Life’s Work 5
Review
We want to see our work and labor matter, and they only matter within the context of the biblical story and discipleship to Jesus. Work is not an outcome from the Fall of Man. Work is a part of God’s design for His world and His image-bearing creatures. In review:
God’s design for work is turning the “wild and waste” into “order and beauty.”
God’s ultimate vision of work is for sharing, not just survival.
Work is where humans exercise moral judgment, which requires wisdom
The environment of work is made more difficult by sin
“Before the Fall, mankind were gardeners, after the Fall mankind became farmers.” Our “labor” becomes “toil,” and the fruit of our labors come from the sweat of our brow.
1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Who Do We Work For?
Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV) Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
If you are a Christian, a disciple of the Lord Jesus, who do you work for? We may work within a particular company or industry or economy, and we may work under a boss or a board, but who do we actually work for? We work for the Lord Jesus. Yes, a boss may be the person who is employing us, but our allegiance is to Jesus first.
And what kind of work qualifies as working for Jesus? “Whatever you do.” If you are working for the Lord Jesus, serving at your job in whatever capacity, but as unto the Lord, then whatever your job, it is work that is considered working “as for the Lord.” There is no such thing as certain work glorifying Jesus or being more pleasing to Him than any other. If it is work for the Lord, there is no difference between a pastor, a barista, a teller, an Uber driver, a trash truck driver, a real estate agent, or an accountant, or a receptionist. If the person is serving the Lord Jesus in their work, then that job is pleasing to the Lord.
If you are serving the Lord Jesus, then what are you working for? A paycheck? Well, yes, you receive a paycheck which takes care of your basic needs. But is that all? Is the whole purpose of work just for monetary exchange? Paul says here that you are working for Jesus and that from Him, “you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”
“Inheritance” is a word Paul uses that he pulls from the storyline of Israel. God’s promise to Abraham was the end of Canaan. This Promise Land was the hope of Israel, the land that they were called to inhabit and be free to work in a way that honored God. Their land was their inheritance. Paul borrows this term to refer to the Christian’s inheritance in resurrection and new creation.
We work for Jesus and for the inheritance in Resurrection
Revelation 21:1-5a (ESV) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
The word Paul used was “changed.” Revelation 21 is coming out of John’s Spirit-inspired imagination as a transformed world, the old order passing away and this new thing is like a “new heaven and earth.” Heaven is coming down and overwhelming earth, transforming it. He is making all things new; he is not saying He is making all new things.
Revelation 21:22-26 (ESV) And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
What is it that people are doing in the new heavens and the new earth? They are not on vacation on clouds playing harps. The Scriptures end with all of creation and the nations, this new humanity, bringing their work to the Lord as worship, like a subjects coming before their king to honor him. New Creation work is to live and work for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We anticipate that future by living it in the present, taking our everyday lives and work and see them as ways to glorify Jesus, the one who died and was raised to redeem me and restore me.
We are to anticipate a healed and redeemed world. What I am invited to anticipate is that whatever labor I have done in the Lord, right now in this life, will last. It will be the same kind of work and labor we will do in new creation. When we work in the Lord, we are living and working in the “in-between” space of heaven and earth, where God’s Kingdom and the redemptive work of Jesus is taking over my life. As a redeemed, transformed disciple of the Lord Jesus, my work anticipates and works for new creation, and this work will last in God’s new world.
1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Conclusion
Galatians 2:20 (ESV) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.