"I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish."--John
10:28.--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."--Matt. 6:20.
"By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any one
should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9.--"Each man shall receive his own
reward _according to his own labor_."--1 Cor. 3:8.
"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,
costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made
manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what
sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he
shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through
fire."--1 Cor. 3:11-15.
"But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not
_rich_ toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21.
"Whosoever would save his life shall lose _it_; and whosoever shall
lose his life for my sake shall find _it_. For what shall a man be
profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
what shall a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of man
shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then
shall he render unto every man _according to his deeds_."--Matt.
16:25-27 (R. V.)
"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give each one
_according as his work shall be_."--Rev. 22:12.
The teaching of God's word of degrees in future punishment ("These
shall receive greater condemnation,"--Mark 12:40) according to
heredity and environment ("It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon at the day of judgment than for you;" "it shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for
thee,"--Matt. 11:22, 24), and according to sin ("Every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,"--Heb. 2:2),
commends itself to the judgment, to the conscience, of every honest
man. The companion teaching to this in God's word is that there will
be different degrees, or rewards, in Heaven. Just as the degree of
man's punishment in Hell will be determined by his life here; so the
degree of a man's reward in Heaven will be determined by his life
here. The dividing line is redemption.
With many, salvation and rewards mean the same thing, but the Saviour
made a clear distinction. "I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish."--John 10:28 ("He that believeth on me hath
everlasting life."--John 6:47);--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in
Heaven."--Matt. 6:20. Our salvation is a gift and depends upon the
Saviour; our treasures in Heaven must be laid up by ourselves. Paul
makes the distinction equally clear. "By grace have ye been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not
of works, lest any man should boast."--Eph. 2:8, 9 (R. V.).--"Each man
shall receive his own reward according to his own labor."--1 Cor. 3:8.
But by rewards for service God's word does not mean God's blessings on
the faithful Christians in this life. It means rewards beyond this
life. Jesus said, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy
friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors,
lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when
thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind;
and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee, for thou
shalt be recompensed _at the resurrection of the just_."--Luke
14:12-14.
If "each man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor"
(1 Cor. 3:8), there will, then, be different rewards or degrees in
Heaven; for doubtless no two redeemed people ever served God in
exactly the same degree of faithfulness. Paul makes this distinction
clear, as well as the difference between salvation and rewards. He
uses the illustration of building houses out of different material. He
has been speaking of preachers and their work, and then seems to turn
and apply his teaching to every one, for he says, "Let every man take
heed how he buildeth thereupon."--1 Cor. 3:10. Whether he is speaking
only of preachers and their work, or applies it to every man; whether
he is speaking of building in the lives of others by what we teach or
do, or whether he makes a turn and applies it to every man and his
building in his own life, he draws the clear distinction between the
foundation on which the building rests and the building built
thereupon, between salvation alone through Christ, and rewards for
service: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold,
silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be
made manifest; for the day shall declare it; because it shall be
revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer
loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."--1 Cor.
3:11-15. Why is he saved? Because he has been redeemed from the curse
of the law, Christ having been made a curse for him (Gal. 3:13);
because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); because
he has been redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14); and God means His
promise, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved" (Acts
16:31), and he means the promise of the Saviour, "Verily, verily I say
unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is
passed from death unto life."
But when the redeemed man's works shall be burned, though he himself
shall be saved (1 Cor. 3:15), he shall suffer loss (1 Cor. 3:15), and
the loss shall be irreparable, eternal, and so great that no human
being in this age can fully realize it. Here the old translation, the
King James' version, has misled us. The oft-quoted sentence, "What is
a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" is a mistranslation.
The Revised Version translates it correctly: "What shall a man be
profited, if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life, or
what shall a man give in exchange for his life?"--Matt. 16:26. By
noticing verse 25, and verse 27 the reader can see what the Saviour
meant: "whosoever would save his life shall lose _it_," not his soul,
but his life, "and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall
find _it_," his life not his soul; "whosoever shall lose his life for
my sake,"--men do lose their lives for His sake, but no one loses his
soul for the Saviour's sake. Following immediately He says, verse 26,
"For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world
and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his
life?" In verse 27 the Saviour makes plain how a man who would save
his life, loses it, and how the one who shall lose his life for the
Saviour's sake shall find it,--in the rewards that he loses by trying
to save his life, or gains by losing his life for the Saviour's sake,
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his
deeds." What deeds? Deeds of losing his life for the Saviour's sake.
For all eternity he will have no reward for the life he lived here--he
has lost his life. Now, the Saviour says that if a man "shall gain the
whole world," and in doing so shall "forfeit his life,"--shall have no
reward in eternity as a result of his life (the principle laid down by
Paul, whether of preachers or of all, "if any man's work shall be
burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved."--1 Cor.
3:15), he has made a fearful mistake. But if the one who "shall gain
the whole world" and in doing so "shall forfeit his life," shall have
no reward for it, makes a fearful mistake, how much greater mistake
does the one make who forfeits his life to have no reward throughout
eternity, in order to gain a very small part of the world, as so many
are doing? But if the one who "shall forfeit his life,"--have no
reward in eternity,--in order to gain but a very small part of the
world, makes such a fearful, such a great mistake, far worse is the
bargain made by the unredeemed man who loses not only his life but
also loses his soul in order to gain a very small part of "the whole
world"; and yet this is what the vast majority of men are doing. We
cannot grasp it, we cannot realize it, but Jesus says that the
rewards (not salvation--1 Cor. 3:15) that men are losing are more than
"the whole world."
Another teaching of the Saviour along this line has been widely
misapplied: "He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within
himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my
barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up
for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God
said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided?"--Luke 12:16-20. At once many rush to the conclusion that he
was lost, that he went to Hell; and they proceed to warn men against
laying up treasures in this life and losing their souls. But God said,
"This night thy soul shall be required of thee," not "this night thy
soul shall go to Hell." Let the Saviour make His own application: "So
is he that layeth up treasures for himself and _is not rich toward
God_."--Luke 12:21. "If any man's work abide which he hath built
thereupon he shall receive a reward" (1 Cor. 3:14), he is rich toward
God; "if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss" (1 Cor.
3:15), he is a fool; he spent a life here on earth and has no reward
in eternity as a result of it;--"but he himself shall be saved, yet so
as through fire."--1 Cor. 3:15. (If in the passage 1 Cor. 3:11-15,
Paul is speaking only of preachers and their work in building on the
foundation of Christ in the lives of others by their teaching, he yet
shows that some whose work abides will be rewarded, and that others
whose work shall be burned shall suffer loss and yet shall be saved;
so that the principle applies with all Christians). Two cases in
point:--
A great American statesman was told by his physician that in a few
days he must die. That afternoon a minister called to see the dying
statesman and asked as to his hope beyond the grave. The dying
statesman replied, "Mr. Blank, I am going to Heaven when I die." The
minister asked the dying man on what he based his hope. He replied:
"Mr. Blank, I am ashamed to say that I am a Christian; but now that
the time has come, I must not deny my Saviour. When I am dead tell
your people that days before I died, when my mind was calm and clear,
I gave my dying testimony that I was going to Heaven, redeemed by the
blood of Christ." The minister pressed the question, why he thought he
was a Christian. The statesman said to the negro man who was nursing
him, "Jack, go into my library and bring me my Bible." Turning to the
minister he said, "Mr. Blank, as I said to you, I am ashamed to say
that I am a Christian, but now that the time has come, I must not deny
my Saviour. Long years ago, back in the old red hills of Georgia, when
I was a young man, one Sunday in an old country church I heard a
Baptist preacher preach, and I understood him. He showed that God
honestly loves this world, that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died for our
sins, and that He died for all of our sins; and that every one who
would repent and trust Christ to save him was certain to go to Heaven.
Out there in that old country church in the red hills of Georgia I
accepted Jesus Christ as my Redeemer and Saviour that Sunday morning,
and trusted Him to save me. I came west and became overwhelmed in
business and politics. I have wasted my life." Just then the negro man
returned and handed the Bible to the dying statesman. He turned the
leaves and finally stopped, and turning to the minister he said, "Mr.
Blank, I am ashamed to say it, but I don't know much about this book;
but I do know that this is God's word; and I do know that out in the
old country church in the red hills of Georgia that Sunday morning,
when I heard and understood the country preacher, I did, as a guilty,
lost, justly condemned sinner, accept Jesus Christ as my Saviour and
Redeemer and trust Him to save me. Listen, Mr. Blank: 'He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.' Mr. Blank, God says I
have everlasting life, and I am going to Heaven when I die." And
turning, the great statesman buried his face in his pillow and sobbed
out his grief and remorse. He did go to Heaven, "but God said unto
him, Thou fool ... so is he that layeth up treasures for himself and
is not rich toward God."--Luke 12:20, 21.