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Transcript 346D
What Can One Do to Get a Reward in Heaven?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Mr. Camping, my first question is: what can a Christian do to get a reward in Heaven? When Christ comes back again He says He will have His rewards with Him. Now what can you do to get one of these rewards?
HC: All right. That's a very good practical question. Christ does say that when He returns He will have His rewards with Him. What do we have to do to obtain one of those rewards?
Actually, the way we have to obtain one of the rewards is to become born again. Only when we are born again will we receive everlasting life. And the reward that we receive is not a reward of merit. It's not because we have done something. It isn't that Christ is paying us off. But actually, it is a gift of God's grace. It's the reward of eternal life. It's the crown of life, if you will. It's the crown of Christ's glory, which is a gift of God. It is what salvation is all about.
There are those who teach that once we're saved we then can work and obtain certain rewards, that we can earn certain rewards. Now this I'm afraid is not what the Gospel of grace is all about. Jesus did say in Luke 18 that those who have left father and mother and home, and so on, for His sake, shall not only receive manifold more in the present time, but in the age to come, eternal life.
As we are faithful to the Lord in this life, as we are obedient to Him, we receive the blessings that come from such obedience. We have the blessing of knowing that we're in the will of God. We have the blessing of living in accordance with God's rules, which brings its own blessing. But the reward we receive beyond the grave is the gift of eternal life.
Do you remember the parable of the man who needed laborers in his vineyard? And so some worked eleven hours, some worked six hours, some three hours, some one hour. Now they all received precisely the same pay. Did they not?
CALLER: That's right.
HC: One denarius. And that was a figure of the pay that we all receive. It's not pay for labor rendered. It is a gift of God's grace. It is eternal life.
CALLER: That answers it very nicely.