Sharing in Christ’s rewards
It’s that time of year when the football season is reaching its climax and the trophies are handed out to the winning teams. In England, Manchester City have already been crowned Premier League champions, and last Saturday Leicester City lifted the FA Cup for the first time. Over in the Netherlands, the league title was won by AFC Ajax, who celebrated by doing something quite unusual: they melted down their trophy and turned it into 42,000 small silver stars to give to each of their season ticket holders. In a very real and tangible way, the fans get to share in the reward that the players have earned this year.
As I read about this story, I couldn’t help but think of how, in just a tiny way, this illustrates a truth at the heart of our faith. In the Garden of Eden, God entered into a covenant with Adam, the first man and representative head of the human race. Upon the condition of personal, perfect and perpetual obedience to God being fulfilled, Adam would have received the gracious reward that God held out to him in the pledge of the Tree of Life (Westminster Larger Catechism Q20). Adam, and all of his posterity, would have been confirmed in blessings of eternal life and the full enjoyment of God to all eternity in a creation forever free from all sin and suffering. Of course, by Adam’s disobedience these rewards were forfeited. Instead of being confirmed in eternal life enjoying God’s blessing, Adam’s sin brought upon us all spiritual death and the prospect of eternity suffering God’s righteous wrath. As Paul writes in Romans 5:12, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
The good news is that God did not leave us all to suffer the eternal consequences of Adam’s (and our) failure. Out of sheer, gracious love, the Father sent his eternal Son into the world as a Second Adam: Jesus Christ. Just as the first Adam had acted as the representative head of all of his race, so Jesus came into the world to act as the representative head of a new humanity comprised of all those given to him by the Father before the foundation of the world. The personal, perfect and perpetual obedience that Adam was called to render has now been offered to God by a Second Adam. Where Adam was tempted and fell, Jesus was tempted and yet remained without sin. Where Adam failed, Jesus triumphed. For sure, the task faced by Jesus was much greater than the task Adam had faced: the first Adam was called to obey God in a beautiful garden untouched by sin’s stain, with a full stomach, and surrounded by harmless animals under his dominion. In contrast, the Second Adam was called to obey God even in a desolate wilderness in the midst of a fallen world, with the hunger pangs of an empty stomach, and surrounded by wild animals, nature red in tooth and claw (Mark 1:13). And yet, where the first Adam fell hopelessly into sinful disobedience, Jesus resolutely walked the path of perfect obedience. Furthermore, Jesus then obediently took upon himself the divine punishment for sin that all of his people deserve as he died on the cross. At the cross, the sinless one was made to be sin for us, and became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Edwin van der Sar (Chief Executive of AFC Ajax), holding 1 of the 42,000 stars
The result of Christ’s perfect obedience in life and death is that the rewards forfeited by the first Adam now belong to Jesus by rights. In his triumphant resurrection and ascension to heaven, Christ has received his Father’s vindication, and is the rightful recipient of eternal life and the full enjoyment of God to all eternity in a creation forever free from sin and suffering.
Wonderfully, Christ does not keep this reward all to himself! The eternal reward earned by Christ is not kept hidden away in a heavenly trophy cabinet, out of reach to us. Rather, Jesus shares his reward with all of his people. In a very real and tangible way, Christ’s people will forever share in the reward that he alone has earned. In the example of Ajax, the season ticket holders at least contributed something, having paid up front the cost of their ticket. But with the rewards that Christ shares with his people it is purely of grace; nothing we do contributes any merit whatsoever. Christ’s work alone has secured the rewards, and they are received by grace alone, through faith alone, in him alone.
Already, those who believe in Jesus have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us as the guarantee that one day that glorious, eternal inheritance will be ours to enjoy (Ephesians 1:13-14). When Christ returns, we will at last enter into the full enjoyment of what Christ has earned for us, and so graciously shares with us.
