Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they will rest from their labors, since their works follow them.”
As I've mentioned before, Revelation is very keen to depict the victory of the Christian martyrs. In fact, I would argue that Revelation isn't really about the end times at all. The purpose of Revelation is to galvanize courage in the face of persecution and to offer hope to a church being thrown to the lions. Revelation's concerns are very psychological. Bravery and hope are its central preoccupations.
You see that concern in 14.13. After death, the martyrs are blessed and they can rest from their labors. But also this: "their works follow them."
There's a line from the movie Gladiator: "What we do in life echos in eternity." That's the idea in Revelation 14.13, that the deeds of the martyrs "echo in eternity," that their works follow them into heaven.
We paused out at the prison to discuss this line because it tends to rub up against a lot of Protestant soteriology, especially in the Reformed world. Specifically, sermons are often preached that our good deeds on earth don't really matter when it comes to heaven. All our righteous acts are "dirty rags." The point of such declarations is to proclaim that "all is grace." And yet, as true as that sermon may be, it can undercut our motivations and evacuate our actions of cosmic and moral significance. Revelation brings this concern to the front. Standing firm in the face of persecution, to the point of death, does matter. True, all is grace, but courage and faithfulness also matter. All is grace, but the deeds of the martyrs will echo in eternity. What we do on earth will follow us into heaven.
Catholic theology, given its view of merit and purgatory, is better positioned than a lot of Protestant theology in declaring that our righteous acts, or lack thereof, matter, that what you do in this life will affect you in the next. But in Protestant spaces, there tends to be a void here. The "all is grace" sermons, while true and important, don't have a lot to say about how our deeds echo in eternity, what it means to say that our deeds will follow us into heaven.
That's the theological tension. All is grace. And what you do matters.
