SARDIS The Compensation Revelation3v3-6
The compensation is two fold. He is the executor of divine justice. In the language of Jeremiah the prophet "He exercises loving kindness and justice and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight saith the Lord." Jeremiah 9v24 He rewards good and repays evil and these two aspects are stated in verses 3&4.
- "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." This is a threat of what the bible speaks of as "divine visitation." The threat is unspecified, and it will be unannounced, but it means some form of divine judgement, the ultimate of which is death; we dare not presume on our right to continue living on this earth in fruitlessness toward God.
- v4 "They shall walk with Me in white." This is the opposite end of the scale. We move in thought from the frown of divine displeasure to the friendship of a walk with Him. It is one thing for us to seek to walk with the Lord, it is yet another for Him to want to walk with us. Jesus will only walk with those whose garments are undefiled. He chooses with whom He will walk Of all Christians it can be said they are "in Christ;" but it cannot be said of all Christians that "Christ is in them." This kind of fellowship requires conditions on my part. He alludes to this in John 14v21 "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." He says a similar thing in Matthew 11v27 "no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Why did Jesus take Peter, James and John up the mount of transfiguration and leave the other nine? When He came down from the mountain, we get the answer; they were incapable of dealing with an unclean spirit. They were not ready for the high spiritual experiences. All His people are precious to Him, but He rewards loyalty. Nearness to the Lord is the ultimate of spiritual experience and is to be sought after. "They shall walk with Me in white;" all of that can be enjoyed now, but He goes on to extend the experience into the future by stating three privileges tied together with the conjunction and.
1. Clothed in white garments. We will take our character which was formed on earth into eternity, we shall take nothing else. Only what we "put on" of the Lord Jesus; only what we put on of the new man, having discarded the filthy garments of the old man, will we take to heaven. In Revelation 19v8 it says "to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints." This is not speaking of the righteousness which God gave us at the point of salvation, it is speaking of what we personally have added to that in terms of Christ likeness in our lives. For all eternity we will be clothed in accordance with what we did on earth. This should be the greatest incentive to Christian living now.
2. "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." This is not saying that we can lose our salvation, for that would be in discord with revealed scripture. The expression is very emphatic "I will in no way blot out their name." This is the ultimate divine assurance in the context of threatened government on His wayward people that their ultimate salvation is absolutely secure. Living as they were with people who were spiritually lifeless, those who were faithful were perhaps feeling a little doubtful as to their position in Christ. With this statement He dispels all their doubts. The book of life is the Lamb's book of life. (Revelation chapter 20). It was He who made it possible, it is He who writes the names, He will never, never remove the names of those who have put their trust in Him.
3. Confession before His Father and the angels. We move now from a negative to a positive. "I will not blot out............ I will confess." Not only is there no possibility of eternal loss but there will be the public confession by Himself before the whole of heaven, such that your names will be inscribed forever in the heavenly role of honour. No earthly ceremony of reward can ever come close to anything like this. We will individually have a formal presentation to His Father and to all His heavenly angels. Jude sums it up like this "now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Jude v 24. There is coming a day when every individual saint will be presented thus, and at that point receive for all eternity the rewards of the Christ- like garments that they formed on earth.
No wonder the Holy Spirit appeals to all who will listen "let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Forever I will wear the badge of my loyalty to Christ whilst here on this earth. We are all weaving a garment for eternity, and the Father will put the finishing touches. "Clothed in white garments and names never erased from the book of life and confessed before all of heaven including the Father!" Would this be enough to awaken us from slumber?
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