He will reward each person according to what they have done
Matthew 16:27 - Will the way you have lived your life earn you your reward?
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“For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.”
Matthew 16:27 NIV
More New Testament goodness! These are the words of Jesus as captured by Matthew in his Gospel. This is quite an important chapter in Matthew, which begins with the Pharisees and Sadducees asking Jesus for a sign from heaven. Jesus responds with “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times,” (Matthew 16:3) which most likely infuriated these religious scholars who could just not get it into their heads that Jesus was the Messiah.
Next, Jesus warns the disciples to beware of the “yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6), which His followers mistake as a comment about not having bread… Jesus reminds them of the recent feedings of the masses - twice! - with just a few loaves of bread and a handful of fish, and the light suddenly dawns in their minds that he’s warning them about the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Peter shows his awakening awareness of who Jesus is when the Lord asks his disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13) and Peter correctly replies “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus later begins to tell the disciples of His impending death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21), at which point the astonished Peter rebukes Him (Matthew 16:22).
Then we get to the words of Jesus which today’s verse is part of:
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.” (Matthew 16:24-27)
Today’s verse (highlighted above) is the first intimation of the Second Coming of Jesus in the New Testament. In the original Greek, the verse begins with the verb μέλλω (mellō - “to be about to”) and indicating an emphasis on what is going to happen — in other words, the Son of Man is definitely coming back.
How is He returning? “In his Father’s glory with his angels”. Jesus had voluntarily left the glory He had with His Father before the world existed (see John 17:5) to undertake His mission, but would return to share the glory with His Father once again and forever.
He returns with “His angels”. These angels accompany Jesus, and elsewhere in Matthew we learn what their role is in the heavenly scheme of things. Matthew 13:41 notes that they will “weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil”, and “they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
Jesus ends this verse by saying that He “will reward each person according to what they have done”. What exactly are these works that we are supposed to do? 19th Century Anglican bishop and preacher J.C. Ryle explains in this excerpt from his “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels” found on Precept Austin:
Let us learn, in the last place, that the second coming of Christ is the time when His people shall receive their rewards. “The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father, and then shall he reward every man according to his works.” There is deep wisdom in this saying of our Lord’s, when viewed in connection with the preceding verses. He knows the heart of a man. He knows how soon we are ready to be cast down, and like Israel of old to be “discouraged by the way.” (Numbers 21:4.) He therefore holds out to us a gracious promise. He reminds us that He has yet to come a second time, as surely as He came the first time. He tells us that this is the time when His disciples shall receive their good things. There will be glory, honor, and reward in abundance one day for all who have served and loved Jesus. But it is to be in the dispensation of the second advent, and not of the first. The bitter must come before the sweet, the cross before the crown. The first advent is the dispensation of the crucifixion. The second advent is the dispensation of the kingdom. We must submit to take part with our Lord in His humiliation, if we mean ever to share in his glory. And now let us not leave these verses without serious self-inquiry as to the matters which they contain. We have heard of the necessity of taking up the cross, and denying ourselves. Have we taken it up, and are we carrying it daily?—We have heard of the value of the soul. Do we live as if we believed it?—We have heard of Christ’s second advent. Do we look forward to it with hope and joy?—Happy is that man who can give a satisfactory answer to these questions.
What is your answer to those questions? Will the way you have lived your life earn you your reward?
Remember, you cannot work your way into heaven, as the recently deceased John MacArthur explains in his MacArthur New Testament Commentary (quote from Precept Austin, emphasis below is mine):
As the Lord reviews the life of each person who has ever lived, He will say, as it were, “There is a believer. I can tell by his works, because they are the product of My Holy Spirit. There is an unbeliever, as I can also tell by his works, because they are the product of the flesh.” It is not that works save, but that they are the product of salvation. James teaches that the only kind of faith that saves is the kind that results in righteous behavior (James 2:14–26+; cf. Eph. 2:10+). Those whose works are pleasing to the Lord are those who, by God’s sovereign grace and power, have trusted in Christ as saving Lord, while denying self, taking up their crosses, and following Him. They will receive everlasting life and all the blessings of heaven. Those whose works are rejected by the Lord are those who put their hope and trust in the ephemeral things of this life. They will receive eternal damnation and all the torments of hell. The call to salvation is a call to discipleship as described in this passage. When God saves, He produces this kind of follower.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, we thank You for the promise that Your Son will come again in glory with His angels to reward each of us according to what we have done. Help us to live each day of our lives with the hope of that reward in our hearts, and give us the courage to serve you faithfully. May our actions reflect Your love, our words speak Your truth, and our lives bring honor to Your name. AMEN.