Rewards and Judgement

The Scriptures teach that saved people are rewarded according to their works.

We leave the world and enter the family of God by believing in Christ and being baptised in water. By faith in the atonement made on the cross of Calvary we receive forgiveness of our sins. But we are rewarded in the Kingdom of God according to our behaviour in the present world.

It is one matter to have our sins forgiven. It is another matter to lay hold on the eternal life that is in Christ and to enter the fullness of the Kingdom of God — now, and when the Lord appears.

When addressing believers who had experienced the forgiveness of their sins the Apostle warns them concerning the relationship between their behaviour and their entering the Kingdom of God.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 6:9,10)

For this ye know, that no whore-monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:5).

Paul is speaking to saved, Christian people — he saints in Corinth and Ephesus. He is informing them that a person, Christian or not, who behaves in a sinful manner cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

It is difficult for us to understand the above passages because we have been taught that the Lord Jesus "did it all" and our main task now is to wait to die and go to Heaven.

But there is a difference between having our sins forgiven, on the one hand, and becoming a new creation through Christ, on the other. The Kingdom of God comprises victorious saints who live in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The believer who continues in worldliness, in the lusts of his flesh, and in his own self-will, is not living in the Kingdom of God. He is walking in darkness.

Since each individual must settle his own account with Christ we cannot describe the ultimate destiny of any particular believer. But the text of the New Testament certainly does not support the assured, light, presumptuous attitude that prevails in Christian circles. The churches are blind and naked and need to seek the Lord.

Receiving Jesus and believing in His name gives us the right, the authority, to be a child of God. We then are to stand on that authority and press into the Kingdom of God.

One area of ignorance has to do with the concept of "going to Heaven." We are not saved to "go to Heaven." Salvation has to do with deliverance from the person and works of Satan, being created in the image of God, and coming into union with God through Christ. When we make going to Heaven our goal, and perceive the blood of Jesus as our ticket to Heaven, we cannot understand the Christian redemption.

Heaven is a place. The Kingdom of God is Christ. Paul was not striving to gain Heaven, He was striving to gain Christ.

For example, the covetous individual may escape Hell when he dies, if Christ is willing to forgive him and save him from the Divine wrath. But his covetous character will prevent him from entering the joy of his Lord. The covetous individual cannot possibly enter the Kingdom of God because there is no covetousness in the Kingdom of God. His covetousness must be removed at some point because covetousness will never enter the Kingdom of God, never enter that which is of the Lord Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven; and covetousness is not God’s will, either in Heaven or on the earth.

Paul was saved from wrath by the blood of Christ, by the gift of God’s grace. Yet we find throughout Paul’s writings an intense striving, the running of a race for which Paul prepared himself like an Olympic contender seeking a gold medal.

Toward what was Paul pressing? To gain entrance into Heaven? To acquire a mansion in Heaven? Did Paul, or Peter, or John, ever once state they were striving to make Heaven their eternal home?

Is Heaven a real place? Absolutely. Will we escape Hell when we die? Yes, if we receive and love the Lord Jesus Christ and walk according to His will. But in the attaining of the Kingdom of God there is much diversity. Each believer attains a different destiny according to his diligence in laying hold on that to which he has been called by the Lord.

The Gospel of Christ is not the gospel of going to Heaven but the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. We need to orient ourselves toward the Kingdom of God. We are born into the Kingdom of God, as well as into heavenly citizenship, when we are "born again." But now we are to grow to maturity in the Kingdom of God.

We can think of the Kingdom of God in terms of the rewards that are named in the New Testament. The concept of judgement is related to rewards because we will be rewarded in terms of God’s evaluation of our behaviour.

". . . that every one may receive the things done in his body, . . . ." (II Corinthians 5:10)
". . . to give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation 22:12)

Also, the concept of the resurrection from the dead is involved, because what we have attained of the Kingdom of God during our life on earth will be given to us at the time of the resurrection from the dead.

Many rewards for serving Christ faithfully are mentioned in the New Testament. One set of rewards is found in the Book of Revelation. They are the rewards that are attained to, or arrived at, by the overcomer.

The rewards given to the overcomer, as we understand them, are increments of resurrection life until we attain the fullness of life; the fullness of reconciliation to God through Christ; the fullness of freedom from Satan; the fullness of boldness in the Day of Judgement; the fullness of the spiritual counterpart of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34), that is, to be filled with all the fullness of God.

To attain resurrection life fully is to arrive at the first resurrection from among the dead, the resurrection in which all judgement has been accomplished and the perfection of the Divine Life and Glory can be revealed in us. It is the fullness of the indwelling of the Father in Christ in us through the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The first resurrection of the dead will take place at the coming of the Lord from Heaven.

The following list includes some of the rewards to the overcomer that are set forth in the Book of Revelation:

To eat of the tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God (Re 2:7).
To be given crown of life (Re 2:10).
To not be hurt of the second death (Re 2:11).
To eat of the hidden manna (Re 2:17).
To be given a white stone in that is inscribed a new name (Re 2:17).
To be given power over the nations (Re 2:26,27).
To be given the morning star (Re 2:28).
To walk with Christ in white (Re 3:4).
To be clothed in white raiment (Re 3:5).
To not have one’s name blotted out of the Book of Life (Re 3:5).
To have one’s name confessed before the Father and His angels (Re 3:5).
To be kept from the hour of temptation (Re 3:10).
To become a pillar in the Temple of God (Re 3:12).
To have inscribed on one’s self the name of God; the name of the city of God; the new name of Christ (Re 3:12).
To sit with Christ in His throne (Re 3:21).
To inherit all things (Re 21:7).
To have God be one’s God, and to be God’s son (Re 21:7).

Going to Heaven when one dies is not listed as a reward to the overcomer, although the Book of Revelation does present the blood-washed as being in Heaven (Revelation 7:14). Yet, it is evident that the emphasis is not on "making Heaven our eternal home."

A beautiful home in Heaven is not mentioned as being a reward to the conqueror. Rather, the rewards have to do with the attaining of eternal life and power in the Presence of Christ and the Father.

All of us desire to go to Paradise when we die. The present world is a valley of pain and dread.v According to the visions of the saints, Paradise is a garden of delight and peace.

But to lose our body and pass into the spirit realm certainly is not an attainment of life or authority. Eternal life is not perpetual consciousness in the spirit realm. Eternal life is a kind, a quality of life. Demons possess no eternal life but they are perpetually conscious in the spirit realm.

Satan is a spiritual creature, a cherub. He introduced sin into the spirit realm. Eternal death resulted. Eternal death is a spiritual condition, not a physical condition. To go to Heaven, to pass into the realm of spirits, is not to attain eternal life. It is Christ who is eternal Life, who is the Tree of Life.

When we are full of Christ we are full of eternal Life whether we are on the earth or in Heaven.

It is important that we understand what it means to overcome, because the inference in the items listed above is that if we are not pursuing the life of victory in Christ we are not inheriting these rewards or any of the other rewards mentioned by the Lord Jesus and His Apostles.

The writer has preached the overcoming life for many years. Sometimes people ask, "What will happen to Christians who do not lead an overcoming life? Will they be raised from the dead and ascend to meet the Lord in triumph when He appears? Will they be Divine kings and priests, crowned with glory and honour, even though they did not live as saints in this present world?"

The basic question is: Just how important is it that we pursue the life of victory in Christ? Will there actually be a great difference in destiny between the Christian who devotes his whole attention to pleasing the Lord and the Christian who trusts in his or her affirmation of the truth that Jesus is Saviour and Lord and proceeds to live in the flesh?

Is it worth the supreme effort necessary for achieve victory over fleshly lusts and to lay aside our life and follow Christ wherever He goes?

This is an extraordinarily important question. It is not merely academic or an issue to be debated by mystical saints. The answer to this question has to do with our status at the coming of Christ; with the quality of our resurrection; with our destiny throughout eternity.

How important is it that we, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, develop the spiritual strength necessary to conquer Satan, the enticements of the world, the lusts of our flesh, and our self-seeking and self-will?

Will we all inherit approximately the same glory? Or is it true that the rewards of the saints will range from an exaltation so sublime that it is beyond our comprehension, to a resurrection that is barren of glory, such as in the case of the righteous Lot being yanked out of Sodom?

Will some be "great" in the Kingdom of God, while others are "least"?

Would you enjoy being least in the Kingdom of God, least in the approval of God, Christ, the elect angels, and the saints?

Is it true that each of us indeed will receive both the "good" we have practiced in our flesh and also the "evil" we have practiced in our flesh? Is that taking place in our life even now?

What does it mean to receive the good we have done and the evil we have done (II Corinthians 5:10)?

What kind of "gold, silver, precious stones" can be built on the foundation of Christ? What will it mean to be saved "yet so as by fire" (I Corinthians 3:12-15)?

To His faithful servants, Christ will exclaim, "Well done! Well done!"

Will Christ say to the "believer" who has led a sinful, disobedient, self-seeking, self-centred life, "Well done, good and faithful servant"?

Will the careless, spiritually lazy Christian be rebuked for his sin, his disobedience, and his self-seeking? If so, just how much of a sting will there be in that rebuke?

We ought to settle such questions now and not wait until it is too late to adjust our life to the scriptural answers.

The Scriptures state all men will die and then will be raised again. Each person will be raised to stand before Christ and be judged in terms of what he has done in this life; how he has conducted himself. Then he will be rewarded or punished according to the judgement of Christ.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:2,3)

It is our flesh and bones that "sleep in the dust of the earth." The resurrection from the dead is the awakening of our mortal body from its sleep in the dust of the earth.

To be resurrected is to be faced with the prospect either of everlasting life or else shame and everlasting contempt. What we will experience depends on our behaviour during our days on earth. This is what Christ, Paul, and the others have taught us.

Being "saved" does not mean we will not be rewarded according to our behaviour. If it did, Paul would not have warned the saints in Corinth, Galatia, and Ephesus that the unclean and covetous cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9,10; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:5,6).

One individual had a dream in which he witnessed the saints being handed radiantly beautiful white robes but he was given a diaper.

Some of us will receive a glorious inheritance. Others of us will be saved as by fire. We are determining our reward, or punishment, by our behaviour today.

The Christian believer will be clothed with his own conduct. We shall reap what we have sown. We shall be rewarded in terms of our works (Revelation 2:23; 22:12).

To attain the first resurrection from the dead is to attain the throne of Christ. It is to become, through Christ the first-fruits of the image of God, the first-fruits of eternal man.

We think the "out-resurrection" (first resurrection) to which the Apostle Paul was addressing himself (Philippians 3:11) is the state in which the believer arrives at a full maturing in resurrection life now (although not in the body). He follows the Spirit of God into total victory over sin and self-will now. The result is that at the last trumpet he will be raised to the side of Christ, there to work with the Lord in establishing the Kingdom of God on the earth.

Such a "crown of life" is well worth fighting for.

Christ has held out to us rewards for pursuing the overcoming Christian life. These are the development of the life and authority that will be revealed to us in full weight and glory at the coming of the Lord from Heaven.

The rewards to the overcomer are not prizes that will be handed to every believer on the basis of grace or God’s mercy. Rather they are areas of spiritual authority, power, and responsibility that belong by inheritance to redeemed man. They accrue to us as we obey the Holy Spirit. Some are given to us now and others will be assigned to us at the coming of the Lord. Our task in the world is to mature to the level where we can receive them.

The rewards to the overcomer are not given to us because we keep on believing Jesus is Christ. They are the product of specific training; the consequence of specific behaviour; the effect of specific cause.

The training period is now. If we apply ourselves each day to the challenges and blessings of the Spirit of God we will be able to enter the authorities, powers, responsibilities, and opportunities for service that belong by inheritance to those who have been conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus.

If we do not apply ourselves each day to the challenges and blessings of the Spirit of God, choosing rather to occupy ourselves with the challenges and blessings of life in this present world, then it is possible we will attain privileges in the world. However, at the coming of the Lord we will not be prepared for a position of leadership in the Kingdom of God. Only those who have been made new creatures in Christ are qualified to rule in the Kingdom of God.

Let us consider the rewards to the overcomer set forth in the Book of Revelation. We will view them as present opportunities for growth in resurrection life, and present opportunities for attaining full union with the Father through Christ.