Salvation and Rewards
Blood-washed believers will be spotless in God’s sight, but not all will have the same service record. God is after obedience. Salvation gets us to heaven, but works determine what we do after we get there.
-C.S. Lovett
Any discussion of rewards raises a host of questions, and we will seek to answer them in the pages that follow. But the most important issue is how good works for rewards and salvation by grace fit together. To state the issue simply: What is the relationship between faith and works, or redemption and rewards? Avoiding any confusion about these two lines of truth is essential.
We could call faith (salvation) and works the two master keys of the law or principle of rewards. Faith and works determine everything about your eternal existence and mine. Understanding what the Bible says about these truths is crucial. These two master keys are basic, yet supremely significant. Here’s the simplest way I know to express these twin truths.
Key #1: Your belief determines where you will spend eternity.
Key #2: Your behavior determines how you will spend eternity.
Maintaining the proper distinction and relationship between these two keys is critical because they have to do with the heart of the truth of the gospel.
Redemption by Belief
The Bible consistently states from beginning to end that sinful people are brought into right standing with a holy God by God’s grace alone through faith alone without human works. Salvation is obtained totally apart from human works, merit, or accomplishments. At least 150 times in the New Testament we are told that the sole condition for receiving eternal life is faith, belief, or trust in Jesus Christ. This truth is found as far back as the book of Genesis. Speaking of Abraham, Scripture says, “He believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Righteousness was reckoned or credited to Abraham’s account by his believing in the Lord. No contribution from Abraham was a part of that. He was saved by faith alone without works. Romans 4:5 says it clearly: “To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”
In the first letter written by the apostle Paul, the epistle to the Galatians, he said explicitly, “A man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). Paul’s words could not be any clearer. Justification—that is, being declared righteous before God—is by faith without any works.
One of the best-known passages in the New Testament expresses the truth of salvation by grace through faith as simply as it can be stated: “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
These verses state that we are saved by grace through faith unto good works. The order is key: by, through, and unto. The life of good works inevitably follows salvation, but good works don’t produce it or contribute to it. Good works are the fruit of salvation, not the root—the consequence, not the cause.
Titus 3:5-6 adds: “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
The great Bible teacher H.A. Ironside taught that when you boil it all down, there are only two religions in the world: do and done. All the religions of the world other than biblical Christianity tell us what we have to do to go to heaven or obtain eternal life. They all have their lists of sacred dos and don’ts. Some lists are more impressive and demanding than others, but behind them all is what a person must do to be right with God. Do is the watchword of man-made religion.
But not the Bible. Only the Bible tells us that everything is done. Scripture is clear that Jesus offered His sinless self as a perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for sin. As Jesus cried out from the cross in the darkness, “It is finished,” He didn’t say, “I’m finished.” He said, “It is finished”—that is, the work of redemption. God has done it all. The only thing that remains for a sinful person to do is to accept the free gift of salvation God offers to all who will simply transfer their trust from self to the Savior. All we have to do is receive the pardon.
The work that saves is done forever, never to be repeated. Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, then sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12). The picture of Jesus sitting at God’s right hand conveys two beautiful truths: His work of salvation is finished, and His work of salvation has been fully accepted by the Father. The first key to understanding the law or principle of rewards is this: Your belief determines where you will spend eternity.
Rewards by Behavior
The second key to the law of rewards is this: Your behavior determines how you will spend eternity. Works are wonderful as long as you keep them in the right place with regard to salvation:
The biblical formula of salvation is not Faith + Works = Salvation The biblical formula of salvation is Faith = Salvation + Works
Good works will inevitably follow a true work of God in the heart and life of a person (James 2:12-26). Works do not bring salvation, but they confirm and validate that your faith is real and vital. As James reminds us, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).
I have the great privilege of being a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as teaching there as an associate professor in the department of Bible Exposition. I’ve heard that a sign used to hang outside the registrar’s office for all the students to read: Salvation is by grace… graduation is by works.
The same could be said about the Christian life. We are saved not by our merit but by Christ’s mercy. Not by our doing but by His dying. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Yet God saved us to do good works.
As Randy Alcorn says, “We’ve been deceived into thinking that works is a dirty word. God condemns works done to earn salvation and works done to impress others. But our Lord enthusiastically commends works done for the right reasons.”1 As Scripture says, salvation is by grace, through faith, and for good works. “God has a lifetime of good works for each of us to do… He will reward us according to whether we do them or not.”2
At the coming judgment seat of Christ, when you stand before the Lord, your beliefs won’t be tested. Your destination for eternity won’t be tested either. What will be tested are your works.3 The issue of salvation is determined in this life when you trust in Jesus as your Savior from sin.
Commenting on the rewards theology of the apostle Paul, New Testament scholar Donald Guthrie fleshes out five main points: (1) God will give rewards on the basis of what a believer does in this life; (2) the rewards are partially received here, but mostly reserved in heaven; (3) the final rewards will be granted on the day of judgment; (4) the rewards are of a spiritual nature but their character is not otherwise specified; and (5) there is no suggestion that salvation itself comes under the category of reward.4
This chart gives a simple, visual contrast between our redemption and rewards:
So, whatever else you get from this book, make sure you keep the distinction clear between these two lines of truth.
•Salvation is based on Christ’s work for us. Rewards are based on our works for Him.
•Salvation comes by belief, rewards by behavior.
•Faith in Christ determines where we spend eternity; works for Christ determine how we spend eternity.
Here is another other way to state this important distinction between salvation and rewards:
•Our eternal destination (where we will be) is determined by our belief. Our eternal compensation (what we will have) is determined by our behavior.
•Redemption is provided by Christ’s work for us. Rewards are procured by our works for Christ.
This is the heart of the law of rewards. The implication for our lives is undeniable and urgent. We must make sure we’ve trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior apart from any works whatsoever, and that after we trust Him we follow the good works He has prepared for us to do—works that please Him and secure our eternal rewards. That’s the law of rewards. This law will never be changed. But it should change us.
Taken from Heavenly Rewards, Copyright © 2019 by Mark Hitchcock. Published by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon 97408. www.harvesthousepublishers.com
1.Randy Alcorn, The Law of Rewards (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003), 68.
2.Alcorn, The Law of Rewards, 68.
3.Alcorn, The Law of Rewards, 51.
4.Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983), 860-862.
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