James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 10:40 - 10:40

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James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 10:40 - 10:40


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POSITION IN HEAVEN

‘But to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not Mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.’

Mar_10:40

I. There are degrees in glory.—Our Lord does not deny that there are right and left places, but admits it. Otherwise He might reasonably have made answer: ‘You ask for right and left places, but there are no such things as degrees of glory; all will be equal.’ From this declaration we may draw out reasonings which will at least lessen our difficulty in accepting the decrees of God as regards the Day of Judgment. It will be seen that for every condition of the judged, from utter depravity to matured saintliness, there is the corresponding punishment or reward in that future system of rewards and punishments, when ‘God shall judge the world in righteousness by that Man Whom He hath ordained.’

II. Heavenly rewards given to those for whom they are prepared.—Christ declined when upon earth to promise to two of His favourite disciples their future reward. He did not say that James and John should not sit on His right hand and on His left, He merely said those places should be given to those for whom they were ordained of the Father. As much as to say—Deserve the places, and you shall have them. Fulfil the conditions for a crown, and you shall have a crown. Rewards on earth may be given in an arbitrary way. But it is not so with heavenly rewards. There must be a fitness and a meetness for the stations there to be entered on; it is the carrying the Cross which often makes men fit, by well-endured humiliations, to wear the crown with dignity. The reward is only to him that overcometh.

III. The moral training of the acts of every day fit us for heaven.—This is expressed in the idea of our sowing on earth and reaping in heaven. In rewarding virtue or punishing sin, God does not reverse any process which is going on; He only allows everything to proceed to its natural end.

—
Rev. G. J. Davies.