My Reward Is With Me

And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

Revelation 22:12

As the Scripture draws to a close in this chapter, there are several quotations from Christ.  One of these quotations occurs three times.  In verse 7 we read, ‘Behold, I am coming quickly.’  In verse 20, Christ says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’  In our text we read, ‘behold I am coming quickly and My reward is with me, to give to everyone according to His work.  This is entirely consistent with everything we have read thus far regarding the return of Christ.  We know from this, and other passages that ‘in righteousness He judges and makes war,’ and at a certain point He ‘will sit upon the Throne of His glory.’  According to our text, He will ‘give to every one according to his work.’  The works arise out of belief.  We act according to what we truly believe.  According to the lengthy and graphic description of the Last Judgment, the people whom Christ accepts are those who out of their belief in Christ imitated Him in doing good to those around them who were in need.  Christ says, ‘inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’  It is those people to whom Christ says, ‘Then the King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’  Look to Christ today as both Savior and the Grand Template for your life in imitation of Him.

Our Gracious Master and Our God,
we rejoice in Your free and sovereign grace.
We praise You that beyond salvation,
You have set before us
the pathway that we may follow to imitate You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning