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Eternal Rewards
Is It Wrong to Want Eternal Rewards?
Brad Graber
Have
you ever struggled with the idea that you sometimes find yourself being
obedient to God because you desire the rewards He’s promised?
Is
it selfish to want to receive those things? Shouldn’t you want to do the
right thing purely out of a love and desire to please God?
These
are all questions many Christians have wrestled with at some point. The
idea of not being motivated by the rewards He’s promised sounds good on the
cover, but does it hold up when tested against scripture?
Rewards
in Scripture
In Matthew 16:24-27 we
read, “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he
gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return
for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the
glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he
has done.”
Here
we see Jesus explaining to His disciples the sacrifices one will need to make
in this world to follow Him.
The
disciples already understood that Christ was worth far more than anything they
would be giving up in this life, but Jesus brings the conversation full circle
with a promise to repay each person for what they have done.
Since
this promise of rewards is coming from Jesus, we can automatically conclude
that it is not wrong to be motivated by rewards.
If
it was wrong, that would mean Christ is tempting us, which we know He cannot
do.
In Hebrews, we see the faith of Moses
on display.
Hebrews 11:26 tells us “He considered the reproach of Christ
greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”
Nothing
demonstrates a person’s faith more profoundly than their actions and Moses gave
up great wealth in this life for the promise of greater things in the
future. He fully understood the value of eternal rewards.
Rewards are mentioned throughout
scripture and we continue to see them being used as motivation for our
actions.
Here
are just a few examples:
Luke 6:35 – “But love your enemies, and do good, and
lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will
be sons of the Most High…”
Luke 14:13-14 –
“But when you give a feast, invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they
cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Galatians 6:9 –
“And let us not grow weary of doing good,
for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Just as we would offer an incentive
for our children to do the right thing or a boss offers an employee an
incentive to work harder, God is offering His children an incentive as
well.
Our
response reflects our understanding and our faith in His promises. If we
truly understand and believe, why wouldn’t we trade a fleeting pleasure in this
life for an eternity of that pleasure in its perfect form?
After promising a reward for fasting in secret, Jesus made
this point himself when He said in Matthew 6:19-20,
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys
and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Sin’s
Effect
Are we being selfish to desire God’s
rewards though?
Let’s
start with the reminder that our desires are rooted in creation.
We’re told in Genesis 1:31 that
after God created all things, He said it was “very good.”
Following
God’s declaration that everything was good, man rebelled by sinning and as a
result our eyes were opened (in a bad way).
We
suddenly became aware of how to pervert the good things of God’s creation for
immediate self-gratification.
Satan
uses this awareness as a tool to tempt us to fulfill the desires God built into
us in ways that He has forbidden and will ultimately harm us.
You don’t have to look far to see the
ways people sinfully and destructively seek out things like power, pleasure and
possessions in the world around us.
It’s
because of these abusive perversions that we think someone’s desire for power,
pleasure or possessions must but sinful.
However,
the problem isn’t so much in what we desire, but in when we desire it. God
made us to desire these things and He even promises these very things as
rewards in scripture as we’ll see below.
The
problem is that we desire power, we desire pleasure and we desire possessions
in this life.
In
our sinful states, we’re just not capable of managing them properly. So,
instead of wanting them now, our desire should be to have them for eternity
instead, when the curse of sin has been wiped away and we can receive these
gifts as they’ve been intended.
We
can see in the following verses that God has promised these very incentives,
but in their pure, eternal form in the next life.
2 Timothy 2:12 –
“if we endure, we will also reign with
him;”
Psalm 16:11 –
“You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures
forevermore.”
Matthew 19:27-29 –
“Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have
left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them,
“Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his
glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or
brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's
sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”
Instead of seeing our desire for
rewards as wrong, maybe we should ask ourselves if it’s possible that our
desire for rewards is actually too weak?
CS
Lewis may have said it best in the following quote from his sermon The Weight of Glory.
“If we consider the unblushing
promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the
Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too
weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and
ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to
go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the
offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
God is
our Ultimate Reward
While scripture promises so many
wonderful rewards for those who are faithful, we need to remember that an
eternity with God is our ultimate reward.
We read in Psalm 16:5-6,
“The Lord is my chosen portion and my
cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”
In
the picture of heavenly worship of Christ that is portrayed in Revelations 4:10-11 we
read, “They cast their crowns before the
throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor
and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were
created.’”
While
eternal rewards are something to be sought after, here we see the elders laying
the very crowns that were given as rewards before the throne in worship because
their value pales in comparison to Christ.
The final chapter of the Bible paints
a picture of eternity that is too great to even comprehend until we get there.
Revelation 22:3-5 tells us “No longer will there be anything accursed,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will
worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their
foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or
sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and
ever.”
If we really believe in the promises
of scripture, our lives should reflect our faith just as Moses’ life did when
he gave up the treasures of Egypt because he knew even that vast wealth paled
in comparison to the rich reward that awaited him for all eternity.
Desire
power, pleasure and possessions, but do so as God intended, in heaven, free
from sin.
Only
a fool would trade the rich rewards of heaven for the fleeting shadows of
pleasure we can get in this life.
Brad Graber, CFP® has been working with clients on personal financial planning and investment issues since 1996. He invests his time mentoring and educating individuals on ways to be better stewards of the resources God has entrusted to them.
Brad is
a specialist in personal financial planning issues including retirement
planning, investment management and charitable giving optimization.
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