I was reading in Romans chapter 14 the other
day. Paul was talking about why we
shouldn’t judge others, but what caught my eye were the following verses:
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy
brother? for we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account
of himself to God. (New Testament | Romans 14:10 - 12)
If Paul is right in that we shall
give account of our lives to God, what would we say? Would we say something like, I know I am not
perfect, but I did do this and that in thy name and start listing off the many
wonderful things we did in life.
That should be the last thing we
should do. Trust me, the scriptures make
it clear what our reaction should be.
King Benjamin stated,
I say unto you that if ye should serve him
who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day,
by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own
will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should
serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
And behold, all
that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you
that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he
never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his
commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
And now, in the
first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for
which ye are indebted unto him.
And secondly, he doth require that ye should
do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you;
and therefore he hath paid you. And ye
are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever;
therefore, of what have ye to boast?
And now I ask,
can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer
you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even
as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth;
but behold, it belongeth to him who created you. (Book of Mormon | Mosiah 2:21 - 25)
Paul said, “For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
(New Testament | Ephesians 2:7 -
10)
Likewise Isaiah said, “Shall the
axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him
that shaketh it? as if the rod should
shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up
itself, as if it were no wood.” (Old Testament | Isaiah 10:15)
Jesus said, “As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye
abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
(New Testament | John 15:4 - 5)
Likewise, he also stated, “The
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not; nevertheless,
the day shall come when you shall comprehend even God, being quickened in him
and by him. Then shall ye know that ye have seen me, that I am, and that I am
the true light that is in you, and that you are in me; otherwise ye could not abound.
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 88:49 - 50)
Wait a minute! What about all the time we have spent in
doing our church callings, all the service we have rendered, the sacrifices we
have made and the abuses we have suffered in His name! Don’t they count for anything?
Paul said, “Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it
profiteth me nothing.”
(New Testament | 1 Corinthians
13:1 - 3)
Before I explain why I put the
above scripture in, let me show you what really counts. Jesus said,
“Then
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For
I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I
was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye
visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we
thee a stranger, and took thee in? or
naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw
we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”(New Testament |
Matthew 25:34 - 40)
You might say, well he just told
us that our service does count! However,
we must notice that those whom he says this to, did not even know they had
served Him! They didn’t bring forth the
list of their own good works, but Jesus did.
How is it possible not to know your own good deeds? The answer is in the motive. When we serve the Lord and others with any
other motive than out of the pure love of Christ, which is charity, then we
have received our reward. If I do my
callings or give service to get noticed, or to try to earn salvation points, or
even just because I know I should, I have received my reward. When we do things with charity, we don’t keep
track of it, we don’t seek any reward, we are just happy to do it. We do not let our left hand know what our
right hand doeth. (New Testament | Matthew 6:3)
We simply forget about our service.
And
he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were
righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the
one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus
with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I
possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his
breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted. (New Testament | Luke 18:9 - 14)
We
must remember to be like the publican.
We all far short of the glory of God.
As King Benjamin clearly stated, we are to recognize our dependence upon
God, and our own nothingness. We simply
do not have anything to brag about!
Even, Nephi who had great visions and did great works and suffered many
things because of his obedience to the Lord stated, “Nevertheless,
notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and
marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh;
my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.” (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 4:17)
So
what should we do at our judgement day?
Fall on our knees in gratitude for the Lord’s atoning mercy towards us
unworthy creatures and acknowledge His hand in our lives.
