WHY the Holy Spirit?
I have been showing you, step by step, the way of "salvation." Where are you, now? You have been reconciled to God — your past forgiven — and you have received God's Holy Spirit. But why?
God's Spirit, first of all, is His very own LIFE injected into you — the begettal of ETERNAL life. You are now an HEIR of God — a joint-heir — a coheir with CHRIST. Not yet an inheritor. The Holy Spirit injects into you also the characteristics of God. First of these is LOVE — not carnal or human love, but DIVINE love — God's love.
And why? In order to KEEP GOD'S Law — that's why! How is God's Law fulfilled? "LOVE is the fulfilling of the Law" (Rom. 13:8). But carnal human love cannot fulfill it. WHY? Because the Law of God is a SPIRITUAL Law (Rom. 7:14). It can be fulfilled only by a SPIRITUAL love, which is THE GIFT of God. It is "the love of GOD shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5). And, again, God gives His Holy Spirit only to "them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32).
Also it requires FAITH to keep God's Commandments. And your faith is not strong enough. It requires CHRIST'S faith — the same faith He exercised and lived by during His human lifetime. God also GIVES you this very same FAITH, by the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit also imparts to you, spiritual comprehension — power to UNDERSTAND spiritual truth; and wisdom, and patience, and spiritual POWER! All these are imparted to you from God, by the Holy Spirit — as His GIFT! But these are given to you to LIVE BY — to USE, in order to GROW spiritually in knowledge and grace, and to overcome.
MUST There Be "WORKS"?
I have tried to make it PLAIN that we cannot EARN salvation by "works."
Yet EVERYONE does produce works — either good or bad. Your evil "works" — disobedience of the Commandments — will EARN you the penalty of DEATH. But what about GOOD works? Do they earn you anything?
INDEED THEY DO!
Are good "WORKS" required?
INDEED THEY ARE!
But WHAT, then, do they EARN?
They do NOT earn "salvation." They do NOT earn eternal life. They will NOT get you into the Kingdom of God!
Well, then! What Do they earn?
Ah — that is the point of this article!
You are not JUSTIFIED by works, nor "saved" by "works," but you are to be JUDGED by your works, and "rewarded" according to your "works."
This thing called "WORKS" — meaning deeds, good or bad — cannot put you INTO God's Kingdom of Immortals. You get IN by GRACE! But, once in, your "works" during this present life — during your Christian life after being "converted" and receiving God's Holy Spirit — Do determine WHAT OFFICE, or POSITION, or RANK, or degree of GLORY, you shall have!
This is what ALMOST No ONE seems to have understood!
First notice what Jesus said — AFTER His resurrection — inspired after the year 90 A.D.: "To him that OVERCOMETH will I grant to sit with me in my THRONE . . . (Rev. 3:21). Further: And he that OVERCOMETH, and keepeth thy works unto the end, to him will I give POWER OVER THE NATIONS: AND HE SHALL RULE THEM . . . (Rev. 2:26-27).
Notice again, ". . . hast made us unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS; and WE SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH (Rev.5:10).
Notice what is said of those in the first RESURRECTION, at Christ s coming: . . . and they lived AND REIGNED with Christ a thousand years. . . . Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, AND SHALL REIGN with Him a thousand years" (Rev. 20:4, 6).
Notice, in these Scriptures, the "saved" are to REIGN with Christ in the coming WORLD GOVERNMENT, the Kingdom of God. And notice the requirement of OVERCOMING, and keeping Christ s WORKS and also of ENDURING TO THE END! NOTICE! Jesus said "he that . . . keepeth my works unto the end.
Now notice further: "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall REWARD every man ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS" (Mat. 16:27). Nowhere does the Bible teach being "SAVED" by our "works," but it does teach the degree of reward according to "works."
Alexander the coppersmith did great evil to the apostle Paul, and Paul says: ". . . the Lord rewards him according to his works" (II Tim. 4:14). Notice this distinction! This man did EVIL works. He won't get salvation at Christ's coming. He will be REWARDED — that is, PAID WAGES according to his WORKS — and the WAGES of SIN is DEATH — eternal PUNISHMENT.”WORKS" means the wages you earn — or the REWARD to be given — either good or bad. Evil works (sin) can EARN eternal punishment, but GOOD WORKS can EARN a better position or office in God's Kingdom 11; you get there — but it cannot earn salvation!
Now notice Romans 4:4: "Now to him that WORKETH is the reward NOT reckoned of GRACE, but of DEBT.
Salvation is not paid as a DEBT, but is GIVEN by GRACE — undeserved GIFT. But "WORKS" earn wages, paid as a debt. So what we WANT is not GRACE or WORKS, but GRACE and WORKS. The GRACE will get us into God s Kingdom — give us Immortality as God's GIFT. The WORKS will EARN US — that is, QUALIFY US for a better office — an opportunity for bigger SERVICE — for doing MORE GOOD, once we are born into God's Kingdom.
Degree of Reward
Notice, now, Jesus' parable of the "pounds."
Jesus' disciples wrongly supposed the Kingdom of God was to appear in their lip elide. TO CORRECT this error, Jesus spoke this parable.
". . . because they thought the Kingdom of God should immediately appear He said therefore, 'A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for Himself a Kingdom, and to return'" (Luke 19:11-12). That is, Jesus Himself was going to heaven to receive for Himself the Kingdom of God, and to return to earth. Now continue:
"And He called His ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, 'Occupy till I come.' But His citizens hated Him, and sent a message after Him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us'" (verses 13-14). Jesus had come "to His own," the Jews — the remnant of the Kingdom of JUDAH — and "they received Him not" (John 1:11), so Jesus turned to "the lost sheep of the House of Israel," (Mat. 15:24), and sent His twelve Apostles to them (Mat. 10:6). That is, to the so-called "lost Ten Tribes" of Israel. They were then, most of them, in northwestern Europe and the British Isles (see free booklet, The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy).
But continue Jesus' parable:
"And it came to pass, that when He was returned," — now speaking of what shall happen at Christ's return — "having received the Kingdom, then He commanded these servants to be called unto Him, to whom He had given the money, that He might know how much every man had gained by trading" (Luke 19:15).
This is speaking of every converted true Christian, to whom God has GIVEN of His Holy Spirit, and spiritual gifts. Every one, now entering God s Kingdom as an INHERITOR — as a POSSESSOR, no longer just an HEIR — actually NOW SAVED — will be called to an accounting — Judged, to determine WHAT POSITION in God s Kingdom he has qualified for. And NOTICE that this REWARD will be according to his "WORKS" in this present mortal life. Continue verses 16-19:
"Then came the first, saying, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.' And He said unto him, 'Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.' And the second came, saying, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.' And He said likewise to him, 'Be those also over relive cities.' "
NOTICE CAREFULLY! They got into God's Kingdom by GRACE (as numerous other Scriptures make plain). But they are rewarded — that is, given authority, or rule, or position, according to their "WORKS" — according to how well they did with what they had to do with WHILE CHRIST WAS IN HEAVEN — that is, during their Christian lives.
Continue now:
Beginning verse 20 — read it in your Bible — the one who GAINED NOTHING in this present mortal life — the one who had no good "works" — not only was not given ANY position — but even had TAKEN AWAY FROM HIM even the spiritual gift he had been given! In this parable, the English pound, the main English unit of money — worth approximately $2.80 United States money — is used as a symbol of spiritual value.
This parable teaches what has been shown by other Scriptures in this article — that the Christian must OVERCOME; he must GROW spiritually — grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ (2 Pet. 3:18). We are being SAVED to SERVE — and if we do not qualify to serve, we may have taken away even the salvation we thought we had!
The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) shows the same thing, showing that each is judged by what he has to do with. But the one who makes no SPIRITUAL PROGRESS after his initial "conversion" is cast as an "unprofitable servant into outer darkness" (Mat.25:30).