Treasures, Gifts and Rewards – Greg Albrecht

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Grace alone, faith alone and Christ alone is a way of stating our unrelenting focus on the grace of God in the ministry of CWR/PTM. Our good works are the evidence that we are saved by the grace of God, they are evidence that Christ lives his risen life in us.  Good works are the result of God’s grace, the product of Christ living in us, for indeed, apart from him we can do nothing of eternal virtue and good (John 15:5).  Our good works, the gifts of God, the fruit of God the Holy Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23), involve our participation, our willing self-sacrifice and our service to others in the name of Christ, but they do not earn eternal life which is given only by the grace of God.

However, there are also passages in the New Testament which speak of rewards that Christ followers are given.  How do we understand such promises in the light of the grace of God?

A brief study of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians – sometimes called the chapter describing “the heavenly dwelling” – can help bring some clarity to this question. 

Context:  Before we focus on 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, let’s consider a few passages in the chapter that immediately precedes it, as these thoughts will provide a stage setting. 

  • * In chapter four (4:7) Paul compares the fragile and temporary, mortal human body with “earthen vessels” (some translations) or “jars of clay” (other translations, including the NIV).  He says Christ followers, who believe in Jesus Christ, have the treasure of God, his kingdom, our gift, our inheritance – in our bodies, in our earthen vessels/jars of clay.  This comparison and contrast of mortal and immortal, of earthbound and heavenly, or temporary and forever, is a central teaching of “the heavenly dwelling” Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.  For Paul, the lesson of our limitations in our earthly, mortal bodies is so that all power belongs to God and not to us (4:7).
  • * In 4:8-11, Paul speaks of the inspiration we have as we confront the challenges and sufferings of our earthly lives, which eventually leads to the death of our bodies, by speaking of our new life, indeed our eternal life, in Jesus Christ our Lord. In 4:8 Paul majestically says: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
  • * Paul concludes chapter four by saying we do not lose heart (vs. 16), for while we are wasting away physically, day by day, we are being renewed within, spiritually, at the same time.  Therefore (vs. 18) as we follow Christ we fix our eyes on what cannot be physically seen, because the here and now is temporary, while the unseen is eternal.  He reiterates that same thought in our keynote passage, in 5:7, saying, as stated in older translations, we walk by faith, not by sight, and in the more contemporary translations, like the NIV, we live by faith, not by sight. 
  • * While not taking time to extensively compare the passage in Romans 8:18-24 with our passage in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 you may wish to read it at your leisure.  Most scholars believe the passage in Romans was written shortly after 2 Corinthians so we can safely conclude this theme was very much on Paul’s mind.
  • * Now, with those considerations in mind, we turn our attention on “the heavenly dwelling” of 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.
  • * The first verse of 2 Corinthians 5 is critically important: “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (NIV, my emphasis, to highlight two important parts of this critically important verse).

…the earthly tent we live in…  The word Paul uses for “tent” figuratively refers to the human body.  Paul is concerned with our perspective on what it means to live and die, and how we can understand it in the light of God’s glorious eternity, his heavenly kingdom. 

…a building from God, an eternal house in heaven – Romans 8:18-24 also speaks of the suffering we endure in this earthly life, comparing it to the glory yet to be revealed to us. 

There are two issues to be considered:  a) the heavenly glories of God’s house, realized and experienced only when we are resurrected in Christ, so that we are given an immortal, resurrected body, impervious to hurt, pain and death. b) in addition, we must also realize the way in which Christ lives in us now, even on this side of eternity, before we die physically, so that we are now, in type, raised up to heavenly places as we walk with and in Christ (see Colossians 3:1-3 and Ephesians 2:6).  The weight of the focus of this passage lies of course in the future, following the Second Coming, when we are, by the grace of God, made immortal, and experience the fullness of the heavenly dwelling – the building of God, his eternal house in heaven.

  • * In the second verse of chapter five, with a direct echo in Romans 8:18-24, we groan – we sigh with anxiety, we are burdened (vs. 4) as we seek to exchange our mortal clothing with our heavenly wardrobe, which will not perish nor grow old.
  • * Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit, living in us, as a type of a “guarantee” – a “deposit” of the future hope we have, the promise of God that we will one day be resurrected to eternal life, glorified in and with Christ.  Paul therefore speaks of the reality that as long as we are in this earthly body we do not fully experience the eternal glory of God’s heavenly dwelling, and therefore we walk and live by faith, not by sight (vs. 4-7).
  • * Finally, to skip to the end of this passage in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, Paul says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (vs. 10).  This last verse may seem contradictory in its promise of heavenly rewards compared to the general teaching and focus of the gospel insisting that our salvation is only by God’s grace, so let’s enumerate several concerns:
  • 1) Paul, and all writers of the New Testament, make clear that we are incapable of earning the love and acceptance of God because of our deeds.  Nothing we are capable of achieving in our bodies earns eternal life.  Nothing we can do obligates God to pay us with his heavenly kingdom.    
  • 2) It appears Paul is speaking of a reward – a reward that is not defined or stipulated – given to those who are already given eternal life by the grace of God.  This reward, whatever it is, for again it is not specifically defined here or anywhere in the New Testament, is only given to one who first is given the ultimate and undeserved gift of eternal life.  Eternal life as a gift of God must first be given – any reward that one may receive will follow the gift. 
    • 3) A reward may speak of our calling, as Christ followers, to a life of self-sacrifice and service, certainly not a life of inactivity, indifference or apathy.  This reward speaks of how we live out the kingdom of God in service to others, not because what we might do might earn us something only God can give as a gift.  We see in the well-known passage in Matthew 25:31-44, often called “The Sheep and the Goats,” that Jesus will judge at his Second Coming and that that his sheep will be rewarded/recognized/appreciated because they served others in the name of Jesus.  In their service Jesus’ sheep are actually serving Jesus.  And, most important to this discussion of “heavenly rewards” the sheep tell Jesus they don’t remember serving others.  Jesus’ sheep do not expect a heavenly reward because of earthly service to others – their life in Christ was not them doing something so Christ would reward them for their doing.    
    • When the Bible speaks of any recognition, or medal, or blue-ribbon honor that one may be given by God, it is service to others in the name of Christ that is front and center.  Any reward that one might receive can only come after one actually accepts the embrace of God’s grace, and becomes a child of God on the basis of what God has done for them in Christ.  The gospel is always centered in and on what Jesus has done, is doing and will always do for us, which we can never do on our own.  The gospel is always focused on   the love God has for us, not on a transaction or performance by which we expect to earn God’s love and acceptance.   
    • 4) Again, we drink deeply from Ephesians 2:8-10: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”   
    • 5) God is the Master Potter and we are the clay (see Isaiah 45:9, 64:8, Jeremiah 18:1-11 and Romans 9:21).  God creates what he wants in us, for his good purpose.  As Christ followers we are jars of clay/earthen vessels in which God places eternal treasures (noted above, in 2 Corinthians 4:7, part of the stage setting for 2 Corinthians 5:10) through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are God’s handiwork, his workmanship.  We are not saved BY good works, but FOR good works.

    Yes, the New Testament speaks of rewards, but we must never think that any action we take obligates God to pay or reward us.  Giving a reward or award is itself a revelation of God who is love.  Yes, there are rewards in the heavenly kingdom – rewards that are graciously given to those who have been already graciously given God’s kingdom.

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