The Gospel in Twenty Questions (29 page)

If there are
heavenly rewards, what are they? Some say it’s material wealth. “You can’t take
it with you, but you can send it on ahead.” So the old joke about the gold bars
is no joke at all. Yet if we have money in eternity, what would we spend it on?
Will there be cinemas and restaurants and mini-golf? And what happens if you run
out of money after a million years or so? If no one is working or playing the
heavenly stock market, won’t everyone end up poor in the long run?

These
are silly questions because this is a silly scenario. Yet it’s one I used to
preach. I used to talk about lazy Christians using my heavenly lawn as a
campsite. I figured I would get a mansion (I was working so hard) and they
would get pup tents. What was I thinking?

Others
say heavenly rewards are positions of authority. Do well down here and you’ll
get a city or province up there. I suppose that’s fine if you want to be a
mayor or governor, but it’s not much of a reward if you don’t. And what happens
if there aren’t enough cities to go around? Will Jesus say, “We ran out of
places to govern so we’ll make you a playground monitor”? Have fun doing that
for eternity.

A
big part of the problem is we’re trying to picture heavenly rewards with an
earthly mindset, and it just won’t work. What is highly valued here may not
amount to a hill of beans there. We have to see this from the Father’s point of
view.

What
are eternal rewards? What is our heavenly treasure? The answer may surprise you,
but it’s people.

Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring
a reward from him. (Psalm 127:3)

This psalm is not
just talking about biological children. God has bigger plans for you and they
involve spiritual children. Lots of them. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.
Millions. Don’t limit God. Just as Abraham was called to be the father of many
nations, so are you.

Jesus
said those who followed him would be fishers of men. What is a fisherman’s
reward? It’s fish, or people in this case.

What is the
reward of the one who sows and waters the good seed? It’s a harvest of people.

What is treasure
that never wears out and cannot be stolen? It’s people.

God gave me this
revelation at a time when Camilla and I were asking, “Do we want another child?”
Having a child is the biggest decision a couple can make. You have to ask, “Is
there room in our lives for another person? Can we afford the cost of raising a
child?” Do you know that God is not troubled by these questions? He has plenty
of room and can easily afford it.

In my heart I
felt my Father say, “I want more kids! I
always
want more kids!” His
heart bursts with love that craves expression. Just as a painter has to paint
and a writer has to write, a father has to father. It’s what he does. I’m not
sure how many children I am capable of fathering, but God is a far bigger
Father than me. He has no limits. His heart cries, “I treasure children. The
more, the better!”

In Matthew
chapter 5, Jesus introduces God as our heavenly Father. In Matthew chapter 6,
Jesus says he is a Father who rewards us. What is a father’s reward? It is
children.

Jesus exhorts us
to store up treasures in heaven. Although God is our Treasure, he is not
saying, “Store up God.” How would we do that? He’s saying, “Be fruitful and
multiply so that when this moth-eaten, money-grubbing world passes away, you
will have treasures in heaven
—
spiritual children, and grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren.”
[48]

I admit, this was
a startling revelation. I grew up in an average-sized family and planned to
have an average-sized family of my own. It never occurred to me that God isn’t
your average Father with average dreams. His desire is to grow the world’s
largest family. This is obvious once you see it, but I hadn’t seen it. But
someone who had was the apostle Paul.

Paul says we are
rewarded for our labor. What labor is more rewarding than the labor of childbirth?
As in the natural, so in the spiritual. What could be more fulfilling than
co-laboring with the Lord to create new life? You tell someone the good news, the
lights go on, a smile dawns on their face, and you realize that you and the
Holy Spirit just did something special. A moment ago this person had no great
regard for Jesus; now they’re shining with his very life. They just became a
new person, one who will learn to call God, “Abba, Father.” It truly is a
miracle.

The
Father-heart of God beat within Paul with such intensity that he felt compelled
to preach the gospel. He didn’t do it for mansions or money but people.

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have
made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. (1 Corinthians
9:19)

Paul had a deep
desire to raise spiritual offspring. Through the gospel he became a father to
the Corinthians and a mother to the Thessalonians. He called men like Timothy
and Onesimus his sons in the Lord. And when he saw those he had nurtured
standing firm in Christ, he said, “Now we really live.”
[49]

Seeing
people get zapped by grace is about the greatest thrill on earth. I’ve seen
people healed, families restored, and addictions broken. Just yesterday I
helped save a marriage simply by dispensing grace. What a buzz!

Outside
of the Lord himself, there is no greater reward than co-laboring with the Holy
Spirit to reproduce the life of Christ in others. Paul understood this and
bragged about it:

For what is our hope, our joy, or the
crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes?
Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:19
–
20)

Perhaps you’ve
heard it said that God keeps a photo of you in his wallet. Well, Paul kept
photos of the Thessalonians in his. They were his children in the Lord, and he
delighted in them just as God delights in you. They were his crown, his joy,
and his eternal reward.

When Solomon said
children are a reward from the Lord, he was quoting an old covenant law (see
Deuteronomy 28:4). If children are a reward under the death-dealing ministry of
the law, how much more should we expect offspring under life-giving grace?
There’s no life in the law, but grace is fertile. It is the nature of grace to
reproduce good fruit among those who receive it.

The strangest
parable Jesus ever told was about a man who cheats on his boss and is then
praised for doing so (see Luke 16:1
–
8). The parable of the shrewd manager is
puzzling. What is Jesus trying to tell us? That it’s okay to cook the books,
diddle the figures, and engage in white-collar crime? No, Jesus isn’t
encouraging dishonesty. He’s telling us how to plan for the future:

And I say to you, make friends for
yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into
an everlasting home. (Luke 16:9, NKJV)

The punchline of
the parable is “make friends”
—
real friends you can enjoy into eternity.
“When you fail” is a reference to kicking the bucket. We have an opportunity in
this lifetime to make friends who will receive us in the next. How do we do
that? By investing ourselves into people, showing love, and giving grace.

The
problem is we’re often too busy for others. Our lives are so filled with
errands, exams, bills, deadlines, and meetings that we have no time for people.
Relationships have been reduced to text messages and “likes” on Facebook. In
these busy days, we need to hear the words of Jesus more than ever. “Be shrewd
like the manager and use the resources of this world to get a return that lasts
into the next.”

In
the story, the shrewd manager goes around writing down the debts of others.
That’s what we do when we tell people the good news. We’re announcing the year
of Jubilee and the cancellation of all debts. “God holds nothing against you.
He is for you and wants you to be free from guilt and shame.” We have the happy
job of providing freedom to a debt-conscious world.

Whoever can be trusted with very little
can also be trusted with much … (Luke 16:10a)

The “very little”
is the unrighteous mammon; the friends we make are the “much.” The wealth of
this age doesn’t last. Moth, rust, and thieves diminish it. But friends in
Christ last forever. Friends are the only thing you can take with you.

We
tend to pick friends who look like us, act like us, and think like us. But Jesus
made friends with people who were nothing like him and then empowered them to
become like him. He showed grace to a crooked little thief called Zacchaeus,
and the man turned into a giver. He shone a light on a dark soul called Saul,
and the man became a firebrand. Jesus lived and died for his friends. He even
made friends out of his enemies.

Making
friends is not always easy, but Jesus shows how to do it. He made time for
people. He went to their parties and weddings, and generally got involved in
their lives. Jesus said one good way to make friends is to have a feast:

When you give a banquet, invite the poor,
the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they
cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
(Luke 14:13
–
14)

In this world,
people throw parties to socialize and network. They invite others in the hope
of getting something in return. But Jesus said we can also throw parties to
make eternal friends by inviting those who cannot pay us back.

How
are we repaid at the resurrection of the righteous? Through friends. Do you
see? Those needy folk aren’t going to be needy forever. One day they will shine
with glory and they will thank you for sharing your life with them.

You
don’t need a pulpit to proclaim the gospel of grace. You just need a table,
preferably with food on it, and a little wine, or juice if you prefer. Think
how often Jesus ate with people. He probably sat down and ate more often than
he stood and preached. That’s how Jesus made friends.

Now that we see the
best rewards are people
—
the friends we make and the children we
raise
—
we begin to understand why Jesus made such a fuss over the poor.
“Give to the poor, invite the poor, help the poor.” It’s not that God loves the
poor more than the rich, it’s that the poor are a better investment. They are
the low-hanging fruit.

When
it comes to the gospel, the poor have advantages over the rich. They haven’t
been numbed by the false and fleeting comforts of this world. Aware of their
needs, they are ready to meet the One who promises to supply all of our needs
in Christ Jesus. The table of the Lord’s abundance has been laid for all, but
only the hungry are grateful.
[50]

Do
you remember the rich young man who asked Jesus what he should do to inherit
eternal life? Jesus asked him if he knew the commandments, and the man said he
had kept them since he was a boy. Then Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said
this:

One thing you lack. Go, sell everything
you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow me. (Mark 10:21)

There’s a double whammy
here. First, the young man thinks he’s a good law-keeper, but Jesus knows he
isn’t. He’s an idol-worshipper, trusting in uncertain riches. Second, he’s
planning for eternity, but he’s going about it in the wrong way. He’s investing
in himself and his self-righteous performance.

Jesus
loves this guy. He doesn’t want him to miss out on grace. So first he gives him
law so that he might recognize his need for grace, and then he tells him how to
make eternal friends. “Give to the poor. Throw parties for the downtrodden and
the outcast.” Jesus isn’t just trying to get him into heaven. He wants to set
him up for eternal life with lots of friends.

Giving
to the poor won’t make you righteous, but it may help you make eternal friends.
That’s not just good advice for rich young rulers, for Jesus said the same
thing to his disciples:

Sell your possessions and give to the
poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in
heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
(Luke 12:33)

Jesus isn’t calling
us to a life of poverty. He’s giving us practical tips on how to gather the
only treasure that lasts. There is nothing wrong with owning a nice house and
car. But if all you have to show for your life is a bunch of moth-eaten, rusty
toys, then you have not spent wisely. You’ve made inferior investments and
settled for an empty life when you could have a life full of friends and
children.

Some
think giving to the poor earns us heavenly brownie points. If that were the
case, why did Jesus do it (John 13:29)? Jesus didn’t need to curry favor with
God. Jesus reached out to the poor because it was the smart thing to do. He did
it because the needy respond to grace. Jesus preached the gospel to everyone
but made a point of preaching the good news to the poor (see Matthew 11:5).

What
does money have to do with this? Why does Jesus exhort us to give? We might say
it’s because a gift opens a door for the giver (Proverbs 18:16). But the real
reason is because we care. Our heart is for people, and where your heart is
there your treasure will be. If you love people, you will invest in them, not
because you have to but because you want to.

We
don’t help the poor to buy opportunities for preaching the gospel. That’s
manipulation and it fools no one. We do it for love and no other reason. “If I
give all I possess to the poor, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1
Corinthians 13:3). So don’t put tracts on the banqueting table and don’t ambush
your guests with a sermon. Just love them. Spend money on them. Give them the
best food you can and put flowers on the table. Imagine Jesus was coming for
dinner and prepare accordingly.

“But
Paul, how will our guests hear the gospel if we don’t tell them?” You have to
trust God. Don’t try and make things happen. Just follow the Holy Spirit and go
with the flow. You may get an opportunity to talk about Jesus or heal the sick,
or you may not. But have no agenda other than the goal of loving without any
expectation of getting something in return. Unconditional love is a rare
commodity in this world. It speaks louder than any sermon and points to the
grace of a good God.

Jesus
preached the gospel
and
gave to the poor. Paul did the same. Like Jesus,
he understood the significance of the poor and was enthusiastic about giving to
them:

All they asked was that we should continue
to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
(Galatians 2:10)

Paul didn’t give to
the poor out of religious duty or to please the law-conscious. He did it
because he loved people and wanted to win as many as possible. He understood
that grace goes furthest where it’s most needed. He knew that Jesus came especially
for the sick and the sinful and that the kingdom of God is for the poor.
[51]

At the start of
this book I asked, “Who’s your Daddy?” Here at the end, it’s fitting that I
ask, “Who are your children?” One question follows the other. The more you know
your Father’s heart, the more you want to be a father or mother yourself.
That’s how love works. We receive it, get changed by it, then give it away.

Perhaps
the story of your life has been one of barrenness and fruitlessness. Perhaps
you have tried to preach the gospel and little came of it. Can I suggest you
stop trying and start resting in the love of your Father? There is no pressure
here. Your place in the kingdom is as secure as Jesus, and in him you are
already the heir of all things. You have nothing to prove. This isn’t about you
working but putting grace to work. How do you do that? I can’t tell you. What
works for me won’t work for you. But the Holy Spirit isn’t short of ideas. Stay
focused on Jesus and he will lead you on a grace adventure tailor-made for you.

You
may be thinking, “I’ve got to start hosting banquets. I’ve got to get some
eternal friends.” But if you don’t have the gift for hospitality, you’ll be a
lousy host. You may never host a banquet. You might do something completely
original that no one has ever thought of before. Don’t limit your Father. He
made you, he knows you, and he’s got some ideas about how you can do this. Ask
him to show you. And then brace yourself because I guarantee you God’s ideas
are bigger and better than anything you could come up with on your own.

The
gospel of grace is good news for the barren, for it frees us from the pressure
to produce and empowers us to do that which we could never have done alone.
Grace makes us abundantly fruitful.

Manmade
religion says you have to perform and make it happen, but grace simply says,
“Trust Jesus and allow him to express his life through you.” Religion will make
you cry in fruitless frustration, but grace makes you sing and shout for joy!