Jesus promised his followers they would receive eternal life. He said he was going away to prepare a place for them. He didn’t say that he was going to reward them with different places based on how they live their lives, or the measure of their service. The apostle Paul writes about salvation through grace in Ephesians Chapter 2.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins… and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Vs. 1-8 KJV)
The quantitative rewards teachers would say, yes God loves us, and yes he has delivered us up from the sentence of death inherent in our sinful state and raised us up to a new life in Christ, and yes we will sit in heavenly places and in the world to come he will show the exceeding riches of his grace, but the depth of the riches will be based on how much we do for him in this life. That is a misunderstanding of the kindness, and the grace, and the riches God will bestow upon the righteous.
The exceeding riches are revealed in his kindness toward us. Instead of giving us the just reward of eternity in hell he saved us by grace. This is the kindness of God. This is God showing his love toward us while we were his enemies. This is God rewarding us, not for what we do, but because He loves us and we accept his love and reciprocate it.
The problem I have with a quantitative rewards system is that it is based on a totally false type of relationship with God. The nature of the Christian’s relationship with God is a love relationship. We love Him because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). We do things that are pleasing to God because we love him and want to please him. He in turn does things for us and gives us good gifts because he loves us. He doesn’t reward us because we serve him, or self-sacrifice, or do good things. He rewards us because he loves us. He is a lover who sends us flowers at work, not on Valentine’s day or our birthday, but just because he is thinking about us and wants to brighten our day. But what is the one thing that the person in love desires more than anything else? They desire to be with the one they love.
From the beginning we see God reaching out, desirous of being intimate with those he is in relationship with. In Genesis chapter 2 God comes down and walks with Adam daily in the garden. We see it at Mt Sinai when God wants to break forth and come down and be among the children of Israel. We see God’s passion in the song of Solomon. We see it in Jesus as he weeps over Jerusalem. We see this in God sending his son – making a way where there was no way. God who cannot co-exist with sin, made a way to be with sinful mankind. He loved us so much that he gave his son, so much that Christ, God in the flesh (Colossians 2:9), came and died the death of the cross. For the joy that was set before him he endured the temptation and the privation and the suffering (Hebrews 12:2). His passion was in having fellowship with us. With you and with me.
God was willing to put it all on the line. The God who cannot be tempted with evil was tempted in every way. The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills was hungry and thirsty. The God whose throne is the heavens and whose footstool is the earth didn’t have a place to lay his head. He did it all because he loved us. He loved you. He loved me. This is the Gospel message – God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that those who believe in this love might have eternal life with him forever (John 3:16). That is the reward. The one thing that the lover desires above all else is to be with his beloved.
Christ is coming back, and he will bring his reward with him. He is bringing himself. He is our greatest reward. He will reward his bride with the gift of his presence for all of eternity. All of this life truly is just a dot. This life is the courtship and the engagement. But at his return we will become his bride. The heavens and the earth will be made new, and we will spend eternity with him, and we will consummate the marriage. The things of this world will not even be remembered as we lose ourselves in the passion of being in his presence, of knowing him, and experiencing joys unspeakable and pleasures forever more. If this life is the courtship and the engagement, and his return is the marriage, then eternity is the honeymoon where we will experience the eternal orgasm. “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).
Will we be rewarded? Will our lover shower us with gifts? God told Abraham in Genesis 15:1 “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”