There Are No Cash Prizes For Obeying the Law

Good Tuesday morning! The cold of the weekend eased up a bit yesterday, but spring is not ready by any means. Happy Valentine's Day for those of you in love, remembering love, or just wanting to see what that love thing is all about. I have it on good authority that I've heard such a thing is possible. Flowers, fine chocolates, and other expressions of love are in the air today. Hopefully some it will get out of the air and into your hands before the day is done. In giving these things, some will expect to get something in return. At least, I gathered that much from the flower commercial during the Super Bowl this year. Not quite sure what it is the givers expect, but the lady certainly wasn't dressed to fix a garage door or anything like that. What do we expect when we do good works or simply do as we are commanded in the Law?

Sometimes, we seem to expect some reward for obeying the Law, even though we don't keep all of it. Let us get this straight right now - there are no cash prizes for obeying the Law. However, there might just be an eternal one, if we can keep every bit of the Law. Too late for me. How did you do? Unfortunately, we don't get to go back to the start and keep every commandment. Even if we did though, the Law is a duty and not a paying gig. The only man to earn the eternal prize for keeping the Law gave us a way to gain that prize. What? A way that doesn't involve a perfect life? Exactly. When man had thoroughly proven that he could not keep the Law, Jesus came to provide the Way to eternal life.

As the disciples watched, a young man came up to Jesus and asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. The man claimed to have obeyed the commandments Jesus listed for him since his youth, but when Jesus gave him just one more task he found it beyond his ability. Jesus then made his famous comment about those who trust in riches and the camel trotting through the eye of a needle. The disciples looked around at each other and then asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus gave them a taste of what was to come though when he answered them, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." What comes after that is interesting too. Peter stood and reminded Jesus that they had given up their stuff to follow him. Jesus told them, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecution-- and in this age to come, eternal life."

Now why did He have to go and add that one near the end there, that persecution bit? There may not be a cash prize for obeying the Law, but following Jesus does seem to promise a hundredfold replacement of anything we have given up for His sake or the gospel's. Does that mean in kind? If one of us gives up one house for the gospel, can we count on receiving one hundred houses in this life? The lists are different. I don't think that Jesus meant for us to start doing our little worldly wealth math, and come up with some conclusion about leaving one house to gain a hundred. That might also explain why 'wives' didn't make the second list. But what about that promise for the age to come? Eternal life sounds pretty good! Lay down everything I own in this life to gain eternal life in the age to come? Follow Jesus and be with Him forever? Sounds like the thing to do.

Give it up for Jesus, and give some love to your valentine today,
Bucky