Dear Fellow Believers in Christ, (Our Reward will be judged by Christ according to Paul's Gospel)
Did you not know that at the judgement seat of Christ, that He will judge us according to Paul's gospel? (Rom. 2:16). That is a sobering thought. Perhaps it is very important that we know and fully understand Paul's gospel, if God holds our eternal reward based on his gospel. Why did our Father place us in Christ? Why was Christ placed in us at the Spirit rebirthing? How does our reward hinge on how much the Christ-life is expressed in and through us? What do wood, hay, and stubble represent as building materials? What does gold, silver, and precious stones represent as building materials? What is the true foundation according to Paul's gospel? Holy Spirit we are open today for your love and grace. Teach us of the wonderful and rewarding person of Christ, who lives in and through us.REWARD
"Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor" (I Cor. 3:8).
First, The Father’s Eternal Plan in Christ for You Provides Eternal Salvation
Our Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). The Lamb of God – His precious Son, was slain in the mind and heart of God before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Jesus Christ "was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Pet. 1:20). That is a powerful statement of what Jesus Christ did for you. Jesus Christ was manifested to reveal the Father to Israel (John 1:31), ultimately to all of mankind, and then to you. Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God without blemish and without spot, who purchased salvation with His precious blood, including yours (I Pet. 1:19). Our Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead, which proves that His Son’s sacrifice was 100% acceptable for all men, and also for you. Our Father sent the Holy Spirit to Spiritually rebirth His Son into every one who would simply believe, including you (I Pet. 1:21; Rom. 10:9-10). The Father’s eternal plan for you provides eternal salvation.
Second, The Father Put the Son in You for Expression and His Reward
Christ now become the life of every Spirit rebirthed son, which is the Christ-life. Paul said, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Paul doesn’t say that we are saved by His death. Paul clearly declares that we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, and "we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:10). We are ever eternally saved by, in, and through the life of Christ in us. Our Father rewards the expression of the life of His Son in and through us. The Father will reward His righteousness that flows to others through us. Our Father will also reward His holiness and sanctification that works in us. The Father will not reward our flesh and selfish expression in and through us. That is contrary to His purpose and plan. We need to have a Holy Spirit renewed mind of Christ to give Christ ability to express Himself in us as us. This is the Christ-life expression and purpose that our Father will reward.
Third, We Belong to Our Father Founded on Christ and Him Crucified
Religion and tradition hides the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion and tradition must control men with an element of the Law mixed with grace. Paul clearly declares that we belong to God in every respect. We are God's fellow workers. We are God's field for salvation. We are God's church that He is building (I Cor. 3:9). Paul also declared that because of the grace of God, he was given the plans to become a master builder in laying the foundation for the church (I Cor. 3:10). What was Paul's foundation? Paul told the Corinthians that he would focus only on "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2). For this was the only foundation that would build them up and cause them to stand in the wisdom and power of God (I Cor. 1:24,18; 2:5). Our Father is building His church on the rock of revelation knowledge of Christ and Him crucified (Matt. 16:17-18).
Fourth, We Must Take Heed How We Build Upon the Foundation of Christ
Paul did warn that we needed to take heed how we build upon this foundation (I Cor. 3:10). We can build with gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble (I Cor. 3:12). Wood is things we built and do by our own flesh and strength. Hay is our attitudes and life of selfishness attempting to have or build things that are selfish and are not a part of His will for us. Stubble is our pride to be something with a separate life from Christ in certain areas. We better build with gold, silver, precious stones. This could be a representation of the Trinity of God, with the Father as gold (deity), the Son as silver (redemption), and the Holy Spirit as precious stones. Let's look a little deeper with the context of the passage and the message Paul is presenting to the Corinthians.
Fifth, Christ in Us as Us is the Expression of the Gold on His Foundation
The wisdom of God is that our Father put Christ in us at the Spirit rebirthing. Our Father expects us to live by the strength, power, and life of Christ in us. Christ in us as us, doing and building things is the gold. That is the Christ-life – the shared-life that our Father prepared in love for us to live and walk in. Christ will live in us His crucified life that is a life of love and unselfishness toward God and others. You attempting to put your own flesh to death by your own flesh is asceticism. Christ living His crucified life through you will in love keep flesh crucified in you. Christ living His crucified life in us, is what Paul is discussing when he states, "always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (II Cor. 4:10).
Sixth, Christ Crucified is the Silver to Build us as Precious Stones in Him
Christ-crucified in us with that attitude of love and unselfishness is the silver. Peter says, we are living stones that are being built up as a spiritual house (I Pet. 2:5). Paul in context has talking about the wisdom and revelation of Christ in us as us, that cannot be known in the natural but taught only by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 2:6-14). This provides us spiritual discernment through the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2:15-16). Paul could not talk to the Christians in Corinth as spiritual, as they were focusing on men and men's teaching, without the message of truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified (I Cor. 3:1-7). Precious stones represents the building of Christian living stones up in the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Seventh, Christ will Judge All Christians by Paul’s Gospel for a Reward
We need to live and walk in a Spirit-filled, Spirit-taught, and Spirit-led relationship and fellowship with our Lord and our Father. We make it our aim to be well pleasing to Him (II Cor. 5:9). "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (II Cor. 5:10). On that Day of the judgement seat of Christ, the fire of God will test all men's work. All works built with wood, hay, and stubble will be totally consumed. We don’t need to come to the judgement seat of Christ, as naked before our Lord, with everything that we built totally consumed by the fire of His purity (I Cor. 3:15). Paul declared that "God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel" (Rom. 2:16). Jesus Christ will judge us according to Paul’s gospel. Everything built 100% upon Jesus Christ and by Him crucified, along with every Christian precious stone of Him, will endure and receive a reward! (I Cor. 3:13-15).