Heavenly Rewards


All salvation is by grace alone and nothing else. It is implemented by the faith of the believer which is the gift of God.

None can become possessions of God without His drawing call (JN 6:44), and none may be removed from His possession after their heart has been transformed from broken to not.

No manner of works may bring God’s gift as all are unworthy of it by nature.

EPH 2:3-5 & EPH 2:8-9

Only after the granting of these divine gifts do we then find that then and only then are we His workmanship and we are ordained unto good works that the Lord has prepared for us.

EPH 2:10

These works are His expectations for our lives lived after salvation which glorify Him. Such works will be judged by Christ as worthy of heavenly rewards but will not bring any exclusion from His kingdom if our moment of judging occurs without works of expectation having been accomplished.

Jesus proved this fact in Luke 23:43 when the repentant thief called Him Lord and entered eternal paradise having no works on his account of his life.

Believers are clearly taught in Holy scripture that there is NO condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus (ROMANS 8:1). Nor are they judged for sin but are crossed over from death to life (JN 5:24).

Our account of ourselves to the Lord is only a time of reward and nothing else. Our eternal salvation was settled by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf (1st JN 2:2) and our faith in Him (JN 3:16). All sins of the believer were already remitted by the Cross and are remembered no more (HEBREWS 8:12 & ACTS 10:43).

Our reward moment is where God in Christ is pleased to accept our faulty, imperfect, sin-stained obedience.

The Lord inspired our scripture writers to provide confirmation of the rewards only time of our accountability meeting with Christ by describing our rewards as Crowns of Reward that come to believers. These are:

  • INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN (1ST COR 9:24-25)

  • CROWN OF REJOICING (1ST THESS 2:19-20)

  • CROWN OF LIFE (JAMES 1:12)

  • CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (2ND TIMOTHY 4:8)

  • CROWN OF GLORY (1ST PETER 5:1-4)

Our happiness as possessions of Christ should be twofold:

(1) At our moment of faithful acceptance we HATH (present tense) eternal life in His kingdom (JN 6:47).

(2) From that moment onward there is none who can pluck us from His Holy Hand (JN 10:28-30).

This eternal happiness we call “BLESSED ASSURANCE”.

Those unfortunate enough to refuse the ultimate and final gift of God to His creation, which is the Messiah sent for its saving, will also find eternal life of a much darker sort. While on earth in mortal existence these will reside in the second portion of JN 3:18:

“… he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

After mortal life these will reside in Satan’s hell as his possession until the events of Revelation 20 occur:

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire… And I saw a great white throne… and I saw the dead small and great stand before God… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (verses 11-15)

This truth of this eternal unhappiness we call “THE SECOND DEATH”.