p. 138 | The Reward by M. J. Sober

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 3, 1865

The Reward.

By M. J. Sober

SHALL I receive my reward when I die? or, must I wait till some other time for the precious boon so often promised by my Father in Heaven? What saith God? "To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Knowing that my opinion or belief can never change the mind of God, for what he hath spoken, that will he do, and what he hath decreed, that will he perform whether I believe or no, I have determined to search the Scriptures, that I may know what the mind of God is with reference to the time when the reward shall be given. In Paul's charge to Timothy, (2 Tim. iv, 1,) we hear him declaring, "The Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom," and in verses 7, 8 he says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day [the day referred to in verse 1]: and not to me only, but unto all them, also, that love his appearing." So, Paul and all that love Christ's appearing have the promise of the crown in the day of his coming. We find a similar promise recorded in 1 Peter v, 4—"And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you [when?] at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Ah! we shall be a favored people then; for God hath promised, saying, "They shall be mine, * and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

Our Saviour, when about to leave his dear disciples as sheep among wolves, would comfort them: what does he say? That they shall soon die, and follow him to Heaven? No; but, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again [what for, Lord?] and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also." Then, in order for us to be where Christ is, it is necessary for him to come again. But, Lord, shall we go to our reward, or wilt thou fetch it to us? "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Rev. xxii, 12.) "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 work." "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations." He divides them as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: to those on his right hand he saith, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom." Of those on the left we read, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." (Matt. xxv, 31–46.)

When shall we be recompensed, Lord? "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." (Luke xiv, 13, 14.) "For the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." (Jno. v, 28, 29.) "Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world: Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." (Isa. lxii, 11.) "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." (Isa. xl, 10.) "Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense: he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing." (Isa. xxxv, 4–6.) "For our vile body shall be changed and fashioned like Christ's glorious body." (Phil. iii, 20, 21.) Free from every ill that flesh is heir to: neither can we die any more, being equal unto the angels. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality [when?] at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Cor. xv, 51–55.)

To this time did all the prophets, patriarchs, and apostles look for their reward, without a single exception. * "As for me," saith David, "I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness." The same hope inspired Job when by inspiration he is led to exclaim, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and after I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger." (Job xix, 23–27.—margin.)

With such plain and unequivocal declarations as these, I cannot, I dare not, hope for the reward at any other time than that specified, namely: at the coming of the Judge of all the earth. Again, when I know God's word is "not yea and nay: but yea and amen to the glory of God the Father," I know he will not promise to bestow the reward at one time, and then give it at another: and when I read that all the ancient worthies "received not the promise," God having provided some better thing for us, "that they without us should not be made perfect," but that we together shall "be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so be forever with the Lord," I rejoice to see tokens of speedy deliverance; and cry out, O Lord, how long? Come quickly with the glorious reward, and take thy ransomed people home.—M. J. SOBER, in Voice of the West.