The Joy of Heavenly Rewards
In heaven there will be "degrees of happiness in a world of
perfect joy."[1] Think of that. Degrees of happiness in a world of
perfect
joy. How can this be? A comprehension of this profound mystery can help
give us a deeper amazement of the majestic glory of God to be displayed
in the world to come. This will in turn strengthen and motivate us to
live lives pleasing to God.
Where does the Bible teach degrees of happiness?
According to the Bible, how we live for God on earth will result
in a greater or lesser enjoyment of His glory in heaven. For example,
Paul said "This light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the
things that are seen but to the things that are unseen, for the things
that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal"
(2 Corinthians 4:17-18). John Piper comments on these verses: "Paul's
affliction is `preparing' or `effecting' or `bringing about' a weight of
glory beyond all comparison. We must take seriously Paul's words here.
He is not merely saying that he has a great hope in heaven that enables
him to endure suffering. That is true. But here he says that the
suffering has an effect on the weight of glory. There seems to be a
connection between the suffering endured and the degree of glory
enjoyed."[2] In other words, our experience of God's glory in heaven
"seems
to be more or less, depending in part on the affliction we have endured
with patient faith."[3]
In the same line of thought is Matthew 5:11-12: "Blessed are you
when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against
you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great
in heaven." Again, "If a Christian who suffers much for Jesus and one
who does not suffer much experience God's final glory in exactly the same
way and degree, it would seem strange to tell the suffering Christian to
rejoice and be glad (in that very day, cf. Luke 6:23) because of the
reward he would receive even if he did not suffer. The reward promised
seems to be in response to the suffering and a specific recompense for
it."[4]
Suffering is not the only thing that brings about a greater
reward in heaven. Our faithfulness to Christ in doing good works for His
glory will also have a bearing on our degree of happiness (or, reward) in
heaven. To the slave who made ten pounds it was said "Well done, good
slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, be in
authority over ten cities" whereas the slave who made five pounds was
told "And you are to be over five cities" (Luke 19:17-19; cf.
Revelation
22:5; 2:26, 27). And in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 Paul explains that the
quality of each Christian's work will be revealed at the judgement. He
concludes by saying "If any man's work which he has built upon it [the
foundation of Jesus Christ] remains, he shall receive a reward. If any
man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
saved, yet so as through fire" (vv. 14-15).
Motivation for holy living
Keeping the promise of heavenly rewards constantly before us
enables us to joyfully endure suffering and encourages us to zealously
obey God. By looking at specific rewards we can see more clearly how
this works itself out in everyday life.
One specific kind of reward in heaven will be seeing the fruits
of our labor in leading people to Christ and building Christians up in
their faith. In a real sense, the actual people whom God has brought to
Christ through us and whom God has built up through us will be one of our
rewards. Paul said to the Thessalonian believers "who is our hope or joy
or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord
Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy" (1 Thessalonians
2:19, 20). He told the Philippian believers that they were his "joy and
crown" (Philippians 4:1).
This particular reward motivates us to evangelize and work for
building people up in their faith. For as we are used by God to bring
people to Christ through our preaching of the gospel, our reward in
heaven increases. Therefore we are motivated to evangelize so that we
will have a greater reward--the joy of those whom we have labored over
being in heaven with us.
There are many different heavenly crowns promised in the Bible.
All those who long for and cherish the hope of Christ's second coming
will receive a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8). This longing
should in fact be so great that it results in some sense of mourning over
the fact that we are physically apart from Christ while on earth, for
"blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4).
A crown of life will be given to those who endure under trial
(James 1:12). In this same verse, James also says that the crown of life
is promised to those who love the Lord. So enduring trial is somehow
connected to our love for Christ--if you love Him, you will persevere
under trial. "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he
has been approved he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has
promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12; see also Revelation 2:10).
This reward motivates us to endure temptation or persecution or martyrdom
or any other vexing trial that may come our way. For we can press on
through the trial knowing that our perseverance will not only result in a
heavenly crown, but will prove our love for Christ.
Pastors who joyfully shepherd their congregation and serve as
good examples to them will be rewarded with an unfading crown of glory
when Christ, the Chief Shepherd, appears (1 Peter 5:2-4). This reward
can provide strong encouragement for a pastor to serve his congregation
with diligence and joy, knowing that his labor in the Lord is not in
vain.
In Matthew 5:3-12 Jesus promises many specific blessings to those
who have a certain condition of heart. He says "Blessed [which means
`how very happy'] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (v. 4).
What a glorious paradox--Christ says that those who mourn should be
happy! How can we make our mourning be compatible with happiness? By
looking to the reward! Christians who mourn can be happy because of the
promise that they will one day be comforted. Therefore, the promised
reward of mourning gives us the strength to persevere through sadness
and results in a source of deep joy that cannot be taken away. In verse 8
Jesus says "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God." Think about how this can motivate us to keep ourselves pure
and "unstained by the world" (James 1:27).
Christ's promise that the merciful shall receive mercy (v. 7) can
be a strong guide throughout our everyday interaction with other people.
For if we are not merciful to them, God will not be merciful to us (cf.
James 2:13: "judgement will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy;
mercy triumphs over judgement").
While there are many different kinds of rewards, behind every
reward stands the same principle: to glorify God by somehow enhancing our
enjoyment of Him in heaven. At the bottom line, being given a heavenly
reward means being given greater delight in God, greater love for Him,
and a greater experience of Him. The specific kinds of reward (such as
those we have just examined) refer to the different ways we can be
brought into this greater delight and happiness in God. And since "God
is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him,"[5] God is not
ceasing to glorify Himself by magnifying our enjoyment of Him. God is
actually bringing greater glory to Himself by giving us greater
satisfaction in that glory. For the more satisfaction and joy that His
glory brings, the greater its value is exalted and proclaimed. Thus, the
ultimate aim of God in giving heavenly rewards is to glorify Himself.
The ultimate joy
Perhaps one of the most astonishing promises of heaven is
Revelation 22:4: "And they shall see His face." In heaven we will see
God face to face! As Jesus said, we will behold His glory (John 17:24).
God's glory is the brilliant shining forth of His moral perfections.
Heaven will be basked and soaked in the glory of God: "The Lord God
shall illumine them" (Revelation 22:5). Furthermore, the glory of God
will reflect off of us and through us and in us to such an extent that we
will shine brighter than the sun: "And those who have insight will shine
brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead
the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel
12:3). Jesus puts it this way: "the righteous will shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43).
The joy of seeing God and the joy of reflecting God's glory are
very closely related. C.S. Lewis explains how they relate: "We do not
want merely to see beauty. ...We want something else which can hardly be
put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to
receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it."[6] When you see something you
love, you want to experience it as fully as you can in order to maximize
your enjoyment of it. This means having a part in making it known and
exalted; it means bathing in it and passing into it and "receiving it
into ourselves," as Lewis has said.
In heaven, our joy of seeing God's glory will be made
complete by
our enjoyment of reflecting and bathing in and
experiencing His glory.
We will have a part in exalting God's spectacular and majestic glory by
reflecting it and mirroring it to such an extent that we shine like the
sun. Our experience of God's glory will climax in our white-hot
enjoyment of it by being able to reflect it and be immersed in it. This
will make our joy in His glory complete and God's exaltation of His glory
complete. And those who have greater reward will reflect God's glory
more and shine more brightly than those with lesser reward.
Degrees of individual happiness will contribute to the overall
happiness of everyone
The differences of happiness among saints in heaven does not mean
that those who are less happy will experience any sadness or envy. Nor
does it mean that they will not be fully satisfied and perfectly joyful.
How can this be? Someone once put it like this: "everyone's cup will be
overflowing, but not everyone will have the same size cup." Jonathon
Edwards gives amazing insight here: "It will be no damp to the happiness
of those who have lower degrees of happiness and glory, that there are
others advanced in glory above them: for all shall be perfectly happy,
every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into
this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger
than others; and there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven, but
perfect love shall reign throughout the whole society."[7]
Far from degrees of reward in heaven taking away from anyone's
happiness, it will actually add to everyone's overall happiness.
This is
because everyone's happiness will be interconnected. In other words, a
smaller "vessel of happiness" will see the larger "vessel of happiness"
and will himself rejoice that his brother in Christ has such great joy!
Edwards helps us understand this: "Those who are not so high in glory as
others, will not envy those that are higher, but they will have so great,
and strong, and pure love to them, that they will rejoice in their
superior happiness; their love to them will be such that they will
rejoice that they are happier than themselves; so that instead of having
a damp to their own happiness, it will add to it..."[8] First
Corinthians
12:22 gives us the principle behind this: "If one of the members is
honored, the others rejoice with it."
The fabric of heaven in the happiness of the saints will be woven
together such that the individual happiness of each saint will be at
the
perfect level necessary to bring about a maximization of the overall
happiness. In other words, it seems that God will so structure heaven
and each individual's level of happiness (based on the rewards He decides
to give) that the overall happiness of heaven will be maximized. Thus,
God will receive maximum glory in heaven throughout eternity, and we will
experience maximum enjoyment in that glory. For when the display of
God's glory is maximized, our enjoyment is maximized.
A very mind-boggling wonder of heaven is that the longer we are
there, the more our happiness will increase. For the longer we are
there, the more of God's glory we will have experienced; and the more of
God's glory we experience, the happier we become! So, after being in
heaven for a billion years, we will be exponentially happier than we were
when we had been there 10,000 years. It seems as if the size of our
"cups" will be continually increasing, on into infinity! And since it is
impossible to come to the end of infinity, our cups will never lose the
capacity to expand!
Sounds great, but isn't it selfish?
Our pursuit of heavenly rewards while on earth will indeed have a
significant part in contributing to the majestic glory and joys of
heaven. But there may perhaps be one objection to this that is keeping
you from applying such wonderful truths and being zealously motivated by
the hope of heavenly rewards. The objection is probably this: "Isn't is
selfish for me to seek heavenly rewards?" Underlying this objection is
the assumption that it is wrong and selfish to pursue your own
happiness. Let's quickly get this cleared up so that you can get on
with applying what you have learned.
It is not selfish to seek happiness
Seeking your own delight in helping others does not ruin the
moral value of your good deeds. In fact, a good deed is only moral to
the extent that you are motivated by your own delight! John Piper has
said it this way: "to the extent that we cease to pursue our own delight,
we cannot love people or honor God." The reason for this is simple:
doing something out of delight (i.e., because it pleases you) honors the
person you are helping more than doing it out of duty (i.e., just because
you have to, not because you want to). Shouldn't we help people because
we want to, not because we have to? What would it say
about a person if
helping others was not a great joy to them? Thus, it is not unloving to
other people to seek your own joy in helping them.
Seeking your own joy in God is not selfish either, because God is
most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Thus, the best
way to honor God is to enjoy Him, and this requires seeking our own
pleasure in Him. Selfishness is not seeking your own happiness.
It is
seeking your own happiness at that exclusion or expense of
others. If
your happiness is found in God, in the welfare of others, and in sharing
your joy with others it is not selfish to seek. For more on how seeking
our own delight is a necessary element of loving people and glorifying
God, I suggest the books of John Piper.[9] I have also written much on this
elsewhere (of course much influenced by Piper's works) and refer you to
those articles for a further probe into that issue.[10]
It is not selfish to seek the happiness of heavenly
rewards
Clearly, the problem is not seeking our own happiness. It is
finding happiness in the wrong things. Jesus reveals a significant
principle here. "Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven...for where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:20-21). What
you treasure reveals what you value, and thus it reveals the state of
your heart. Henry Scougal put it this way: "The worth and excellency of
a soul is measured by the object of its love." The desire to lay up
heavenly rewards reveals not a selfish heart, but a good heart! In fact,
Jesus implies that the lack of desire for heavenly treasures reveals a
self-centered, misdirected heart.
Now, if you delight in something that is truly honorable and
valuable, how is it wrong to seek to experience more of it? It is a good
thing to delight in God because it glorifies Him. So doesn't it make
sense that we should do whatever we can to increase our delight in God?
Seeking heavenly rewards is simply a way to maximize our enjoyment of God
in heaven. And seeking to maximize our enjoyment of God simply reveals
that we love and value Him. Therefore it is right to seek heavenly
rewards.
It is now clear that seeking our own happiness is a good thing,
not a bad thing, and a major obstacle is thus out of the way. But a
major question remains to be examined in greater detail. Is the specific
happiness of heavenly rewards the right kind of happiness to seek in
the
good deeds that we do? For example, while it would be good to evangelize
for the joy of leading people to Christ, would it be good to evangelize
if an additional motive was the joy of a heavenly reward? Would it be
right to endure temptation for a heavenly reward? For a pastor to gladly
pastor his church for the heavenly reward?
C.S. Lewis makes a helpful distinction here. He differentiates
between two kinds of rewards, natural and unnatural. An unnatural
reward
is one that is unrelated to the deeds that you do in pursuit of it. It
is when there is no natural connection between the moral qualities of the
reward and the moral qualities of the deeds you did in pursuit of the
reward. For example, seeking money as a reward for love would be an
unnatural reward. "That is why we call a man a mercenary if he marries a
woman for the sake of her money."[11] Thus, it would be selfish to seek
such a reward.
A natural reward is one that is related to the deeds you did in
pursuit of it. There is a natural connection between the reward and deed
because the moral qualities that attracted you to the reward are found in
the deeds you did in pursuit of the reward. Here, the reward is actually
the natural completion of the deeds done in pursuit of it; the
reward is
your good deed in its consummation--in its fulfillment--and not something
just tacked on to it. For example, seeking marriage as a reward for love
would be a natural reward. Likewise, "a general who fights for victory
is not [a mercenary], victory being the proper reward of battle as
marriage is the proper reward of love."[12]
The rewards the New Testament promises are of this sort.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy"
(Matt. 5:7).
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mat.
5:8).
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied" (Matt. 5:6). Leading people to Christ for the
heavenly reward is also a clear example of seeking a natural reward, for
the reward you seek is the joy of having brought others into the kingdom
of God with you and being able to share your heavenly joy with them:
"For you are our glory and joy...our crown of rejoicing" (1 Thess.
2:20, 19).
Our rewards in heaven will be the natural consummation of the
earthly trials and deeds we went through to get them. The moral
qualities of heavenly rewards will be naturally connected to the moral
qualities of what we did in pursuit of the rewards. Therefore, it is
proper for us to seek rewards in heaven. For example, the Christian does
not seek the crown of life because he wants a piece of heavenly metal,
but because he wants to show and prove His love for the Lord, of which
the crown is a symbol. And we do not seek rewards to highlight
ourselves, but because we delight in the greatness of God being
highlighted.
Finally, since the Bible doesn't just promise rewards, but
commands us to seek them, we must reject the notion that it is selfish
and wrong to pursue them. If we come to God, we must believe that He
will reward us (Hebrews 11:6). Christ expressly says "lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20). He also says that God
will reward us for praying (Matthew 6:6), for giving alms (Matt. 6:4),
and for fasting (Matt. 6:18). And in the context, He is expressly giving
the promise of reward as motivation for doing what He commands. For
example, at the beginning of His section on fasting, praying, and giving,
Jesus says "beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be
noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in
heaven" (6:1).
The book of Hebrews tells us to obey like Moses who "chose
rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the
passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward"
(Hebrews 11:25-26).
C.S. Lewis summarizes everything well when he says "The New
Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as
an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our
crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description
of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to
desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire
our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad
thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics
and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, 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...We are far too easily pleased."[13]
A closing caution
In concluding, it is important to make one thing very clear.
Heavenly rewards are not something we earn through our own efforts. And
they are never a case of God being put in our debt and required to repay
our "service." Rather, as Augustine has said, it is a matter of "God
crowning His own gifts." That is, our obedience which God graciously
decides to reward is itself graciously given and worked by God
(Philippians 2:12-13; Hebrews 13:21). God's promises of reward are not a
job description where He makes us employees who, through our services,
put Him in a debt to us which He must repay by giving us our rewards (or
"paycheck"). On the contrary, His promises are like a doctor's
prescription. When you follow a doctor's prescription you get well not
because you earned it in a display of your own strength, but because the
doctor's wise guidelines were the path to your health. We pursue
heavenly rewards not to exalt ourselves, but to exalt God.
Notes
1. John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993), p. 89.
2. Piper, p. 89. Emphasis added.
3. Piper, p. 89.
4. Piper, p. 89. Emphasis added.
5. See Piper, p. 26.
6. C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory," in The Weight of Glory and Other
Addresses (New York, NY: Touchstone Books, 1980), p. 37.
7. Jonathon Edwards, The Works of Jonathon Edwards, Vol. 2
(Edinburgh:
The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), p. 902. From Piper, p. 90.
8. Ibid.
9. See John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist,
(Multnomah Press, 1996) and on the web you can check out Piper's Notes.
10. See my articles Enjoyment is not an Option and Delighting in Doing Good.
11. Lewis, p. 26.
12. Lewis, p. 26.
13. Lewis, pp. 25-26.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.
MP
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