Two questions

"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Rev 20:11-15

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Last month the pastor at my church presented a series of lessons encouraging us to "Be the Church." It was a very good series and it challenged me a lot.

One sermon was focused on the reality of eternity and in it he mentioned that when we die, we're all going to have to answer God these two questions, and in this order:

1. What did you do with my Son?
2. What did you do with what I gave you?

The main purpose of this blog site from the start has been to help people to "Get off the fence" and thinking about the day you'll have to face God at the end of your life is for sure a motivator to think about these things. So let's start unpacking these two fundamental questions and think about how you will answer them on the day.

Question Number 1: What did you do with my Son?

"...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." Hebrews 9:27

Foundational to the Christian faith is our belief that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to the Earth, taking on human form, living and then dying for our sins, and was then resurrected from the dead.  Our hope is, knowing that Jesus was raised from the dead, we that believe in Him will also be raised up one day to a new life with Him.

But in order to experience this hope, we have to put our faith, our trust, in Jesus and what He did. There's a choice that has to be made. You need to trust Him and what He did, or you don't.

And so, the day you die, God will ask you, "What did you do with my Son?"
And what will be your reply?

Question Number 2: What did you do with what I gave you?

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Matthew 16:27

The important point that our pastor made on question 2, is that it is a second question. You have to answer number 1 first. If you accept what Jesus did for you and put your trust in Him, then He asks you to use your time and talents to honor Him. It's easy to get this wrong in a couple of ways:

1. We might think that we have to earn our way to heaven somehow. This is a mistake that can be made by not answering question number 1. It doesn't matter what we do if we ignore what Jesus did. All the best intentions and good deeds are wasted if you don't respond to Him.
2. If you have answered question 1, and have put your trust in Jesus, you might think that's the end of the matter and you can go merrily on your way with the rest of your life on this planet doing whatever you want.  But if you do that you're missing out. You'll miss out on the blessings God can give you in this life, and - maybe shocking, but certainly Biblical - you'll receive less of a reward in the next life. 

And so, the day you die, having answered question 1, God will then ask you, "What did you do with what I gave you?"
And what will be your reply to that one?