, but that some is the five per cent that is spiritual. The rest of them are still living like unbelievers, their overt behaviour is still carnal. “… “but you [all] were washed, but you [all] were sanctified, but you [all] were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God.” In verse 11 Paul goes back to what he emphasised in that opening prayer in 1 Corinthians chapter one, and that is, their positional reality. They are all sanctified; they are all justified; they are all believers, but only some of them are advancing. So Paul is warning the rest of them that if they continue in their carnal behaviour they are going to jeopardise their eternal rewards and their inheritance.

This makes clear that there are many believers who do lose eternal rewards. 1 Corinthians 3:10 ^NASB “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.” Once a person receives Christ as saviour then that is the foundation. He has to build on that his spiritual life, and that spiritual life is eventually going to be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ. [11] “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw.” All of the works that we do in life are categorised by Paul as gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw. Gold, silver and precious stones have ongoing eternal value; wood, hay and straw are temporal, they can be easily destroyed. 1 Corinthians 3:10-16 is not about salvation but what we see here is that some receive rewards and some don’t. [13] “each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is {to be} revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”

There will come a time when our life is going to be evaluated. It will become clear what we have done in the power of the Holy Spirit and what is done in the power of the sin nature. It is as if everything in our life is put to the torch and that torch tests the quality of everything we have done. The Greek verb is dokimazo and that has to do with demonstrating what has value. This isn’t a negative judgment. The focus here isn’t to reveal what is burned up, to reveal our failures; it is to reveal what has been produced that has eternal value in our lives by God the Holy Spirit. [14] “If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.” Salvation is a gift, not a reward. This is not talking about salvation; this is talking about rewards for spiritual advance. [15] “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” Then Paul adds [16] “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and {that} the Spirit of God dwells in you?” That is to focus on the fact that we are involved in living a life that glorifies God. The issue is not sin here; it is production in our lives. Are we walking by means of God the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16), or are we walking according to the sin nature?

Some believers are going to lose something at the judgment seat of Christ (not eternal life) and that is what John refers to in 1 John 2:28 as shame. There will be a profound shame because they have wasted their lives, their time, their opportunities that God gave them to advance to spiritual maturity.

Romans 8:16, 17 ^NASB “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and {that} the Spirit of God dwells in you? and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with {Him} so that we may also be glorified with {Him.}” The way that that is punctuated it looks as though heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ are synonymous terms. But notice the next clause: “if indeed we suffer with Him.” That clause is a condition. If heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ are the same thing then it is conditioned upon suffering with Christ. That is not a salvation that is free, that is a salvation based on doing something.

There are actually two categories of inheritance mentioned here. It should be punctuated: “if children, heirs also, heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ [no comma] if we suffer with Him.” We become an heir of God at the instant of salvation and we inherit eternal life, but we only become a joint heir with Christ if we suffer with Him, i.e. if we follow Christ in terms of the spiritual life and advancing to spiritual maturity. We don’t become joint heirs with Christ simply by virtue of faith alone in Christ alone. We become and heir of God but advanced inheritance blessing comes only as a result of growing to spiritual maturity.

Revelation 19:7 ^NASB “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” That is what we are doing through spiritual growth today; we are making ourselves ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. [8] “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright {and} clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” That is the result of the judgment seat of Christ; the church is clothed in fine linen. [9] “Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’ [10] Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’” In the next chapter we see the results of this, the judgment by church age believers of Tribulation saints. Revelation 20:4 ^NASB “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I {saw} the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Who is going to execute judgment here? The church age believer who comes back as the bride of Christ and is going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ.

Early in Revelation is another important passage: 3:5 ^NASB “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” These are the white garments that the bride is clothed with in Revelation 19 and they belong to the overcomer. The overcomer is not the believer; it is a classification of believer. This is the same believer who is going to receive rewards at the judgment seat of Christ.

Revelation 20:5, 6 ^NASB “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” We need to look at this word “part.” It is the Greek word meros and it doesn’t mean “part” in the sense of role but it has to do with a part or a portion and was a technical term used in a will to describe the inheritance that would go to the heir. It is the same word that the prodigal son uses when he goes to his father and says: “I want my portion; I want my inheritance.” It is also used in John 13:8 ^NASB “Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’” Jesus is telling Peter he will have no inheritance with Him, if He doesn’t wash his feet. In other words, Jesus is saying to Peter: “If I am not allowed to forgive you your sins and cleanse you day in and day out in life, then all of your production is going to be from the flesh and not from the Holy Spirit, and there will be no basis for reward, no divine good, and there will be loss at the judgment seat of Christ and no inheritance. For the priest to function in his priesthood he has to be repeatedly cleansed.

Our physical body is sanctified at the instant of salvation, set apart for the indwelling of the Shekinah glory. In the Old Testament the Shekinah glory dwelt in the tabernacle, and in order for the priest to function in relationship to the dwelling of God in the temple he had to be cleansed. The same thing is going to happen in the future Millennium. The same principle is true today, except today we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are believer-priests and our bodies are the temple for the dwelling of the Shekinah glory of Jesus Christ, and in order for our priesthood to function in relationship to our temple we have to have cleansing from post-salvation sins. That is why the operative word in 1 John 1:9 is not confession, it is cleansing. There is always a means in every dispensation for a believer to be cleansed from sin. When we sin we are rendered unclean and we can’t function with regard to our priesthood. If we can’t function under our priesthood there will be no gold, silver and precious stones, or no work of the Holy Spirit to be rewarded for and there will be a loss of reward, therefore no “part,” no inheritance, no portion.

Revelation 21:6 ^NASB “Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.” This is salvation, it is without cost. You work for a reward but salvation is free. However, there is a place for the believer’s works or production. [7] “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” In verse 7 the subject is inheritance. [8] “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part {will be} in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” We have seen this list in 1 Corinthians and Galatians, and in those lists we saw that the person who practiced those things would not inherit the kingdom of God. The person who practices those things is going to be a failure at the judgment seat of Christ. The word “part” is meros here, and meros does not have to do with role or destiny, it has to do with inheritance. There will be those who lose rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. What is going to happen to those rewards? They are going to be flushed into the lake of fire where they will burn up. That is the thrust of this passage.

1 John 2:28 ^NASB “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” John tells us that this is the thrust of everything he is going to say in the next two chapters. The command is to abide in Him. Why? Because to abide in Him means to stay in fellowship. That is the place of growth; that is where God the Holy Spirit is going to work with us. Abiding in Him is a synonym for walking by the Holy Spirit. When we are walking by means of the Holy Spirit we are going to produce the fruit of the Spirit which is the basis for reward. What we produce in this life by walking by the Holy Spirit gives us the capacity to rule and reign and judge with the Lord Jesus Christ during the millennial kingdom. If we fail in this life there will be shame. It will be temporary. But for the believer who makes doctrine his highest priority, who abides in Christ, who stays in fellowship, who advances and grows, there will be reward and blessing in the eternal future that is far beyond anything we can ever imagine.