English:
Read and pray: "And whoever gives to one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward." (Mt 10:42)
"FEAR HIM WHO HAS AUTHORITY TO CAST INTO GEHENNA"
How many things in us have not yet been dealt with? How many things have not been cleansed by the blood of the Lord, and how many things have not been confessed, dealt with, and resolved with the brothers and sisters? These are the thorns and thistles to which the Lord refers.
Matthew 5 says that no one will come out from there until he has paid the last cent. Every debt must be paid. When all has been burned, every debt will have been paid. A Christian is like a field, and his improper conduct is compared to thorns and thistles.
Suppose I own a five-acre field. Could it be possible, after the burning, that only two acres remain untouched and three acres have been burned? That is impossible. What is burned are the thorns and thistles. The field itself cannot be burned.
In other words, only those things that were cursed in Adam and should have been removed, but were not, will be burned. They will be the material to be burned in the Gehenna of fire. The life God has given us cannot be touched by fire.
Therefore, after the thorns and thistles are burned, the field will still remain. No part of it will be taken away. There is absolutely no problem with our salvation, but with what grows on it, with what comes from the flesh.
If such things are not dealt with by the blood of Jesus, we must suffer some treatment. Now let us see Hebrews 10:26-29: "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery zeal which is to consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. By how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded the blood of the covenant a common thing."
These verses refer to someone who rejected Christ and went back to Judaism. He thinks that by spending some money he can buy a bull or a goat as a sin offering. But if someone has known Christ and gone back to Judaism, he has trampled the Son of God underfoot and considered His blood a common thing. He is treating the Lord as a bull or a goat. To him there is no difference between the Lord and a bull or a goat.
The verse concludes: "And has insulted the Spirit of grace." While the Holy Spirit is giving him grace, he insults Him by returning to Judaism. These verses show us the way of an apostate. I would not say such a person is saved; I would only say that it may be that he is saved, or perhaps not saved.
The apostle does not tell us whether such a person is saved or not. He only says that if someone came to Christ and then went back to Judaism, he will suffer worse punishment. His end is an expectation of judgment and fiery zeal. Here we see a kind of fire.
Together with all these passages, we also have the Lord’s own words in John 15. Verse 2 says: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes." These are not branches unrelated to Him; they are branches in Him. What is shown here may not refer to temporary punishment, but to discipline in this age.
But notice verse 6: "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is dried up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Some branches will be cast into the fire and burned. Some branches have grown and produced green leaves, but have no fruit. Though they have life inwardly, they have no fruit outwardly.
The Lord Jesus said that they will be cast out, dried up, and burned in the fire. Here we see clearly that Christians may have to pass through fire. Having read all these passages, we may conclude that if a Christian does not properly deal with his sins, punishment awaits him.
The Bible shows us clearly what kind of punishment it will be. It will not be common punishment, but the punishment of "Gehenna of fire." Yet it will be fire in the kingdom, not fire in eternity. The question now is this: What kind of sin will lead to this condition?
Since a person is saved, it is important that he deals with his sins. None of the sins that he has confessed, repented of, dealt with, and had remission through the blood of the Lord Jesus will return to him at the judgment seat. Such sins will have passed. Even the greatest sin will have passed.
But there are many sins that will not be omitted; they are the sins that someone contemplates in his heart. Psalm 66:18 says: "If I regard vanity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." What are the sins the heart contemplates?
The heart is the place where our love and desires dwell. The heart represents our emotion. It represents the psychological man. If the heart contemplates vanity, the Lord will not hear us. Many confessions are made only because the person knows he has sinned; there is no hatred for sin, nor condemnation of sin. Such a person the Lord will not hear.
Moreover, if we have a problem with someone that has not been resolved, or if there are things that need to be forgiven and have not been, or if we have wronged people or the Lord, we must deal with these things specifically.
At the same time, we must put them under the blood of the Lord. Only then will such things be dealt with, and we will be free from the coming judgment.
SUMMARY
Let us now summarize what we have seen. The future of Christians is very simple. For a saved person, the matter of the new heaven and new earth, including all eternity, is settled. However, the age of the kingdom is uncertain.
No one dares to say anything about what will occur. What we must settle today is the problem of the kingdom. In the kingdom there are many positions for Christians. Many will reign with Christ for having worked faithfully and suffered persecution, shame, and suffering.
Some may not have suffered persecution, shame, or suffering, yet they also have no sins. They lived a clean life. Though they did nothing that deserves special merit, they at least gave a cup of water to a little one because of the Lord’s name (Mt 10:42). They too will receive a reward; however, their reward will be very small.
In the age of the kingdom, some Christians will receive a reward in the kingdom. Some will receive a great reward; others will receive a small reward.
Those who will not receive a reward are also divided into categories. One group will not enter the kingdom at all. The Bible does not tell us where they will go; it only says they will be kept outside the kingdom, in the outer darkness (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; Lk 13:28). They will be left outside the glory of God.
There will also be many who, besides not having worked well, have specific sins that have not yet been dealt with. They are saved, but at death, they still have sins they have not dealt with or repented of; they still have the problem of sin.
Such ones will be temporarily subjected to fire and will come out only after having paid all their debt. I do not know, in fact, how long that period will be, but it will last at most until the end of the kingdom.
There are still many things about the future that we are not clear about, but the Bible has shown us enough. Though there are details we have not yet seen, we truly know what the children of God will face.
Some will receive a reward; some will experience corruption. Some will be imprisoned, and others will be cast into the fire and burned. The matter of our salvation is very clear.
When a man believes in the Lord Jesus, both salvation and eternal life are determined for him. But, from salvation until his death, the works of a person, that is, his failures or his victories, will determine his destiny in the kingdom.
Our God is a righteous God. On the one hand, our salvation is free, and those who believe will have eternal life. No one can contradict this fact. On the other hand, we cannot sin as we wish simply because we have received eternal life. If we produce thorns and thistles, we will be burned.
If the Lord Jesus cannot separate us from our sins and if we do not resolve all things in our life, God will have no choice but to punish us in the future; He will have no choice but to purify us with specific punishments so that we may be together with Him in the new heaven and new earth.
God is a righteous God. What He has prepared is also righteous. Since we have seen these things, we must learn the lesson and heed God’s warnings.
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