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Mine, All Mine

           “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

          They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be treated as a thing unclean. Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath. It will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs, for it has caused them to stumble into sin. (Ezekiel 7:19)

          “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

          If we are going to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, it would probably be useful to have an idea what the coin of heaven is. Even if it were not already clear that “we can’t take it with us,” Ezekiel makes it clear that money isn’t worth much in God’s kingdom. How much would you give in exchange for a hundred pounds of dirt?  Or paving stones?

          According to most religions, heaven is a reward due those who live a good life, or whose good deeds outweigh their evil deeds. But Jesus tells us that people who prophesied and did miracles “in His name” can be unknown to Him and therefore have no treasures in heaven. At the same time, in I Timothy 6:18, Paul tells Timothy to be rich in good deeds. But what makes the good deed a good deed, if people doing miracles and great deeds in Jesus’ name don’t receive any credit from God?

          There are places where Scripture talks about crowns or rewards being given for things we do. In II Timothy 4:8, Paul mentions a crown of righteousness. He also tells the Thessalonians and the Philippians that, metaphorically(?), they are his crown. Peter mentions a crown of glory.

          Two answers come to mind. The first is that our wealth in the heavenly places is what God has given us and put there on our behalf. But if it has nothing to do with us, how can we store treasures in heaven?

The second idea is that our means of laying up those treasures involves, as Dallas Willard and C.S. Lewis both seem to suggest, our becoming more than more the treasure itself. God is at work in us, and He will complete the task but that task is to conform us to the image of Christ, so that we will have access to His treasury. Could it be that laying up treasures in heaven isn’t about having treasure that is mine, all mine, and I can do whatever I want with it?

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