Your Reward

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ~2 Corinthians 5:10 (NASB 1995)

We sing about getting our reward. We work for reward. We don’t want to be in the outhouse of Heaven, do we? If there were such a place in Heaven, we would be grateful to be there; but what if everyone united to Christ by faith alone received the same reward? You might cry “foul.” You might say “that’s not fair.” Well, you’ve probably heard many times that fair is all of us going to Hell. It’s true. The wages of sin is death. We have all earned Hell. Only by pure sovereign grace, will anyone descended from Adam see the glories of Christ’s Heavenly abode.

You read the word RECOMPENSED above in 2 Corinthians 5:10, which is not a word we use that much. The 2020 NASB says “receive compensation” instead of recompensed. Does that clarify it? The verse isn’t talking about some extra-special reward in Heaven. All of Heaven is an extra-special reward. The problem is that none of us qualify on our own. This verse is really talking about receiving a wage. There will be but two wages handed out on that great day.

Wage one: Romans 6:23. The wages of sin is…………DEATH.

Wage two: Romans 8:17. The wages of union with Christ is…………….EVERYTHING.

Wage one: DEATH. Deserved by every single descendant of Adam. 1 Corinthians 6 gives a list, sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers. DEATH to every kind of sinner. Every one of us falls under one of those categories, BUT GOD. But God has more grace than you could possibly imagine.

Wage two: LIFE. If you keep reading in 1 Corinthians 6, you’ll see that such WERE some of you, but you were sanctified, justified, in Christ, to be glorified.

There are only two wages: LIFE and DEATH. If we who are in Christ are trying to earn a Heavenly reward, wouldn’t that go contrary to everything in  the Gospel. We don’t earn justification, sanctification, or glorification. It is a free gift to all who trust in the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the federal head for all who trust in Him alone. As our federal head, He has earned every spiritual blessing that is in the heavenly places. He is the One worthy of praise. Jesus is the obedient One. Jesus is the only One who has done good, and we get credit for it by grace alone through faith alone.

Those outside of Christ are given the wages of death and damnation.

Those in Christ are given Christ’s wages of eternal life in the presence of the Triune God.

What does our catechism say about this?

Spurgeon’s Catechism 36: What benefits do believers receive from Christ when they die?

Answer: The souls of believers are made perfect at their death and are immediately in Heaven with the Lord, and their bodies, being still one with Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection.

What is more perfect than perfect?  There is no perfecter. We shall be like Christ and see Him as He is.

Spurgeon’s Catechism 37: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

Answer: At the resurrection, believers are raised up in glory, openly acknowledged by God, acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly happy in both soul and body in the pleasure of God’s company forever.

Perfectly happy is as happy as it gets. Your wages have been earned by another.

How about our confession?

The Second London Baptist Confession 31.1 states.

The bodies of those who have died return to dust and undergo destruction. But their souls neither die nor sleep, because they have an immortal character, and immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous are then made perfect in holiness and are received into paradise. There they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory while they wait for the full redemption of their bodies. The souls of the wicked are thrown into hell, where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved for the judgment of the great day. The Scripture recognizes no place other than these two for souls separated from their bodies.

Paradise received by grace alone through faith alone. The thief on the cross receives the same reward as the Apostle Paul. Why? All of the thief’s righteousness, all of his reward, is based on the same imputed righteousness received by Paul or you or me or anyone who is united to the God-Man, the Lord Jesus.

32.2 states.

God’s purpose for appointing this day is to manifest the glory of his mercy in the eternal salvation of the elect, and of his justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient. For at that time the righteous will go into everlasting life and receive fullness of joy and glory with everlasting rewards in the presence of the Lord. But the wicked, who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be thrown into everlasting torments and punished with everlasting destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. 

What is fuller than full? We receive fullness of joy and glory. Why? Because we were so obedient here? Because we served better than someone else, or longer than someone else? We receive the fullness because our cup overflows with the blessing bestowed upon us by our Good Shepherd of Psalm 23.

Let’s take a look at Matthew 20.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ 9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last.”

Be honest, you’re annoyed that the one who only worked an hour received the same as the one who worked all day long, aren’t you? Grace for me, but not for ye is how many view life. God is gracious to all united to His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him receives the fullness of glory; not just a corner slum in Heaven, but the whole thing.

In reality, it’s not even that we get Heaven. It’s that we get the King of Heaven. We get Jesus. We are paid His wages because of our union with Him, but those wages are Jesus Himself. He is our reward. Praise the Lord!