HEAVENLY REWARDS - We are saved by grace through faith and not by works. Yet, the Bible is full of passages about good works. We are going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and be judged of our works, not to determine our eternal destiny, but to determine degrees of reward.

Do Good Works Earn Heavenly Rewards?

By Nathan Jones 
Evangelist & Web Minister

Not By Works

Dr. Reagan: Glenn, the Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works, and I mean it says that point blank.

And yet, the Bible is full of passages about good works.

I'm thinking of one in Titus, for example, that talks about how important good works are and how we're going to be judged on them and how we are going to be rewarded for them. How do you reconcile that?

Glenn Meredith: In Ephesians 2:8-9, it says very clearly without any mistake that we are saved by grace through faith, that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast.

And yet, the very next verse says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which He has before ordained that we should walk in."
So, the Bible is very clear when it says that there's not any way in the world that we could ever work our way to heaven. 

We couldn't in a million years do enough good works to ever merit salvation from God. It is completely and totally by His grace. He gives us the gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ.

And, when through faith we receive Jesus into our life, Jesus comes in the person of the Holy Spirit and He gives us a brand new heart. He gives us a brand new nature. Jesus transforms us.

One of the things Jesus does is He gives us a desire to do something for Him — a desire to do good works.

And so, we are saved by grace, but that same grace which saves us also transforms us into people who want to work for Jesus Christ. 

The amazing thing is that God has all these works that He's planned in advance for us to do.

Motivated By Rewards

Glenn Meredith: An amazing thing about God is He is so good.

Not only does He save us by grace, but He motivates us by grace and He empowers us by grace.

Then, Jesus says an amazing thing, "I'll reward you for all that I am doing through your life." That's an amazing thing to promise!

One of these days we'll have great rewards in Heaven, if we follow the Lord.

Dr. Reagan: I've found in my experience that most Christians have heard so much preaching about salvation by grace through faith that they are not even aware of the fact that one day we are going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and be judged of our works, not to determine our eternal destiny, but to determine degrees of reward.
I think most people are not aware that there's a day that's coming when we are going to be judged. We'll be judged, for example, on how we used our gifts to advance the Kingdom of God.

Glenn Meredith: Right. I believe that is so true. I think that's one of the areas where the Devil has really just blinded the minds of believers. He's just lied to Christians.

I can't tell you how many times I've talked to Christian people who have done something in the service of Jesus Christ, and I say to them, "Boy, great is going to be your reward!"

And they go into, "Oh, no, no, no, I won't be rewarded." It's almost as though if they think about a reward then they're not going to get a reward. They almost think as though that somehow God doesn't want them to be motivated by a reward. And yet, just the opposite is true.

Over and over again, the Bible tells us that God is going to reward us.

In fact, in some of the last verses of the Bible Jesus says, "Behold, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me." 

And so, God wants us also to be motivated by rewards.

Dr. Reagan: I like to often put it this way — there's good news and there's bad news about judgment.

The good news is that we are never going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and be judged of our works to determine our eternal destiny. That's never going to happen.

But, we are going to stand before Him and be judged of our works to determine our degrees of reward.

Worthless Works

Dr. Reagan: Along that line, the Bible even indicates that there may be some people who will receive no rewards whatsoever except eternal life. Isn't that right?

Glenn Meredith: That's exactly right. It's kind of a scary thing. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about how we'll be judged as if by fire.

Our works will be judged, and those works that are deemed valuable to God are illustrated by gold, silver and precious stones. Those are the works which will last. Those who have those kinds of rewards will be rewarded.

Then it says, others who have works characterized or illustrated by wood, hay and stubble; those are worthless to God in God's sight. It says, "It will be burned up, but they themselves will be saved yet as by fire."

Glenn Meredith: What a tragedy.

Dr. Reagan: It's reminiscent of the image of a guy being saved, but with his tail feathers burning up.

Glenn Meredith: Exactly right. He made it to the end, but that's it. No rewards. Too many Christians I think almost have the attitude that that's all they really care about. If they just make it to Heaven, they think they'll be fine with only that.

Nathan Jones: A lot of them are fearing the Judgment of the Just because they think that there's some kind of punishment involved.

You hear from quite a lot of people who are under this impression that when they arrive in Heaven they'll find a giant movie screen. On it every sin from their life will be projected up there for all to see.

Well, that would certainly make Heaven pornographic! You can't have that sin displayed in Heaven.
When it comes to sin and salvation, Jesus' blood covered our sins. We are forgiven and no longer under judgment.

When we go up there, we'll encounter just a judgment for the works we did. 

It's all about how we responded to Jesus working through our lives. I find so many Christians don't know that.

Glenn Meredith: You're exactly right. I remember one time when I was a teenager an evangelist said that very thing. "There'll be a giant movie screen and everything you've ever done will be put up there."

Well, I'm telling you, I wasn't looking forward to that.

Nathan Jones: Not at all, I'd imagine.

Glenn Meredith: That made me not want to go. I thought, "How humiliating."

Various Heavenly Rewards

Nathan Jones: Besides crowns, what will those in Heaven be wearing? Are there rewards based on say clothing? Will there be different styles of clothing? We read in Revelation about white robes.

Glenn Meredith: I don't know for sure about different styles, but we might have variances.

Dr. Reagan: It says in Revelation, "To her, the Bride of Christ, is given fine linen bright and clean that will reflect the righteous acts of the Saints." 

There may be some sort of emblems on one's robe or whatever that would indicate different tasks that we did in service to the Lord.

I think clothes are some of many kinds of rewards that are going to be given out.

Glenn Meredith: Perhaps there will be different levels of glory that will be somehow revealed in us. 

Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 4 about these light afflictions that are but for a moment and are working for us towards the exceedingly eternal weight of glory.

Romans 8 says, "I reckon the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us."
Then you have what the Bible teaches about how we are going to reign with Christ.

Nathan Jones: Yes, a lot of people write into this ministry and they ask, "What are we actually going to be doing during the Millennial Kingdom? What does the Bible say is the job reward for believers?"

Dr. Reagan: Some of the rewards are indeed going to be given out in the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ before we get to the eternal state.

Jesus said He'd put one person over one city, one over five, and one over ten. Therefore, I think during the Millennial reign that every person who is in a position of authority on planet Earth will be a person who is in a glorified body. And we'll be reigning over those in fleshly bodies.

So, every mayor, every governor, every president, king — whatever — will be those of us in glorified bodies.
Jesus will be Kings of kings and Lord of lords in Jerusalem. It says that David will be in his glorified body as the King of Israel.

And then, those in glorified bodies are going to be scattered all over the world to reign, but we're going to have degrees of reigning authority, and that's part of the overall rewards that we will receive.

Glenn Meredith: I think that's correct. Then you also must add to that from Matthew 6 where Jesus talked about laying up our treasures in Heaven. This means we're going to have different degrees of treasure.

In 1 Timothy 6, Paul is exhorting those who are rich in this world. He exhorts, or commands, them to be generous and to be rich in good works so that they may lay up treasures in Heaven which is a firm

foundation for the coming age.
So, we've got these people in Heaven one day who are going to have different crowns. They've got perhaps different ways that the glory of God is revealed through them.

They've got different authority that's been given to them, delegated to them by the Lord Jesus Christ based on their faithfulness in this world in serving Him. You've got different amounts of treasure in Heaven.

And then, in addition to all of that, and this is astounding. In Matthew 5 Jesus says that some people in the Kingdom will be called least in the kingdom and others will be called great in the kingdom. 

Jesus said those who do not obey God and who teach others to not obey will be called least in the Kingdom.

Those who obey and teach others to obey will be called great. So, obviously some will be called least and some will be called great.

Some have great treasures and some have little to no treasure.

Some will have multiple crowns perhaps, and some no crowns. So, not everyone is going to be the same in Heaven. There's going to be distinction among us.

Dr. Reagan: Incidentally, with regard to those rewards I mentioned, during the Millennium the degrees of reigning authority will also carry over into the eternal state, because we are told we are going to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever.

So, there's even going to be degrees of reigning authority in the eternal state.

Glenn Meredith: That's exactly correct.

Nathan Jones: I liked what you said too about the glorified bodies that we'll be in during the Millennial Kingdom. Having new bodies is a form of reward. That we will have a brand new body is an exciting prospect.

Dr. Reagan: You better believe it!

Nathan Jones: But, to me, I think the most important aspect of heavenly rewards is that we will dwell with our Heavenly Father forever. 

I mean, what a reward! God had to send His own Son to die to make that type of reward happen.

To have fellowship with God — like during the Garden of Eden again forever — to me, that's the best reward of them all.

Who cares about my crown or not, for I want to be with God forever.

Dr. Reagan: The Bible teaches that when you are born again you are immediately given not only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit gifts you in a supernatural way.

You get some sort of supernatural gift. It may be where you're talented, or it may not be where you're talented.
For example, I've heard singers who were great singers, but when they became members of the Lord's body He didn't gift them there.

They still are great singers, but they could get up and sing the Lord's Prayer and people applaud.

Somebody who is gifted gets up and sings the same song and maybe doesn't sing it perfectly, but everybody is weeping at the end because the singer is gifted by the Holy Spirit to touch people for Jesus.

Spiritual Giftedness

Dr. Reagan: So, we're given spiritual giftedness, and we may be given additional gifts as we go along, but we have to ask ourselves, "How are we using those gifts to advance the Kingdom?"

I think we are going to be judged on that. God will ask, "I gave you the gift of mercy, and how did you use it?" "I gave you the gift of administration, so how did you use it to advance my Kingdom?"

Those will be the questions God asks of us along that line.

The Bible indicates that we going to be judged based on the quantity of our works as well as the quality of our works and even the motivation of our works.
I can imagine some world famous person right now, maybe a great television evangelist or somebody who is known all over the world, and he stands before the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord says, "On the day that you were born again I gave you the gift of evangelism and you used it mightily to bring many people in the kingdom, but I knew your motivation.

Your motivation was to get your picture on the front of Time magazine. You achieved that, so here's your reward — your picture on Time magazine."

Glenn Meredith: Yes, exactly! Brother Dave, I believe knowing that is so important, because I think that's where many Christians make the mistake. When you talk to Christians about rewards they often go, "Oh, no, no, no, I'm not doing it for the reward" because they think that if their motive is for the reward that disqualifies them.

They misunderstand that Jesus, in Matthew 6, I believe, says not to do it for the praise of men. The wrong motive is when I'm doing these works so that people will look at me and say, "Isn't he wonderful?"

Jesus said that's what's wrong. But, He says, "No, instead of praying in public where everybody thinks what a great pray-er you are, go into your closet, pray in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." 

Jesus says He's going to reward you, so go in that closet and in doing so He'll reward you. Just don't do it for the reward of men.

Nathan Jones: Once we're in Heaven, I'd imagine we'll actually be surprised that some of the greatest names in teaching, because of improper motives or whatnot, created for themselves tiny crowns.

Whereas the little old lady no one knew about who diligently filled the communion cups every weekend will probably be staggering around

Heaven under a massive crown. We'll be surprised for sure

Glenn Meredith: Jesus even said that on that day the last will be first and the first shall be last. I think that's exactly right.

Dr. Reagan: That's one of the reasons why I teach very strongly that people need to find out what their spiritual gifts are. There are many ways to do that.

You can study the Word. You can talk to people who know you. You can talk to your pastor.

You can take a spiritual gifts inventory tests to help you find out what your gifts are to use them to advance the Kingdom.

Are these heavenly rewards temporary or eternal? Find out!

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To answer that question, Dr. David Reagan and I, on our television program Christ in Prophecy, invited Glenn Meredith, senior pastor for 30 years of Brookhaven Church in McKinney, Texas. Pastor Meredith is a very gifted communicator who is able to present the depths of God's Word in simple to understand language. Last fall he presented a sermon about heavenly rewards that deeply impressed Dr. Reagan, and so he was invited to share some of what he's learned about this topic.

webminister@lamblion.com