exclusion from, the kingdom:

The THREE SERVANTS and the TALENTS" (Matt. 25:14-30).

Key thought - "Enter", "Cast out".

These three sections of Matthew 25 are connected with the Second Coming of the Lord. The first has

reference to entry into the marriage supper; the second, to reward or forfeiture in connection with service;

the third to the entry into, or exclusion from, the kingdom, of living nations who are on the earth at the

time when the Lord comes and sits upon the throne of His glory. Let us, however, see it from the

Scriptures themselves:

"When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit

upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them

one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25:31,32).

This gathering of the nations is spoken of in Joel 3. It takes place at the commencement of the

Millennium, and must not be confused with the judgment of the great white throne that is set up when the

thousand years are finished, and which is a judgment of the dead. The issues of this judgment are

expressed in Matthew 25:46, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life

Let us now see how these attained unto righteousness. If they come under the stewardship of the apostle

Paul we know full well that neither "by works of righteousness that they have done", nor "by the deeds of

the law" can they be made righteous, but only through faith "in His (Christ's) blood". When we examine

the grounds of judgment in Matthew 25 there is not a single word about faith. Indeed these righteous

nations confess that they had not consciously done anything as unto the Lord (cf. "When saw we Thee a

stranger?"). They enter the kingdom on the ground of works, such as visiting prisoners, or clothing the

naked. That it was done to the Lord's brethren was noted in their favour, but they themselves did not

connect that fact with the Lord. It is clear that "eternal life" is granted here in a way totally foreign to the

dispensation under which we live.

Now we are continually reminded by the upholders of the traditional hell that "eternal" life and

"everlasting" punishment are of equal duration. This we readily accept, and press it upon those who fly to

Matthew 25 for their great key text. It will be granted that eternal life is here given upon terms very

different from those of the gospel of grace. Now what we ask is this: Would our orthodox friends

consider that they had preached the gospel to sinners, acceptably, if they adhered closely to the terms of

Matthew 25? Would they preach something like this?:

The glad tidings that we bring unto sinners is that they exercise themselves in deeds of charity, being

careful to include the Jew, and they shall receive eternal life (apparently without faith in the Lord

Jesus, or any knowledge either of His death or resurrection).

We rejoice to know that such a travesty of the gospel would be repudiated. What, then, is the warrant for

rejecting the conditions for eternal life here, and for taking out of its context and applying to a different

people its alternative punishment?

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