The Work Of Christ Yet To Be Finished

November 2011 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Work Of ChristYet To Be Finished

The truth that Christ’s work of dying for our sins (making it possible for us to be reconciled to God) is finished, brings joy to our hearts and inspires us to worship. However, there remains a number of other very important things that Christ will do, and these as well can lift us to worship.

The Rapture
There will be Christ’s work to be done at the Rapture: “The Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Th. 4:16-17 NIV). The dead believers will be raised, and the living ones will be changed (1 Cor. 15:51-54), and all will be given bodies “like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).

The Judgment Seat Of Christ
Next will be Christ’s work of evaluating our service at His “judgment seat” (2 Cor. 5:10). There we will be rewarded for whatever He judges to have been our good works (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Then all faithful servants will be told, “Come and share your Master’s happiness” (Mt. 25:21,23), and even those whose service is judged to have been worthless will still be enabled to be with the Lord in eternity (1 Cor. 3:15).

Restoring The Kingdom To Israel
There will also be Christ’s work to “restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6), and through it “all peoples on earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Prior to this time He will judge the nations (Mt. 25:31-32) and determine who should enter His earthly kingdom. At this time all Christians will already be in heaven; they “will also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12).

Resurrecting The Dead
There will also be Christ’s work of resurrecting the unsaved dead of all the ages. This work is needed to fulfill His prophecy that “all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out” (Jn. 5:28). Believers have already been resurrected and now only “those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (Jn. 5:29). This condemnation work will be done at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11) where they will be “judged according to what they have done” (Rev. 20:13). Christ, being a just judge, will make each person’s sentence a just one. What a contrast unbeliever’s judgment for punishment is with the Christian’s judgment for reward.

Destroying The Last Enemy
“Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:24-26). The work of undoing all the evil that mankind and Satan have done will have been finished so that “God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:-28).

The End
When that day comes, all Christ’s work will be finished. What a day of praise and worship that will be! How thankful we should be to know Jesus as Savior and Lord!

By Alan H. Crosby