“Most Christians don’t know about divine rewards,” Jack Deere explained, “and preachers seldom preach about them, which is amazing given how much Jesus taught about them.”
Have you ever heard about the doctrine of eternal rewards?
If you read the Bible, you should have. As Deere says, Jesus often taught about rewards, and they are mentioned throughout the NT.
Moreover, it is essential to learn about rewards because understanding the difference between them and eternal life is a basic Biblical distinction. If you understand rewards, that opens up Scripture in a wonderful way and can help prevent you from becoming confused about works salvation.
How so?
Eternal life is a free gift, given by faith in Jesus, apart from works (e.g., John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47; Eph 2:8-9). But eternal rewards are given on the basis of your works. Do you want to understand the role of works in the Christian life? Then you need to study the doctrine of rewards.
To get you started, Deere lists about forty references to eternal rewards in the teaching of Jesus (see here, p. 237, note 1). I’ve slightly altered his list.
In some verses, Jesus explicitly uses the word reward. In others, He talks about gaining treasure or being repaid or being called least or great in the kingdom or to being rewarded by ruling with Him. But all those things are part of the doctrine of rewards. Enjoy:
- Matthew 5:5
- Matthew 5:12
- Matthew 5:19
- Matthew 6:2-4
- Matthew 6:18
- Matthew 6:20
- Matthew 10:41-42
- Matthew 16:27
- Matthew 18:4
- Matthew 19:21
- Matthew 19:28
- Matthew 19:30
- Matthew 23:12
- Matthew 25:21
- Matthew 25:23
- Mark 9:41
- Luke 6:35
- Luke 12:8
- Luke 12:33
- Luke 19:17
- Luke 19:19
- Luke 22:30
- Revelation 2:7
- Revelation 2:10-11
- Revelation 2:26-27
- Revelation 3:4-5
- Revelation 3:11-12
- Revelation 3:21
- Revelation 19:7-8
- Revelation 20:4
- Revelation 22:5
- Revelation 22:12
