Introduction
If the gospel were a matter of reward, then it would be true to say "to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt". However, salvation is "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly", and then "his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom 4.4-5). So, in the matter of salvation, God owes us nothing. The only wages we were earning were "the wages of sin", and that is death, but we learned the truth that the unearned and undeserved "gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 6.23). However, once we are saved, we are expected to work for the Lord, and we will be rewarded accordingly if we comply with His standards of service. The Lord Jesus will judge the unsaved according to their sins (Mt 16.27; Rev 20.12-13), but He will reward believers according to their works for Him (Rev 22.12). In both cases He is a righteous judge (Acts 17.31; 2 Tim 4.8).
Rewards in the Gospel
In Old Testament times, God rewarded those who obeyed Him with present earthly blessings (Lev 26.3-5; Deut 28.1-14; Ps 127.3; Prov 13.13), whereas often the only rewards that followers of the Lord Jesus can expect are future ones, because serving Him can cost them everything down here. For instance, those promised 'a great reward in heaven' by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels were going to be persecuted, hated, ostracised, reproached and cast out for the Son of man's sake (Mt 5.12, 46; Lk 6.22-23, 35). Likewise, at that time there were those who were promised a future reward for receiving "a prophet in the name of a prophet". They were promised "a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" (Mt 10.41-42). (Of course, this will have its fullest application in the coming Tribulation.) Doing unpopular things, and even doing the smallest good works are to be rewarded. Also, for those good things done in secret now, afterwards there is an open public reward by the Father, whether alms giving, prayer or fasting (Mt 6.4, 6, 18). Open praise from men now, for things done in such a way so as to draw attention to the doer, is in complete contrast to good works done privately and quietly, away from the public eye, which will be rewarded openly in that future day by the God who misses nothing done here. For instance, when talking about those who did "alms before men, to be seen of them", the Lord Jesus warned that if His followers did such things they "have no reward of your Father which is in heaven". He told them "when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets … They have their reward". Then He spoke about "hypocrites … [who] pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men … They have their reward". When they fasted they deliberately disfigured their faces "that they may appear unto men to fast … They have their reward" (Mt 6.1-5, 16).
The servant's reward for service rendered
In the Gospels, the Lord Jesus, in His parables about various servants, laid down the two spiritual principles of rewards for service rendered. First, He taught that rewards would be determined according to the opportunity a person was given and, second, that rewards were not according to one's talents. (Also we note that all rewards were given after, not during, the service rendered.) For instance, in one of His parables He told the story of a man who hired labourers for his vineyard at various times in the day - early in the morning, the third, the sixth and the eleventh hours respectively, promising each of them that "whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive" (Mt 20.1-7). At the end of the day came that just reward, "for the labourer is worthy of his hire" (Lk 10.7; cf 1 Tim 5.18). However, to the complete surprise of all the labourers, each one received the same amount - one penny - the Roman silver denarius coin! Clearly, the owner of the vineyard was rewarding according to the opportunity that he had given to each of the labourers. Today, for those saved in later years, their opportunity of service is less, but their expectation of reward from the Lord can be the same as those saved early in life and engaged in His service for many years.
The second principle that the Lord taught was that rewards were reckoned according to what His disciples had done with the talents that He had chosen to give them. The well-known story that ends with the servants' Lord saying to the two faithful servants with the five and the two talents respectively "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Mt 25.21, 23; cf Lk 19.15-19), had begun by the lord of those servants giving them the talents according to his estimation of their particular ability before he went abroad for a long time. When he eventually returned and requested an account of their stewardship, his words of praise for the good servants were identical. He had judged them according to their faithfulness with what they had been given which, in turn, was a measure of their ability as he had judged it. Today, even the same spiritual gifts are given to different believers in different amounts "as God has dealt to each a measure of faith'' (Rom 12.3, JND¹). This gives great encouragement and scope for all believers. We do not have to be prominent in any way for the Lord to reward us in a great way! We also learn from this parable that our greatest joy is not the reward itself, but rather entering into the Lord's joy!
We end this part of our study by noting that the usual word for 'reward' is the same as 'hire' or 'wages' - those things properly earned and deserved. We can then relate what we have just seen with John 4.36, "he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal". The last few words of what we call the Beatitudes tell the possibility of great reward. Under normal circumstances, to be reviled, persecuted, and having all kinds of evil spoken against you falsely would only result in unhappiness. However, if it was done for Christ's sake, then those so treated could "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad" because their heavenly reward would be great. They would be eternally associated with the prophets who were persecuted in the same way (Mt 5.12). Luke's Gospel records a similar saying by the Lord Jesus, where "leap for joy" is added (Lk 6.23). Similarly, there are those spoken about in Hebrews as having taken "joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance". The encouragement was "cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward" (Heb 10.34-35). (To be continued …)
¹ J N Darby, The Holy Scriptures - A New Translation from the Original Languages.
