Lesson for August 25, 2021
The Doctrine of Divine Production
Divine production is good of intrinsic (lasting) value done by believers when they are filled with God the Holy Spirit. Divine production is a result of spiritual growth and a grace function of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Therefore, all the honor and glory belong to God, not to believers.
All other production is human good and contributes nothing to your spiritual life. Human good can be a distraction, if not understood and if it is allowed to be a substitute for our spiritual lives. Going to church, giving money, praying, witnessing, helping other Christians can be either divine production or human good depending upon the motivation: filled with the spirit or not filled with the Spirit. Divine production adds nothing to your spiritual life because it is the result of your spiritual growth (your private relationship with God). You do not have a spiritual life apart from the knowledge and application of God’s Word. NO BIBLE DOCTRINE, NO RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, NO TRUE LOVE FOR GOD! (John 4:24; Romans 12:1-2; II Timothy 2:15; 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; II Peter 3:18)
Most believers will never receive recognition in this life for their accomplishments, but this will not be the case in eternity. There is going to be great inequality in the eternal state for believers. It is our fulfillment of God’s plan under the filling of the Holy Spirit that will be rewardable in eternity, not our human good works. All divine production is a matter of God’s grace and is never based on human works. (I Corinthians 9:24-27)
For believers there are only two choices after salvation: 1) execute God’s plan, purpose and will 2) execute your own plan and play into Satan’s hand. The first will result in what the Bible calls gold, silver and precious stones, analogous to divine production on earth. The second will result in what the Bible calls wood, hay and straw, analogous to human production on earth. Both will be judged (represented by fire) at the Judgment Seat of Christ. When gold, silver and precious stones are subjected to fire it purifies them and enhances their value. When wood, hay and straw are subjected to fire they are burned up. It is, therefore, only divine production that survives the Judgment Seat of Christ and is rewardable. (I Corinthians 3:13-15)
The Judgment Seat of Christ
“So everyone of us shall give an account unto God.” (Romans 14:12) There is coming a time when every believer will stand before Jesus Christ to be evaluated. This evaluation is not based on personal sins or human works. It is based on our response to God’s plan for us to learn and apply His Word and to mature spiritually. The Judgment Seat of Christ is for believers only and takes place sometime shortly after the Rapture of the Church. At the Rapture, all living and dead believers from the Church Age will meet Jesus Christ in the air and will be led in a processional to Heaven. Having received a glorified body like Christ’s, fully conscious, fully recognizable and with increased knowledge, God’s Word says that there will then be a time of celebration when we worship and praise our Savior. (I Corinthians 4:5; 15:51-54; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Philippians 3:21)
Scripture tells us that our Savior has already departed to prepare a dwelling place for us, the Bride of Christ (as we will be called in Heaven). But before the Lord can reveal all that will be ours for the eternal state, we must all be evaluated at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We will then receive our eternal rewards. (John 14:1-3; II Corinthians 5:8-10; Romans 14:11-12)
So, how are we going to meet our Savior? Will we have fulfilled the commands of Scripture to advance to spiritual maturity, which has led us into a life of purpose? Or will we make it into Heaven “by the skin of your teeth,” having failed to advance in our Christian life, which has led us to a life of misery and failure? At the Judgment Seat of Christ. it will be too late to do anything about our failure; the time is now, today! We must take the initiative to study and apply God’s Word consistently if we want to hear, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” Upon hearing this from the Lord Jesus Christ, rewards beyond anything we can imagine will be ours for all eternity. (Matthew 25:21; James 1:25)
The Judgment Seat of Christ is a serious matter and not to be taken lightly. As believers we cannot lose our salvation and we will be happy for all eternity whether we live our spiritual lives or not. But what a tragic waste of a life and what a tremendous loss of rewards it will be. But most tragic of all is when we stand face to face with Jesus Christ and have to explain to Him why we failed to glorify Him while we were here on earth. It is time for every believer to get serious about Bible doctrine. (II Timothy 2:11-13)
God’s plan for our life is simple; fulfilling it is also simple. It becomes difficult only when we fail to utilize all that God has given us and begin to manufacture our own problems by rejecting truth. The days in which we live are uncertain and the national scene is unstable at best. Yet for those believers who choose to execute the Christian Way of Life, they can remain stabilized, confident and faithful in time of pressure or even national disaster. We have a personal sense of destiny that has been secured by our faith in Christ and realized by our consistent intake and application of God’s Word (Bible doctrine). Only with Bible doctrine in our souls that has been converted into wisdom through application, will we be able to put everything in life into its proper perspective. (Matthew 11:28-30; James 1:1-12; II Timothy 1:12)
Many believers wonder why God is not blessing them more, not realizing that they do not possess the capacity to receive greater blessings. There are certain blessings that we all receive as believers called logistical grace blessings (food, clothing and shelter). But the greater blessings that have been deposited for us are much greater than the logistical blessings that we all receive. These greater blessings are not always material possessions, but more often are related to spiritual things, such as wisdom, discernment, happiness and peace of mind. These greater blessings are in direct proportion to the amount of Bible doctrine that a believer has stored in his/her soul and is utilizing in his/her daily life.
Greater blessings are grace blessings given to a believer as a part of God’s predesigned plan. Most of us are familiar with the concept of escrow as related to real estate. When you purchase a home, for example, monies are set aside in an escrow account to pay certain future bills, such as taxes. This escrow money is yours even though it is held until such time as it is needed. The mortgage company assigns an escrow officer to manage your account. Upon sale of the home, all monies in escrow that are unused are returned to you. God has set up an escrow account for you. God the Father is the grantor of the escrow, the Lord Jesus Christ is the escrow officer and the Holy Spirit is the conveyor of the escrow. The divine greater blessings that are in your escrow account are yours forever whether you access them or not.
The way in which you access divine escrow (divine blessings) is by possessing the capacity to receive them, which is obtained through spiritual growth. Spiritual growth occurs only when there is consistent study and application of God’s Word. As you grow spiritually, God is able to give us these blessings from our “escrow account.” Lack of capacity from lack of study and application stalls the conveyance of blessings from our escrow.
In God’s grace He has provided for every believer for the eternal state. For those believers who successful live the Christian Way of Life, the rewards will be greater. Nevertheless, all believers will be blessed in eternity and all believers will enjoy eternal happiness. Personal sins are not going to be an issue when you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to be evaluated because your sins were dealt with on the Cross. Only what you did or did not do with your Christian Way of Life will be evaluated.
The realization of the fact that you have an eternal inheritance should cause you to have a personal sense of destiny. It is a personal sense of destiny that gives us capacity for life by producing spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem means that we have discovered who we are in Christ. Capacity for life replaces the temporary pleasures of the world with the eternal happiness of God. (Galatians 6:6-10) Capacity is increased by spending a maximum amount of time in fellowship with God under the filling of the Holy Spirit, in consistent study and application of Bible doctrine and in the use of Divine Viewpoint Thinking. (Ephesians 4:11-16)