Most believers have never or rarely heard of the Biblical teachings of eternal rewards being awarded for obedience to Christ, self-sacrifice, faith, and persecutions for Christ. They do not know they could be denied rewards in heaven and denied the right to rule and reign with Christ in His eternal government. Most churches rarely, if ever, preach or teach on this subject, even though this teaching of God and Jesus Christ is plainly stated on almost every page of the New Testament.
Yes, eternal life, eternal forgiveness, justification, and heaven are totally free gifts from God through faith or belief in Jesus for eternal life which can never ever be lost once one has it the first moment of faith. Once you are saved you are always saved no matter what. But rewards must be earned by obedience and rewards can be lost via sin and disobedience or laziness.
God’s eternal rewards, honors, privileges, recognition, and benefits will be super precious and valuable and something to be desired to have with extreme passion. If God can create so many things on earth that people love and worship (food, sex, beauty, love, etc.) then He can create new things in heaven and the new earth that are far more desirable and pleasing. The rewards will not be cheap pieces of garbage that no one really wants and that is insulting to God.
Many believers and people say that living for rewards is selfish and evil and they do not need any rewards to live for Christ. However, many of those believers become lukewarm and do not do much for Christ and often start to live for earthly rewards. Many believers work for 40 years excitedly building for their retirement which may last for 20 years and then they die and lose their retirement. Why do they get excited for living for earthly rewards but not God’s rewards? Rewards fulfills justice as God desires. It also eliminates the desire for many preachers to add some works to the gospel trying to scare people into obedience with threats of hell which does not work. It just makes God a hateful being. Here is what Jesus said and commanded about rewards:
Matthew 5:11-12 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Jesus added in Luke 6:22-23: 23 “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.”
Matthew 6:19-21 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So the Lord Jesus COMMANDED us to Live for Rewards, Rejoice and Leap for Joy that we will gain and earn rewards. Jesus wants us to make His valuable precious rewards a priority in our lives and make it our goal to become eternally rich. You will live for some kind of rewards no matter how much you pretend you are not motivated by rewards. If you despise God’s eternal valuable rewards, then you will live for earthly temporary rewards which you will leave behind and then you will not have many rewards in heaven and you will be ashamed. Make your treasure God’s eternal rewards and riches and then your heart will be on Christ’s Kingdom, not earth.
Rewards help motivate us to keep on living for Christ when the going gets tough and we are persecuted and attacked for sharing Jesus. Maybe you will stand up for Christ and preach the gospel instead of hiding from the battle and trying to save your life for yourself.
Matthew 16:24-27 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. 26 What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? [loses his abundant life of eternal rewards in heaven] Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each according to what he has done. {Mark 8:38/ Luke 9:26} “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and in His Father’s [glory], and of the holy angels.”
Some people may object and say the verses in Matthew are before the church age. Here are some verses that show Jesus commands believers in the church age to live for everlasting rewards.
Revelation 2:7 7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’
[So it appears that many saved believers in heaven will NOT have the right to eat from the tree of life if they did not overcome in their service for Christ, although they are in heaven.]
Revelation 2:23, 26-28 23 … Then all the churches will know that I am the One who examines minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your works. * * *
26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations— 27 ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’ — as I also have received from My Father; 28 and I will give him the morning star.
Revelation 3:20-22 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. * * * 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Ruling in Christ’s eternal kingdom will be easy and fun, not hard as on earth. Believers can gain and lose rewards but cannot lose heaven, forgiveness from hell, or eternal life. Paul states that below.
1 Corinthians 3:13-15 13 The fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss [of eternal rewards]; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
All believers will have their entire life judged and evaluated at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Some will be praised for their service for Christ. Others will be rebuked by Christ and will be ashamed at their selfish lives and they will receive little or no rewards. Christ will reward not only our actions, deeds and works, but also our faith and trust in God for our daily lives, our motives and every thought. Every good thought, motive or action will be rewarded and praised, even small ones like giving a cup of water to a disciple (Matt. 10:42). Every evil thought, action or motive will be rebuked by Christ and no rewards will be given for the evil things. (1 Cor. 4:5; Jer. 17:10; 1 Chron. 28:9: Rev. 2:23)
2 Corinthians 5:10 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Romans 14:12 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
1 Corinthians 4:5 “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.”
We will be rewarded for every good thing we do, whether good actions, thoughts, beliefs, motives, attitudes; and every bad thing we do or think will be reviewed also. Jesus gave an example and said even just giving someone a cup of cold water will be rewarded.
Matthew 10:42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward."
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
This is why God says no one can ever mock God because all actions, thoughts and motives will be repaid by God whether one is saved and goes to heaven or whether one never believes in Jesus and goes to hell because the lost who go to hell are judged for their degrees of punishment. The more evil they committed the hotter their fire will be forever (Luke 12:47-49; 20:47; Mark 12:40; Rom. 2:6; 12:19; 14:10-12; Gal. 6:7; Col. 3:25; James 3:1; Heb. 2:2; 10:29-31; Rev. 20:11-15; see also Psalm 28:4; 62:12).
Galatians 6:7-10 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction [loss of rewards and discipline on earth]; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life [the abundant rewarded eternal life]. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
1 Timothy 6:18-19 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Colossians 3:23-25 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
Many of Christ’s rewards will be like receiving an inheritance. Believers can be disinherited but they are still in heaven but just “poor” in heaven. Disinherited children of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 9 Do you not know that the wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Inheriting the kingdom is inheriting the right to rule and reign with Christ in His eternal government (which will be easy, light, and fun ruling- not hard like on earth) and many rewards. Some believers will inherit the right to rule and receive praise and honors (like the Oscars but holy) but some will be denied and will rule nothing (Luke 19:11-27; Matt. 25:14-30). Inheriting the kingdom is different than entering the kingdom. Entering the kingdom is given as a free gift by Christ by faith, but inheriting the kingdom is earned by good works, thoughts and obedience.
Hebrews 10:34-36 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
There are many privileges in heaven that only the rewarded believers will be able to do. Such as eating from the tree of life. Christ says only faithful believers who overcome and do His will to the end will be granted the right to eat from the tree of life. (Rev. 2:7; 22:14,19) There will be special banquets and celebration parties for the faithful servants of Christ whose lives helped more people be saved and enter heaven. See Matthew 22:1-14 where a believer is thrown out of the “Hall of Fame Banquet” for faithful believers and it is very distressing for him at being denied rulership and rewards forever. He did not help other people get into heaven by evangelism or a good works lifestyle. Yes, there will be weeping in heaven at the Judgment Seat of Christ. (See https://faithalone.org/ges-journal/page/6/ and click the “Read Full Issue” link at Journal-Autumn 1992 “The Outer Darkness in Matthew and Grace” and Journal-Spring 1992 “A Call to the Wedding Celebration-Matthew 22”). [Also see Luke 19:11-27; Matthew 25:14-30.] God is one who promotes justice and not just one of grace and mercy. Would it be fair and just to make everyone equal in heaven with no praise for those who were tortured to death for preaching Christ and no rebuke for those who did nothing and lived for selfish pleasure causing more people to go to hell forever? Absolutely not.
Some believe this view of heaven means misery in heaven forever. That is incorrect since it will still be good for all, but some will have much more goodness than others because they deserve more rewards than the selfish lazy believers who do nothing for Christ who do not deserve rewards at all. We will be made holy and righteous and start viewing things as Christ sees them instead of from our selfish and self-centered viewpoint. The disinherited believers will love justice and be glad the faithful are rewarded forever because their lives resulted in more people in heaven instead of hell and more believers rewarded in heaven. They will praise God and be happy for them. And they will be glad they did not get rewarded because they will love justice and say ‘I did not deserve rewards because I was selfish, so praise God I did not get them” and “more people are in hell because I was lazy”. They will be a little sad but they will love justice more and they will NOT be jealous as that sin will be gone.
Seeking rewards is not evil. In Matt. 19:27-30 when Peter asked Jesus what rewards would the disciples receive for leaving their jobs and all to follow Christ and Jesus simply answered and explained all the rewards and rulership positions they would receive. Jesus did not rebuke Peter for being greedy and say “Get behind me Satan” as he did before (Matt. 16:23).
However, Jesus has good news if you have wasted most of your Christian life by trying to save your life for yourself and now you think you are too old and not enough time to earn rewards. Jesus seems to say that if a believer repents and lives totally for Christ in the few short years left of their lives (even though most was wasted) they will still be able to gain lots of rewards and perhaps rule and reign with Christ. That was the parable of the worker in Matthew 20:1-16. The ones who only worked about one hour was paid the same as those who worked 8-12 hours. Although, that is not the only factor Christ will use to judge us, it is comforting to those who realize they wasted most of their lives but there is still hope for the great rewards!
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Revelation 22:12-14 12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
Raymond Mitchell
