The overcomers will succeed, but the majority of the saints will be defeated. Eventually, God’s judgment will be applied to all the believers at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10).
God will reward the overcomers with the full enjoyment of Christ in the kingdom. Today if you are overcoming, you are enjoying Christ, but not in full. The full enjoyment of Christ will be in the next age. To participate in the full enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom will be a reward to you.
The full enjoyment of Christ includes being Christ’s co-kings in His glory (2 Tim. 2:12a; Rev. 20:4, 6).
The glory of Christ and the joy of Christ are the two main items of God’s reward to the overcoming saints. The reigning is in His glory and the joy is in His kingdom. Matthew 25:21 and 23 reveal that the overcomers will partake of the joy of Christ in His kingdom.
Another aspect of the reward for the overcomers is the salvation of the soul. If you have overcome, the Lord will save you from losing Christ in the age of righteousness.
The overcomers will be saved from being cast out into outer darkness in the age of discipline (Matt. 25:30). Those who do not overcome in this age will lose Christ in the age of righteousness, the age of the kingdom, the age of discipline.
Matthew 24:51a says that the defeated ones will be cut asunder. That means they will be cut off from Christ. When we were saved, we were joined to Christ as one. This union with Christ is for our enjoyment of Christ. But if we are defeated in this age, at the coming back of the Lord, He will cut us asunder, cut us off, from the enjoyment of Christ.
Even today if we are defeated, we are in darkness and are cut off from the enjoyment of Christ. John 15 says that the branches which do not bear fruit are cut off by the Father (vv. 2a, 6). To cut them off does not mean that they will perish but that they will be cut asunder from the enjoyment of Christ even today. If we are such defeated ones, surely at the Lord’s coming back, we will be cast out into outer darkness and cut asunder from the very enjoyable Christ in the millennium.
God’s move on the earth through the overcomers is to consummate, to complete, the building of the New Jerusalem for the fulfillment of God’s desire. Today we are in the age of the overcomers. In the church life, we must be vital to overcome everything of today’s degradation among the Christians.
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