We need to understand the good God has for us. Is God really good? Is He is a good mood? Let’s examine the life of Christ to see the “good” that His obedience brought Him.
Paul tells us that because of Christ’s obedience, He got something good.
Philippians 2:5-11 (New International Version)
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Let’s jump ahead to the book of Revelation to see some of the good things Christ was given because He obeyed. The passage in Revelation 5 draws out what Paul told the Philippian Church.
Revelation 5:12
In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
- Power Wealth Wisdom Strength Honor Glory Praise
I remember reading this passage as a child and thinking, “Why does Jesus need wealth?” Why does He need power or wisdom or strength or honor or glory or praise?
He doesn’t. But He’s worthy to receive it, because He did what was right and was obedient.
That’s part of the good God has in store for you – power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. When we fear God, seek God and Obey God, any power, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and praise He allows us to have is easily turned back to Him. We realize it’s not us, it’s His grace and love.
But wealth can be trickier. We might be tempted to push it off into eternity and think it’s not for today. What are you going to do with any of that in heaven?
“I’ve got wealth” you say in heaven. “Big deal” I’ll say. “The streets are paved with gold.”
This topic is a very sensitive one, so we’ll be exploring it more in the next post on this topic. What do you think of it so far? Feel free to disagree. I’m working through this myself.
