Will Your Works Follow You?

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” (Revelation 14:13)

As the end-time tribulations increase in intensity, it gets harder for tribulation saints to endure the hardships that come upon them. The time will come when everyone “both small and great, rich and poor, free or slave” will have to “receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,” without which “no one may buy or sell.” (Rev 13:16-17).

In order to survive, people will have to wear that mark. If one wears that mark, one may live a little longer in the world, but an impending eternal judgment awaits them. For anyone who “worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God” (Rev 14:9-10).

What choice does one have? Don’t wear the mark, and you’ll die slowly from the deprivation of basic necessities. Wear the mark, and you’ll die from the wrath of God.

In such terrible times, it is indeed blessed for people to be dead rather than alive. It's more humane to be found dead in the Lord. Then, they can rest from their labors of enduring harsh persecution for their faith. And their works of patience in keeping the commandments of God will follow them – approving them to be worthy of the kingdom of God. What comfort will death bring! If indeed, they do have those works to follow them.

While it is amazingly true that our salvation comes by grace through faith alone, it is a striking warning to realize that when we finally rest from our labors in this world, our works follow us beyond the grave. Yes, our works do not save us. But if indeed our faith was genuine, our works will follow us as proof of our faith in God.

I’ve just come back from a church camp in Lumut. Typically ordinary as it may be, some things stuck with me after the camp. Mr. William Doraisamy spoke from the book of James. He mentioned, “Young people should attend funerals and listen to eulogies. Because only then you will get to hear good things about those people, and how great they have been in their service for the Lord. When they are alive, you only hear bad things about them.”

I remember laughing at that point. But as I pondered more about it, it became an uncomfortable thought. What if when you were alive, people say only bad things about you. When you are dead, people still cannot find anything good to say about you. Man, that would be really sad... Being dead will be as great a discomfort as being alive!

I’m not sure if it’s me being forgetful, or just paranoid. Every once in a while, people come up to me and talk to me as though they know me. And they ask if I remember them. It’s very awkward and embarrassing when I don’t, when they are acting as though they know me like a long-lost buddy! Or sometimes, a friend tells me that so-and-so sends his regards, and he says he knows me. But I have no idea who that person is.

I wonder what they remember me by. What is it I have said or done in the past, which they hold on to as fragments of their memory until today? How come I don’t have any recollection of them? Did they remember me for the good things? Or did they remember me for the bad things, but they’re still glad to see me because they have somehow graciously forgotten about the past and cherished the present moment of bumping into an old acquaintance?

My life has revolved around many circles. Sometimes I do wonder what people really think about me.

But that’s not as important as what whispers to us from another world…

When we meet with the Lord one day, when we finally find rest from our worldly labors, what will be the works that follow us? What will Jesus remember us by? Will our works follow us beyond the grave?

Because if they don’t, then we won’t really be finding our rest.