Heavenly Rewards

Understanding God’s Grace and Our Joy

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Matthew 6.3,4

I recently preached this text and didn’t have time to deal with the question of rewards in detail.

The question that I wanted to deal with is this:

Are there degrees of reward in heaven?

I think the answer is both yes and no.

The Ultimate Reward: God Himself

The answer is no in that the reward is God Himself.

As God told Abraham:

I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. [Genesis 15.1]

Or as it is written in Psalm 73.25,26

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done for us in Christ. All God’s children will receive the promised inheritance, the same everlasting life, the same citizenship in the New Jerusalem, the same fellowship with God in Christ, the same blessedness.

And these rewards as gifts of grace, given to us in Christ Jesus, by the merit of His righteousness.

The Puritan Thomas Watson writes:

Though we have no reward ‘ex merito’, by merit, we shall have it ‘ex gratia’, by grace.

So there is one sense in which the reward is the same for all believers. We get God.

A Diversity of Rewards

On the other hand, we’re often told that the Lord, as a loving Father, delights to give good gifts to His children and that He will reward us according to our deeds.

In Matthew 5.11,12 Jesus indicates there will be degrees of reward, when He says:

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Later in the book of Matthew, we have further confirmation of this.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. [Matthew 16.24-27]

Likewise, in the parable of the minas in Luke 19, the faithful stewards are not all given the same reward. One is given authority over ten cities, another authority over five cities, and the wicked servant has his mina taken away and given to the one who had ten. The conclusion of the matter was this:

For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. [Luke 19.26]

The Apostle Paul also writes:

Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. [1 Corinthians 3.8]

It seems that there will be some variation and diversity in the heavenly reward, just as there is a diversity of gifts in the church today.

Commenting on this diversity of the promised rewards in the New Heavens and Earth, Herman Bavinck wrote:

It is in fact true that all believers have been promised the same benefits in Christ’s future: they all receive the same eternal life, the same abode in the new Jerusalem, the same fellowship with God, the same blessedness, and so on. Nevertheless, Scripture leaves no doubt whatever that in all that oneness and sameness there is enormous variation and diversity…In that fellowship everyone has a place and task of one’s own, based on personality and character, just as this is the case in the believing community on earth. [Bavinck. RD 4.728,729]

God doesn’t give us all the same talents, skills, interests, abilities, and spiritual gifts in this life, and there is no reason to think that we will all be the same in the life to come. It would be quite boring if that were the case. But our God is infinitely creative, and bestows differing gifts and talents, according to the riches of wisdom, for the edification and beauty of His church, both now, and in the coming kingdom.

Some people seem to have this idea of the kingdom that pictures us all dressed the same, all playing harps and singing in a choir. But I don’t think that’s the way it will be.

Yes, we’ll worship and praise the Lord, probably with song. But there is no reason to think that we’ll have have perfect pitch, the ability to sing harmony, and an equal interest in song. That would be astoundingly uncreative.

I think we’ll have differing gifts there, just as we do now.

And while Paul had to warn the Corinthian church not to envy each other’s gifts, that was because of the remnants of sin nature we struggle with in this life.

In the life to come that sin will be gone and we’ll delight and praise the Lord for the variety of His gifts to His children. We’ll rejoice in what the Lord gives us, and in what He gives others, with no sinful envy.

All will be for the sake of His glory, not our own, and there will be joy enough for everyone in the kingdom. Our joy will be absolutely full and without a shadow of lack, envy, or desire for more.

Conclusion

Our pursuit of heavenly reward should resemble the response of a child who delights to please his Father, knowing that the Father delights to bless His children, not as wages earned by our merit, but as gracious gifts given to children by their loving Father. There should be nothing but excitement to see what the Father does, how He blesses us in His mercy and grace, and for the praise of His glory.

The Heidelberg Catechism notes in Q&A62

…that our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.

Then asks in Q63:

What! Do not our good works merit, which yet God will reward in this and in a future life?

The answer given is this:

This reward is not of merit but of grace.

The proof text affixed to this answer is Luke 17.10

So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’

We don’t merit any reward in ourselves, yet God is gracious to reward us as little children receive a blessing from their father.

There is one reward, God Himself, and we should seek Him with our utmost desire. And yet, there will be a diversity of rewards and responsibilities that will be assigned in the New Heavens and Earth as a display of His creative glory and grace. And we will praise Him for that, just as we praise Him for the variety of gifts He gives the church today.

So let us serve faithfully with the gifts He has given us, with thanksgiving and joy. Not with an arrogant expectation of merit, but with the delight of children anticipating the goodness of our heavenly Father, delighting to know Him, to be known by Him, and longing for His glory to be made manifest in His church, both now and forever.

Coffee Talk: Brance and Lauren talk coffee grinding.

Defining Theology: Brance and Lauren have a discussion of theology term heresy.

Resources Mentioned:

2LCF (2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith)

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