Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

24 April 2025

Reading From Luke 18:1-23

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

—Luke 18:9-14

     I am not to have confidence in my own goodness.  Any goodness I have comes from God and so He deserves the credit.  If I do good deeds with the thought of earning my position and favor with God, it won’t work.  Justification, which is right standing before God, and adoption into His eternal family is attained by grace through faith in Jesus and what He did for me on the cross and the empty tomb. 

     Isaiah 64:6a tells us, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”  This truth is echoed in Romans 3:21-23, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith inJesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  No one can earn their way to Heaven.  By belief, repentance, confession and acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are blessed with right standing with the Father and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.[1]

     If the wonders of the Good News of Jesus Christ are available to us by His undeserved favor through believing and trusting in Him who is unseen, then what place do good works have in the lives of His followers?  Someone who is genuinely born again will do good works in the power and authority of Jesus through the Holy Spirit who lives within them.  In Him we live and move and have our being.  Things that we do with wrong motive or in our own strength do not have eternal reward.  When children of God yield to the work of the Holy Spirit flowing through them to manifest His love on Earth, the Kingdom expands and treasures in Heaven are stored up.  For those who are truly born again, we don’t have to fake it like a Pharisee, trusting in our own righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is real, He lives within us, and He blesses us with everything we need for life and godliness.[2]

     Romans 2:5-11 reveals to us, “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.” 

     There is equality in the Kingdom in that all have sinned, all are in need of His grace, everyone comes to Christ in the same manner, and no one is better than the next person.  He does not show favoritism with His children.  The ground at the foot of the cross is level.  We know from the Bible that in the New Heaven and the New Earth that we will judge, rule and reign with Christ forever.  Perhaps how we live and are prepared in mortality will determine the kind of roles we have there, but we have every indication that all of us will enjoy perfect unity and harmony with the Father in His glorious Presence.  Many details of our destiny are mysterious.  We have been given clues throughout Scripture, but we are to simply trust the Lord as He prepares a place for us.  It will be more glorious than any human being can dream or imagine. Jesus Himself is our eternal Reward.

     It is vital for our spiritual balance and understanding to interpret scripture with scripture as we seek the whole counsel of the Word of God.  We know from Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” And also from Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”  Good works are done from a heart of love for God and even then we are to allow God to do those good works through us as we surrender to His will and plan for our lives.  Real faith and repentance produce excellent spiritual fruit. 

“Lord Jesus, I pray that I would serve You with real faith, trusting in Your righteousness and merit and not my own.  No one and nothing compares with Your goodness.  Thank You for Your favor You freely pour out upon us.  We do not deserve Your love and yet You lavish it without hesitation.  Guide us as we extend goodness to others around us.  Bless us with special knowledge and wisdom as we minister Your message of love and reconciliation with lost and hurting people.  Bring redemption, healing, power and hope to the world as Your sons and daughters function as Your hands and feet upon the Earth.  In the wonderful Name of Jesus Christ I pray these things.  Amen.”

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love hepredestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, hemade known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

—Ephesians 1:3-10

 Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

—Galatians 2:16

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[1] Ephesians 1:3-23

[2] II Peter 1:3