Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
Motivation For Holiness
Pastor Scott
Saturday, February 28, 2004
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"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
(1 Corinthians 15:52)
Isn't it exciting to refresh ourselves with the doctrine of the blessed hope and the promise that He's gone and prepared a place for us? He will doubtless come again and receive us unto Himself that where He is, there we may be also (John 14:3). It's an exciting time, praise God! He's gone and prepared a place that eye has not seen and ear has not heard. It hasn't entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9).
The external motivation of the blessed hope is not just about the fire escape clause, escaping the judgment of God. We would rather not go to hell. Once hell became a reality, it became a motivating factor. Years ago when my father died, people came and said, "All of those years you sowed into his life and you challenged him in the miraculous. How did that affect you, knowing that he didn't accept the Lord and knowing the consequence?" It doesn't really enter my mind. I understand it as a fact; it's a reality. But the justice and mercy of God to have given him so many chances to hear is so real that the just consequences of hating God don't affect my thought processes. God's justice has been satisfied.
We realize that hell is just, but it's a horrible consequence. To you and I that accept it as a reality, it's part of a motivation. It's not what keeps us doing right, but it keeps us appreciating the free gift of Jesus and the price that was paid to deliver us. We realize the reality and the consequences. Why should we go there when the blood of Jesus has already been shed and the price paid? What a waste of the precious blood for anyone to end up in an eternal hell. Yet many people who name the name of Jesus and go to church when it's convenient will end up there.
"...We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3). The blessed hope is the primary motivation for our holiness. The blessed hope, the sure coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, motivates us through the appreciation of the free gift provided. It's the justice of God that will be met. It's the opportunity to see Him and to be like Him, to be free from all of this power of sin that still works in our members and holds us captive. It's an expectation of the finished work and the fulfillment, the redemption of our bodies, the apostle said (Rom. 8:23). The blessed hope is a motivating factor that causes us to rejoice, to continue to press on, and to expect that imminent return and that imminent deliverance from sin's power.