for yourselves<\/em>\u00a0treasures in heaven\u201d (Matthew 6:20, italics mine). Of course, only Christ will be honored as the object of our worship in Heaven. We will gladly lay our crowns, our rewards, before His throne, so He receives the ultimate glory (Revelation 4:10-11). Yet Scripture teaches that we will not only behold His glory but also participate in it (Romans 8:18-19).<\/p>\nCrowns are a common symbol of ruling power, though they may symbolize other rewards as well. Five crowns are mentioned in the New Testament:<\/p>\n
1. The Crown of Life\u2014given for faithfulness to Christ in persecution or martyrdom (James 1:12; Revelation 2:10).<\/p>\n
2. The Incorruptible Crown\u2014given for determination, discipline, and victory in the Christian life (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).<\/p>\n
3. The Crown of Rejoicing\u2014given for pouring oneself into others in evangelism and discipleship (1 Thessalonians 2:19; Philippians 4:1).<\/p>\n
4. The Crown of Glory\u2014given for faithfully representing Christ in a position of spiritual leadership (1 Peter 5:1-4). (Note that a prerequisite is being \u201cnot greedy for money, but eager to serve.\u201d A Christian leader\u2019s preoccupation with money can forfeit this reward.)<\/p>\n
5. The Crown of Righteousness\u2014given for joyfully purifying and readying oneself to meet Christ at his return (2 Timothy 4:6-8).<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing in this list that suggests it is exhaustive. There may be innumerable crowns and types of crowns and rewards unrelated to crowns. But all are graciously given by the Lord Jesus in response to the faithful efforts of the believer.<\/p>\n
These crowns bring glory to Christ as they are laid before His feet (Revelation 4:10), showing that our rewards are given not merely for our recognition but for God\u2019s glory. Although God\u2019s glory is the highest reason for any action, Scripture sees no contradiction between God\u2019s eternal glory and our eternal good. On the contrary, glorifying God will always result in our greatest eternal good. Likewise, pursuing our eternal good, as He commands us to do, will always glorify God. False humility that says, \u201cI want no reward,\u201d effectively means, \u201cI want nothing to lay at Christ\u2019s feet to bring Him glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are to guard our crowns carefully (Revelation 3:11). Why? Because we can be disqualified from receiving them (1 Corinthians 9:27). We can lose them (1 Corinthians 3:15). They can be taken from us (Matthew 25:28-29). We can seek our rewards from men, thereby forfeiting them from God (Matthew 6:5-6). John warns, \u201cWatch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully\u201d (2 John 8). We can fail to earn rewards, and we can forfeit rewards already in our account.<\/p>\n
A crown is a symbol of a position of authority given by God.\u00a0 Some people have told me, \u201cWe\u2019ll get the crowns, yes, but according to this passage, we\u2019ll no longer have them, because we\u2019ll lay them before the throne so that God is the only one who has authority.\u201d That\u2019s not what this passage is saying. Those who lay them before the throne are dedicating their position and their God-given authority to Him. They\u2019re saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to serve you.\u201d But when they walk away from His throne room, they\u2019re still in that position of leadership.<\/p>\n
Paul spoke about the Philippians\u2019 financial giving, explaining, \u201cNot that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account\u201d (Philippians 4:17). God keeps an account open for us in Heaven, and every gift given for His glory is a deposit in that account. When we give, we withdraw funds from our earthly account to have them credited to our heavenly account. Not only God, not only others, but we are the eternal beneficiaries of our giving.<\/p>\n
Still, some sincere, Bible-believing Christians really struggle with the concept of eternal rewards. But here\u2019s the incredible thing, the factor that turns the entire debate on its head: it wasn\u2019t our idea that God would reward us.\u00a0It was His idea!<\/em>\u00a0Satan didn\u2019t make up the idea of incentives. Our sin nature didn\u2019t make it up. A corrupt world didn\u2019t make it up. God made it up. He designed us to need incentives to motivate us to do our jobs and do them well.<\/p>\nWe flatter ourselves\u2014and insult God\u2014when we say, \u201cI don\u2019t care about reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
God will reward the child who gave to the missions offering the money she\u2019d saved for a softball mitt. He\u2019ll reward the teenager who kept himself pure despite all the temptations. He\u2019ll reward the man who tenderly cared for his wife with Alzheimer\u2019s, the mother who raised the child with cerebral palsy, the child who rejoiced despite his handicap. He\u2019ll reward the unskilled person who was faithful and the skilled person who was meek and servant-hearted. He\u2019ll reward the parents who modeled Christ to their children and the children who followed Him despite their parents\u2019 bad example. He\u2019ll reward those who suffered while trusting Him, and those who helped the ones who were suffering. He\u2019ll reward the couple who downsize, selling their large house to live in a small one and give all the money away to missions.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0to reward anyone for anything. He does it because He wants to! And make no mistake, regardless of what you and I think about it, that\u2019s exactly what He\u2019s going to do: \u201cFor the Son of Man is going to come in his Father\u2019s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done\u201d (Matthew 16:27).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I think the doctrine of eternal rewards is critically important, yet greatly misunderstood. Scripture is full of references to it.\u00a0Here are some materials\u00a0I\u2019ve researched and presented to groups on this subject. The great majority of this is just Scripture, which I\u2019ve organized. Paul said, \u201cI consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":8621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,120,12],"tags":[6209,6206,2130,778,14],"class_list":["post-8618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-grace-and-truth","category-heaven","tag-back","tag-crowns","tag-eternal-rewards","tag-give","tag-heaven"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n