Biblical Success - Running Our Race - Run for Eternal SuccessSample

Our life and our legacy on earth and in heaven will be built as the result of literally thousands of choices and decisions that we will make between our physical birth and physical death. This will be during the very, very small portion of our eternal life that we will have lived on earth, an almost unmeasurable fraction of the whole.

The most important of these decisions is, of course, the decision to confess our sins, repent, and accept Jesus’ sacrifice as payment on our behalf for our sins and to be forgiven and saved to become a disciple of Christ. That decision, and all others after that, will have eternal ramifications. Some minor perhaps, but also many very major ramifications. The Scripture clearly teaches that there are rewards in heaven. More on that later.

Our decisions, our definition of success, and the countless choices we make based on our definition as we live daily are built upon two earlier and basic answers to two fundamental questions; “Who is Jesus Christ, and what is the Bible?”

Let’s take the first, who is Jesus Christ? Our culture offers many options in answer to this question; “A prophet, A good teacher, A great man, etc., but there is only one correct answer; Jesus Christ is Lord, 1/3 of the triune Godhead co-equal and co-eternal with The Father and Holy Spirit. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh as the Son of God who walked the earth to become the Lamb that was slain to shed His blood for our forgiveness.

He was crucified in our place, died, and rose again on the third day, proving that all that He said and taught was true and that He was indeed who He said He was. He is the King who will come again to judge the living and the dead. He is our Savior, but He was Lord long before that.

So the question becomes, “What do we do with a Lord?” What do we mean when we say, “Jesus is my Lord”? How do we live under a “Lordship?”The answer is we obey Him and live by His rules.

We obey the Lord. We don't ask His advice or offer Him suggestions or ask Him to bless our plans and dreams. A Lord is to be worshiped and obeyed. You say, “I thought we were saved by faith and not by works!” That’s right, we are saved by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8,9) and not by works, but we are saved to DO good works that God planned for us before He made the Earth. (Ephesians 2:10) (James 2:14-22)

“We are His workmanship created in ChristJesus to do good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10.

Think about what the word “beforehand” means when applied to God. It simply means that He thought of us before God “spoke” and created the “heavens and the earth,” and time began. In His Omniscience and creative Sovereignty, HE included us in His Ultimate Strategic Plan. GOD fits each of us in place, right where we are. We are not accidentally here. God does have a plan for every believer’s life, and Jesus never called a “part-time” disciple.

Let’s just chew on that overnight. This is a biggie.