What Will You Present to Him?

Text: “29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 25:29).

The Day of the Lord is near. That’s the weekly refrain that you hear at this time every year. Today, though, we’re confronted by the hard mathematics, if you will, of that day. You can shake your head at the seeming unfairness of it, but it doesn’t change the facts. To everyone who has will more be given. From the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

It’s quite reassuring if you’re confident that you have enough. But you’d better make sure that you’ve “done the math” correctly because there’s no partial credit given, no chance for extra credit, and it certainly doesn’t sound like He grades on a curve. To everyone who has, more will be given. But, for those who have not, it will be, in the words of the prophet Zephaniah, “15  A day of wrath..., a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation....” For the complacent, “12 ...those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill[’:] 13 Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste” (Zephaniah 1:12-13).

The question is really quite straightforward: What will you have on that day to present to Him? He has blessed you with years of life. He has blessed many of you with a spouse and children. He has blessed you with health, wealth, peace. And what have you done with them?

What profit will you be able to present to Him from the money He has blessed you with? He has commanded you to give back to Him a portion of the physical blessings He’s given to you. He instructed you to do it first, before anything else, not thoughtlessly or whatever is left over after you have bought everything you want. Where is it? There are people in need all around you. How many should you have helped, but didn’t? What profit will you be able to present to Him from the money He’s blessed you with?

What profit will you be able to present to Him from the time He has blessed you with? He’s commanded you, first and foremost, to hold His Word sacred, to gladly hear and learn it. Is that how you’ve used your time? He has surrounded you with neighbors and coworkers and countless others you encounter, however briefly, each day. Have you bothered to get to know them? Have you made the time to work with them, to celebrate with them, to struggle with them? Or are you too busy with your own things?

What profit will you be able to present to Him from the family and friends He’s blessed you with, the skills He’s blessed you with, from the body He’s blessed you with?

The servant who received only one talent can, at least, say that he stored it away to be able to return it to his master. But can you say that? How often have you squandered what He’s given you in reckless living (Lk. 15:13)? …spending the time he’s given you in shameful pursuits? …wasting the money He has given you on empty pleasures? How often have you presented the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness?

Have you even earned basic interest on everything that He has invested in you? You could have just focused on trying to be a good husband or wife, a faithful parent or child. But even those relationships ended up being about you. About your comfort. About your convenience. As if God gave them to you only so that they could do for you.

There are no tricks. The accounting is pretty straightforward. Will you have anything good to present to Him on that day? Or will even what you have be taken from you?

You may not be ready for that day but, thankfully, Jesus is.

The Father made Him one of many descendants of Adam. Gave Him 33 years on this earth; He surrounded Him with family and friends. Every moment was used as the perfect son, the perfect friend, the perfect teacher.... And, in the end, He offered back to the Father a perfect life. Perfect love for God and perfect love for everyone around Him. Even from the cross— as He hung, bleeding and dying— He was mindful of the love and honor He owed to His mother.

In the end, He offered back to the Father a perfect life. And not just His own! The Father prepared a body for Him (Hebrews 10:5)— the same flesh and blood as you and me— and Christ took the body He had been given and offered it as the perfect, final sacrifice for sin.

He has reconciled you, by His death, “in order to present you [to the Father,] holy and blameless and above reproach...” (Colossians 1:22). He has sanctified you, cleansing you with water by the word, “so that He might present [you] to himself in splendor...” (Eph. 5:27).

Because Christ proved Himself faithful, delivering back to the Father all that the Father had entrusted to Him plus the fruits of His perfect life, the Father gave Him even more. The Father has seated Him at His right hand and is putting everything in subjection under his feet. He crowned Him with glory and honor because of the suffering of death (Heb. 2:9). Because He loved righteousness and hated wickedness, God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness; His throne is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of His kingdom (Heb. 1:8-9).

To Jesus— the One who truly has— more has been given and He has an abundance.

And, in the strange accounting of the cross, after He has gathered you to present you to the father, He will then turn and say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and present you with His Kingdom.

He has washed you clean by the blood of Christ. Even your righteous deeds were like filthy rags. But, now, they are fine linen, bright and pure (Revelation 19:8). On the Last Day, all creation will rejoice and exult because “7 ...the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8).

He continues to give you years of life. Even through these frightening times, He continues to bless many of you with far more wealth than others can even imagine. He has given many of you a spouse and children; brothers and sisters in Christ. And, in the strange accounting system of the cross, He assures you, “Whatever you do for these, you do for me.”

Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. To love your spouse is now a holy calling.

“1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land”” (Ephesians 6:1-3).

“4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

To care for your children or to honor your parents is a sacred vocation.

In every area of your life, you live, now, in the assurance that to look after your neighbor is to serve Christ, Himself.

In fact, “20 [You] have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer [you] who live, but Christ who lives in [you]. And the life [you] now live in the flesh [you] live by faith in the Son of God, who loved [you] and gave himself for [you]” (Galatians 2:20).

Time may seem to bring all of your hard work to nothing. Your plans may fail— at least in your own eyes. Evil men may seem to have trampled on the fruit of your hard work, seizing it as their own. But the suffering of this life is like labor pains. God, who has begun this good work in you, will bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

To the one who has, more has been given and he has— and you will have— an abundance.

What will you have to present to Him on the Last Day? In Jesus Christ, the answer is: Everything.