Once again the Queen’s Birthday Honours List has been published. No doubt many of those so honoured deserve to be publically praised and rewarded. But do you know that in the New Testament there is an Honours List of men and women who faithfully served God? This list is found in Hebrews 11. Please do read the whole chapter.
Here we have a history of Godly folk who are mentioned in the Old Testament, people who have not yet received their prize! For the writer says: “And these all (those in the chapter) having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. (Hebrews 11:39-40). The prize for those in the Old Testament list, which includes many who are not named, (see verses 32-38), will be awarded when those of New Testament times and we ourselves, by God’s grace, stand before the righteous judge, the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 4:1 and 8). The dominant word in Hebrews 11 is faith. “By faith” they lived their lives acording to God’s imstructions. We are told in the Bible how faith is obtained: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). In God’s Honours List, those who are motivated by His Word, the Bible, to live lives which give him pleasure will eventually receive God’s prize. They all looked forward in faith to the Kingdom of God. (see Hebrews 11:13-16) They were so motivated by the vision of that time that it changed their attitude and lifestyle. They were happy to confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (see verse 13).
But the day is coming, and signs in the world indicate that it is near, when God’s citizens will receive their reward. Not a title or letters after their names. Those on the list will experience everlasting life in a planet renewed by the judgements and the mercy of God. As the apostle Paul wrote: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself” (Phillippians 3:20-21).
How can one compare the honour bestowed by the Queen, to that offered by God through the Lord Jesus Christ?
May we all strive to be on God’s Honours List!
*Quotes NKJV