How can we build on the work of Jesus to ensure a joyful outcome on that great and final Day of review? 

Work Matters (7)

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 1 Corinthians 3.12, 13

Well done?

A Day is coming, the Scriptures advise us, when all the work we have done will be put on display for all the world, the angels, the saints departed, and the Lord of glory to inspect. 

The Lord will scrutinize how we have managed our jobs, cared for our possessions, pursued holiness in the Lord, served our neighbors, and reached out to the lost. All the work we’ve been given to do will be brought into the searching light of God and His Word. 

At that time, it will be clear and visible to all just how grateful we have been to the Lord for all His good and perfect gifts, how much we have cherished the salvation He freely gave us, and how earnest and devoted we were to the work He had given us to do. 

And then we will hear person after person from every age and tribe and tongue rejoicing as King Jesus says to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of My Kingdom.” 

If this day, and this expectation and hope, are not the driving force for every aspect of our lives and work, then it is doubtful we have really understood the Good News of the Kingdom or received the salvation freely offered to us by the King. I say this again: If we are not motivated and driven, day by day, by the prospect of hearing “Well done, good and faithful servant”, then we need to examine ourselves, whether we truly know the Lord of glory.

That’s pretty hard language, I know, but let’s face the reality: If we have not submitted to Jesus as Lord of every area of our life, all the work we’ve been given to do, then we are still living for ourselves, not Him. We are attempting to build on the foundation of His glorious redemptive work an edifice of wood, hay, and straw, and one day that will be eminently and sadly clear for all to see.

Work as gratitude

But we can look forward to that day with hope, and with the anticipation of joy unending, to hear the Lord’s commendation of our work. But let’s be clear: We do not work to earn our salvation; Jesus has done all the work our redemption and eternal security require.

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