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Transcript 224A — Rewards in Heaven for Believers
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Somebody was asking you about the rewards of believers. And I want you to please look at six references in connection with this, and explain them if you can. Revelation 22: 12, I Corinthians 3:11-15, and I Corinthians 4:4, and also, I Corinthians 9:25.
HC: Now what is your question about these verses?
CALLER: The rewards of believers. And 2 Timothy 4:8, and I Peter 5:4-10.
HC: All right. Fine.
CALLER: Thank you very much. Good night.
HC: Now the question that has been raised is a very important question, and a very provocative question. It's a question that troubles many people very greatly. And I'll explain why in just a moment.
The question that's raised is, don't we receive certain rewards based upon our conduct on this earth? And our caller has offered a number of verses to suggest this. And I'll just look at a few of these with you.
In Revelation 22:12 we read, "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing My recompense, to repay everyone for what he has done." Now that verse seems to be very plain. What's the argument? When Christ comes, He's going to pay us for what we have done.
Now let's look at I Corinthians 9:25, where Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying, "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable." In other words, there is a crown that we're going to receive because of our activity. II Timothy 4:8: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will award me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. "Let's look maybe at one or two more. I Peter 5:4: "And when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you will obtain the unfading crown of glory."
Now we might read some of these verses (and there are other verses also, like I Corinthians 3, and I'll look at that in a little more detail in a moment), and we might get the impression that God has certain rewards or certain pay for us. The word rewards in the Bible normally means pay. And these rewards or this pay would be for the things that we have done after we have been saved. If we have lived good lives, then we will receive rewards for that conduct. And if you isolate these verses from the rest of the Bible, you can very readily arrive at that kind of conclusion.
Now let me warn you, right at the outset, that the Bible was written so that what appears to be is very frequently not what is. That is, God has written the Bible to foster unbelief. I know that sounds pretty awful, but this is exactly the way God wrote the Bible. We read in the Gospel of Mark that Christ spoke in parables, in order that "seeing, they would not see, and hearing, they would not hear." God is emphasizing that the Bible is written therefore so that what appears to be is not what is.
Now let me give you an analogy. I can prove to you from the Bible, without any shadow of doubt, that we are saved by our good works. And you'll notice the similarity to the question at hand. I can prove to you that we are saved by our good works. You read Matthew 25, beginning with verse 31, where you have the account of a judgment scene. The sheep are on the right hand, the goats are on the left. And the sheep are invited to come into the Kingdom of God, and the goats go into eternal perdition. On what basis, in Matthew 25, beginning in verse 31, are the sheep invited into the Kingdom of God?
They're invited in because they have fed the poor, the hungry. They have clothed the naked. They have visited the sick. They have given water to the thirsty. And therefore, because they have done these good things, they are able to go into the Kingdom of Heaven. There's no question at all that God is teaching, in this passage, that we are saved by our good works. If we will do certain good things, then we are entitled to go into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now the same is true in Romans 2. In verse 6 we read, "For He will render to every man according to his works. To those who by patience and well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, or obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek." Now this again teaches, very plainly, that if I do certain good things, and I obey the truth, then there is going to be immortality for me. I'm going to be saved by my good works.
The only problem, however, is that that conclusion is diametrically opposed to what God teaches about salvation. The Bible over and over again emphasizes the truth of Ephesians 2 that we are saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast. It is what Christ has done for us. And there's nothing that we can do to add to the work that Christ has done. And therefore, when we read these passages, like Matthew 25 or Romans 2, we read them this way, that those who are saved will do good works. And the good works that follow are the evidence that they have been saved, they will be given eternal life. They have been given eternal life. They will live eternally with the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, under no circumstance is eternal life an effect or a result of good works. Rather it is a result of the fact that we have been saved, even as our good works are a result of our being saved.
Now I use this analogy because it is very pointed in this matter of rewards. You read some of these verses about receiving a crown and receiving a reward, and so on. And you could very readily develop a doctrine (and many have) that we will work in this life after we have been saved, God will take note of these things, and there will be pay for us in Heaven. There will be rewards for us in Heaven.
But that is foreign to the Bible. That is foreign to the very nature of salvation. Salvation is a gift of God. It is by grace, not of works. And the moment that we try to add anything at all of a works idea to our salvation, we are thereby coming under the curse of the law.
Now perhaps you've heard me speak of this before, but let me offer this again. In the Old Testament God has given us the account of a woman who picked up sticks on the Sabbath Day. The Old Testament Sabbath Day was a day on which the Israelite was to rest. He was not to make a fire. He was not to do any work at all. So when this woman picked up sticks, she was, in a very mild way, violating the Sabbath Day. It wasn't a grievous thing. She wasn't going to her job, or anything. She was just picking up a few sticks.
But as a result of this violation, Moses commanded that this woman be stoned to death. Now that's an astounding punishment for a very minor kind of a sin. Why was she stoned to death? Now the reason for this is that in the Old Testament, the Sabbath Day was a figure of salvation, or the rest that we enter into when we are saved. Even as the Jews were not to work on the Sabbath day at all, but were to rest, so we who have been saved are saved not because of our works, but because we're resting altogether in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the woman who picked up sticks violated that rest in a very minor way. But she is like someone who adds a little tiny bit of this own work to the salvation that God has provided. And by virtue of the fact that this woman was stoned, it indicates that when I have added a little work to the salvation Christ has provided by grace, I too am still subject to hell. I am subject to God's wrath even as this woman was subject to God's wrath. That's how important this question is.
Now the Bible teaches, for example, in Genesis 15:1, that God is our reward. If you want to turn to Genesis 15, God is talking to Abraham there. And He is saying to him, "I am your exceedingly great reward." In Luke 18, Peter raises a question. And the implication in the context there is, "Isn't there something that we're to be credited with?" Because he said to Jesus in verse 28: "Lo, we have left our homes and followed You." And He said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come, eternal life."
Now the "manifold more in this time" is all that is connected with salvation. We become a child of God. We have eternal life already. We have the promise of God, "I will leave you nor forsake you." We have the promise that all things will work out together for good for those who love Him. We have the promise that we can go to Him without ceasing, and can come boldly to the throne of grace. We've got everything going for us, because we have turned our life to Christ.
And we will receive the completion of our eternal life. That is, our bodies will also become eternal, when we enter into the New Heaven and the New Earth. Or again, in Colossians 3:24 we are told to work diligently: "Work heartily, as serving the Lord, not man. And we will receive as our reward the inheritance." The inheritance is that which is the completion of our salvation.
Now in Romans 4:4 God speaks to this question in a slightly different way. In verse 3 He says, "Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now to one who works, his reward (and the word reward here is the same as pay) is not reckoned as grace (or as a gift), but as his due." In other words, the idea of working to obtain wages or a reward is foreign to the idea of grace.
And it goes on: "And to one who does not work, but trusts Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works."
And so the moment that we start thinking about working, in order to merit something from God, we are violating the idea of grace. That's an impossibility. That is another gospel. That's not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We work because we love God. Those who love God keep His commandments. And this is what good works are, to keep His commandments. We don't do it to merit something, to get a higher position in Heaven, or to get a crown of some kind, or to be a ruler over many cities, or whatever. We don't obey God for these reasons.
The moment we do that, then we are substituting a works gospel for the gospel of grace. Then we have a Gospel that is not the gospel of the Bible. Now God warned the church of Galatia of this very fact. They began with grace, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Judaizers came along, and insisted that they had to be circumcised. Now that was a work. That was going back to some of the laws that were commanded in the Old Testament which had been set aside by God. And God says, "Look, if you're going to start working, then you're under the curse of God."
And so we don't work for pay. We don't work for rewards. The word reward in the Bible is the reward of grace. It is part of the salvation package. And we can see why this is so. The very work that we do is a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God, but so are our works a gift of God.
Notice what Ephesians 2 teaches, around verses 9 and 10. In verse 8 we read (and we're all familiar with this), "For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." You see, the whole package belongs to God. To Him goes all the glory.
Now in I Corinthians 3, which was referred to by our caller, God is not teaching rewards there, either. He is saying, in verse 14, "If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward." Well, now, remember. Watch out now. The reward, the pay, is not a result of work, even though this sounds like it. That can't be. That's like the idea of good works being sufficient to get us saved.
The reason a man has built on the foundation something that survives is that he is born again, because he has the true Gospel. He has been witnessing, and therefore there is eternal value in what he has been doing. The reward that he receives is not related, in the first instance, to the fact that he has been doing good things. It's not a result of this. But it also is a gift of God. He will receive a reward because he has been saved. He will be building on the foundation that survives, because he has been saved. And so we want to be very clear about this. Rewards are not pay for something that we have done. Rewards are part of the gift of salvation. It's part of the Gospel of grace which God has so freely bestowed upon us.
Now what is the problem? Why is it that we have so much difficulty with the matter of rewards? And some really struggle with this. Actually, there are three areas particularly in view today, where men and women have special difficulty. One is the matter of predestination, the second is the matter of eternal security, and the third is the matter of rewards.
Now if we look at these for a moment, we'll see that they all have one thing in common. There is one thing in common in all three of these areas. And that is that there is a struggle to obtain some kind of worthiness or standing before God. Now those who are troubled by predestination, when it gets right down to the basic problem, the problem is this. Predestination, as it's taught in the Bible, gives us the sad truth and yet the absolute truth that we contributed nothing toward our salvation. The faith with which we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ is a gift. In no sense was it a product of our own will.
Those who are struggling with predestination want to believe that somehow I was a little more worthy than my unsaved neighbour, who didn't become saved, because I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, God has got to credit me with a tiny bit of worthiness, because I believed in Him.
Now the same thing is true with those who preach that we can fall from grace. they are saying, effectively, "Yes, Christ went to the cross and saved me. But I have to hang on. I have to do good works in order to guarantee my salvation." So again, it's a claim for God's recognition of my personal worthiness in some sense.
And the same factor is present when we hold the idea that God has certain rewards for us if we will only do good works. We are insisting that somehow there is something worthy about us that God has to give us merit for. Now in all three of these cases, we've added something to the salvation idea which is foreign to the Bible, and which actually shatters the whole salvation picture, because our salvation from A to Z is the work of God. It is the gift of God's grace, and works are to be kept out of it altogether. Now works must be present. But they are the evidence, they are the fruit, they are the proof of our salvation. They are the evidence that we have become born again, that we have become a new creature. They are the evidence that now we love God. But under no circumstances are those works in any way, in even the slightest way, entitling us to just a tiny bit more insofar as God's salvation is concerned.
I hope that this will help just a little bit.