{"id":3535,"date":"2023-08-24T22:48:28","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T22:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2023-08-24T22:48:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T22:48:28","slug":"who-receives-the-commendation-well-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2023\/08\/24\/who-receives-the-commendation-well-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Receives the Commendation, \u201cWell Done\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Well done, good and faithful servant\u2026. Enter into the joy of your master.&#8221; (Matthew 25:21, 23)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Jesus\u2019 story, so says the master to his servants who double the money he entrusted to them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Apostle Paul tells us that \u201cwe must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:10).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So at that judgment seat, to whom will Jesus say, \u201cWell done!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To those who see many come to faith through their witness?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To those who plant churches and preach good sermons?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To those who raise children \u201cin the discipline and instruction of the Lord\u201d (Ephesians 6:4)?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To those who work faithfully at their jobs, not just giving eye-service, knowing they are serving Jesus (Ephesians 6:5-8)?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To missionaries who go to unreached peoples and spur on others to go to the unreached?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That last category includes Elisabeth Elliot (1927-2015). <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/books\/elisabeth-elliot-hcj\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lucy Austen\u2019s new biography<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> details her Christian upbringing, her call to missions, her brief marriage to Jim Elliot and his death at the hands of the people group he was trying to reach, her subsequent return with their little daughter to that people group, her many books, radio broadcasts, and speaking engagements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beth and I read a number of her books in the first decades of our marriage, and Beth listened regularly to Elliot\u2019s daily radio broadcast when we had a house full of young children. Beth and our daughter Erin were privileged to hear her speak in person at Gordon College in 2002.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In God\u2019s providence, that was one of Elisabeth Elliot\u2019s last speaking engagements. Surprisingly diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s in 1998 at age 71, she ended all public speaking in 2004. She lived her final eleven years with increasingly severe dementia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So when Elisabeth Elliot stood before the judgment seat of Jesus, what did our Lord say? \u201cWell done\u201d? If so, was He referring only to her life through 2004? What about those last years with Alzheimer\u2019s?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can only answer the question rightly if we remember what Jesus calls us to.\u00a0 He calls us to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be like Him, to be like the Father. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He calls us to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be conformed to His character <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Romans 8:29)<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He calls us to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">follow Him <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(as Jacob will explain this Sunday). All our works are to be done in the strength that He supplies, so that He gets all the glory (1 Peter 4:11). Indeed, apart from Him we can accomplish nothing \u2013 just as a branch of a grapevine cannot produce fruit unless it stays connected to the vine (John 15:4-5). The Apostle Paul details what this conformity to the character of Jesus looks like in Galatians 5:22-23, and calls it the \u201cfruit of the Spirit\u201d \u2013 what God produces in His people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly then Jesus commends at His judgment seat not our accomplishments, not our activities, not our work life, not even our family life. He proclaims, \u201cExcellent!\u201d (a possible translation of the Greek word \u2013 there is no word for \u201cdone\u201d) over our active dependence on Him to become what He intends, to become like Him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Necessarily, for those of normal physical and mental health, this includes <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">activities such as those listed above that are done by His power for His glory, as an outgrowth of His work inside us. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0But the emphasis is not on what we <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">do; <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the emphasis is on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">who God has made us to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And who did God make Elisabeth Elliot to be? A chosen, holy, beloved child (Colossians 3:12). An unworthy servant whom He used in marvelous ways through periods of trial, periods of intense work, and a lengthy final period of suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s. He chose those last eleven years for her. She had displayed Jesus through diligent service for decades. In her last decade, she displayed Jesus through patience in suffering, through the enduring of affliction, in some ways following Him in His final hours. And Jesus pronounced, \u201cExcellent!\u201d over the entirety of that divine work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In concluding a biography Elliot wrote in 1968, she asks whether her subject will have been:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">welcomed home with a \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant,\u201d or will he simply have been welcomed home? The son who delights the father is not first commended for what he has done. He is loved. (From <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who Shall Ascend? <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as quoted in Austen, p. 525)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Jesus, you too are chosen and holy and loved. Live by faith in Jesus \u2013 as we proclaim at the end of our services, \u201cremembering who you are and to Whom you belong.\u201d Our God will complete the good work He has begun in you, His beloved, enabling you to fulfill the purpose for which He made you and redeemed you. And on that final day, He will proclaim over you, \u201cExcellent! Enter into My joy!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Well done, good and faithful servant\u2026. Enter into the joy of your master.&#8221; (Matthew 25:21, 23) In Jesus\u2019 story, so says the master to his servants who double the money&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,18,23],"tags":[93,2836,2839,2468,2837,2831,571,2833,1901,2838,2832,2834,2835],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","category-missions","category-reading-recommendations","tag-active-dependence","tag-alzheimers","tag-colossians-312","tag-conformity-to-christ","tag-dementia","tag-elisabeth-elliot","tag-fruit-of-the-spirit","tag-good-and-faithful-servant","tag-john-155","tag-judgment-seat-of-christ","tag-lucy-austen","tag-matthew-25","tag-parable-of-the-talents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3539,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}