Introduction

In this series of articles, we have been considering the reward of grace according to the definition that I have proposed: namely, that the reward of grace is the wages of Jesus Christ, which is freely bestowed by God in election and which superabundantly replaces all that the children of God lose in this life as they follow after Christ.

In the previous two installments, we examined the basis and essence of this reward.¹ Christ by his perfect work as head and mediator of the covenant (the basis) merited eternal life (the essence) for all who belong to that covenant by divine election. By this I do not mean merely that Christ merited eternal life so that all the members of his covenant have a general entrance into the everlasting kingdom of heaven. Rather, I mean that every specific detail in that glorious kingdom has been merited by Christ. The very name and place that each of his people possess in that kingdom are earned by Christ personally. What his people enjoy in heaven is graciously given to them apart from their works. In other words, heaven is an inheritance.

Many pay lip service to this doctrine. However, they confuse the whole matter as soon as they start talking about degrees of glory in heaven. As we observed last time, it seems as though the whole church world pants after this doctrine, especially as this doctrine relates to one’s own good works. “More good works,” the church says, “means more reward in heaven.” If the ministers had any courage, they would say what they really think: “Your works gain you blessing. Now get busy!”

In this final installment I will contend against this idea that degrees of glory in heaven are according to good works. Such a conception fails to reckon honestly with God’s decree of election. Such a conception fails to reckon honestly with the superabundance of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. I will also connect the reward of grace to another important principle that governs all of scripture’s teaching concerning the reward. What is this principle? Loss. The reward is used by Jesus Christ to comfort his church, which must always endure loss in this present age.

Election Theology of the Reward

I insist that it is improper—even detrimental—to teach that the reward of grace is proportional to good works. Nor am I alone in this. In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Herman Veldkamp wrote,

I do not deny that in heaven there are degrees of glory, but that is the way on earth already too. That this has something to do with rewards, I do not believe at all.²

And in his paper on degrees of reward, Craig Blomberg asserted,

I do not believe there is a single NT text that, when correctly interpreted, supports the notion that believers will be distinguished one from another for all eternity on the basis of their works as Christians. What is more, I am convinced that when this unfounded doctrine of degrees of reward in heaven is acted upon consistently…it can have highly damaging consequences for the motivation and psychology of living the Christian life.³

Rather than to teach that the reward is proportional to works, I contend that the only way to speak about the reward of grace is in connection with election in Jesus Christ. This is the election theology of the reward. This is why I include in my definition that the reward of grace “is freely bestowed by God in election.”

That election is the only proper starting point for the reward of grace is the clear testimony of scripture.⁴ God chooses the inheritance. “He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved” (Ps. 47:4). God chooses who receives that inheritance. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11). And God chooses the place that each of his children possesses in that inheritance. “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him” (Isa. 64:4). When the Son of man returns in his glory, he will announce the glory of this election to the whole world and will say to the sheep at his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34).

That the kingdom has been prepared from the foundation of the world implies that every aspect of that kingdom is already determined. The place that each of God’s children will have in that kingdom is predetermined. Their places are determined without their works and only of God’s good pleasure. “For we are his workmanship” (Eph. 2:10). When the saints receive the kingdom, they receive that which they possessed already in eternity, not what they worked for in this life.

All of this is reflected in God’s choice to make Israel dwell with him in Canaan. The land of Canaan was God’s to give, for the land was absolutely his property: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (Ps. 24:1). In his good pleasure he chose to make Canaan his abode: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (132:13–14). And in his good pleasure, God chose Israel above all the nations of the earth to receive this land: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance” (33:12). The way in which God gave Canaan to the Israelites made clear, without doubt, that it was his free gift to them. He redeemed them from bondage. He typically and symbolically gave them the land through the passover lamb, whose blood covered their sins. He baptized them in the Red Sea. He opened the way into Canaan through the Jordan. He gave Israel the victory over the land through the angel of Jehovah. Then he apportioned the land himself, choosing by lot where each tribe should settle. And God was the one who determined the allotment.⁵

In the New Testament the election theology of the reward is inferred from the apostle’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 about the nature of the body of Christ. God determined the place of each member of the church. “Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (v. 18). And he tempers the body together so that each member works for the well-being of the other members. The members do not choose their places and functions. God does. Certainly, there is a difference between one member and another member. But, as Cocceius said,

The difference is not the different proportion of merit, nor does it argue a discrepancy in justification; it will be in accord with the grace of God, by which Christ was given a body in which God’s manifold wisdom might be displayed.⁶

I reiterate my main contention: when the reward of grace is taught as the place that each elect child of God possesses in the eternal kingdom and everlasting covenant of God, it must be taught from the viewpoint that this reward has already been determined in eternity. This reward is not determined by good works, but it is determined by election.

I observe that in this matter the emphasis of our Reformed fathers was upon election as well. Herman Hoeksema wrote,

In the covenant God has prepared some of His people to do great things, to be special witnesses of His name, to fight the kingdom of darkness in a special way. And just because God has prepared some of His children for special works, so that they do more than others and suffer more than others and bear the brunt of the battle more than others, they also shall have a special place in glory. They were in suffering more than others. They were despised more than others. They were in tribulation in a special sense of the word. God prepared Elijah to do great things. But he also fought more than all the prophets of his time. God prepared His prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, for special work. But they also went through special suffering and tribulation. God prepared the apostles and the martyrs to be faithful in a special sense of the word. And they suffered more than others. And so it shall be at the time of Antichrist. Not all are equally strong among the children of God. Not all are equally fit to testify and bear the brunt of the battle. It is not because they themselves are less faithful; not as if the stronger would have any power of their own. No, God has prepared them, and even prepared their works, also their special works. But what now shall become of these? Shall they all be lost? Shall in the day of judgment all these works dwindle away in the general bliss of God’s people? Of course not; their works shall follow them…And those whom God prepared to do more work than others and to suffer more than others may thank the Lord God for this great privilege. For their works shall follow them also in the new creation.⁷

Prepared…prepared…prepared—this is the all-important emphasis of election theology. God prepared all things according to his good pleasure. In the context of suffering and intense labor, all that the believer does on earth has been prepared for him and worked in him by God.

Concerning this idea Herman Hanko wrote,

By his grace God works in every one of his people so that they fulfill their calling and purpose in life, whatever that may be. In doing this, God sovereignly and graciously shapes and fits each saint for his place in glory—and for his capacity for glory. Thus the reward is in direct proportion to his works, but both the works and the reward are of grace.⁸

This is what Hanko taught: in accordance with the name and place that God gives to each saint in heaven by election, God also perfectly molds and forms that saint in this life for his eternal life. This is the essential matter. Regarding the matter of the reward being in direct proportion to his works, it is my judgment that this is an unnecessary and improper extrapolation from the truth of election.

That the believer should think about the reward in terms of his good works is foreign to Christ’s parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31–46. When the king commends the sheep on their deeds of love toward him, they respond by asking when they had done such things. They were not focused on their good works at all.

Not too long ago, a wise woman whom I know wondered aloud if God’s people are ever really conscious of their good works. I appreciate her thought. It echoes the teaching of this parable. It also accords with what Hanko wrote regarding the parable:

This denial of the saints is also indicative of the fact that although the saints did these things, they were not conscious of them, because a good work that is genuinely a good work is done with complete self-forgetfulness. Those works that are good are done only to the glory of God…He [the child of God] is completely oblivious to the fact that he has done anything good because his motive is the glory of God and thankfulness to God for the great salvation given him in Christ, though he is a wretched sinner.⁹

However, the ecclesiastical assemblies in the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) could only speak about the reward in connection with good works. The ecclesiastical assemblies—Hope Protestant Reformed Church’s consistory, Classis East 2020, and Synod 2020—all supported the doctrine of the “Reward of Grace” sermon that the reward is according to works.¹⁰ Hope Protestant Reformed Church’s consistory asserted, “Scripture and the Reformed confessions teach plainly that the reward of individual believers is in proportion to the good works that they perform in this life.”¹¹ Both the classis and the synod declared, “Use of the words ‘according to’ to connect the reward of grace to deeds done in faith…is biblical.”¹²

As proof for their decisions, the Protestant Reformed ecclesiastical assemblies cited Matthew 16:27, Mark 10:29–30, Romans 2:6, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 22:12, and Belgic Confession article 24.

But what do these passages say?

The Mark 10 passage reads,

28. Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
29. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
30. But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

This text was cited as justification that the reward is proportionate to good works.¹³ But in Mark 10 Jesus Christ was not teaching a reward of proportion. He was teaching a reward of superabundance! By following after Christ and his gospel, every disciple loses in this life and receives persecutions besides. In fact, he loses all—all that does not pertain to Christ and his gospel. All may include spouses or children or friends. All may include possessions or houses or lands. This is pitiful. Yet when the disciple has Christ, he has more than he can fathom! A hundredfold! Superabundance!

I say again that this text does not teach a reward of proportion. It was Peter who expected a reward of proportion when he said, “Look at all the things we have done. What shall we receive?” Peter’s conception of the reward—which is the conception of our flesh—was a crass and mercantile thing. Jesus exposed that wicked conception of the reward by declaring that all his disciples shall receive freely of his grace and goodness. They shall receive the reward not because they have done enough. They shall receive the reward solely because God has joined them to Christ, so that they share in the bounty that Christ has earned.

The citations from Matthew, Romans, 2 Corinthians, and Revelation are all similar in doctrine. Matthew 16:27: “The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Romans 2:6: “Who [God] will render to every man according to his deeds.” 2 Corinthians 5:10: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” Revelation 22:12: “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

In all of these verses, the context clearly indicates that scripture is speaking about a judgment. The verbs of interest may vary. The verbs of interest are translated in the King James Version as “reward” or “render” or “receive” or “give.” Frankly, I don’t care how you translate them. What is important is that the texts are speaking about a judgment—the judgment in the day of the Lord.

And this judgment distinguishes between two different groups. What stands between the two different groups is God’s grace in Jesus Christ. What stands between the two different groups is the cross. On the one hand, there are those whom God has elected into Jesus Christ. When Christ takes his place on the glorious judgment seat, he manifests the elect as righteous and holy because they have his perfect work imputed unto them. On the other hand, there are the reprobate, in whom God has no pleasure. Christ manifests them as unrighteous and filthy because they never had him. The basis of this judgment is not what they have done in their lives, but the basis is whether or not they have Christ’s perfect work according to God’s divine decree.

I hear the objection now: “But the Greek says κατὰ! You deny the clear teaching of the text that the judgment is according to works.”

Indeed, the whole of scripture insists on this. But note well that every rational, moral creature will be judged according to works, not by works. When scripture speaks of according to works in connection with the judgment, it highlights the specific function that men’s works have in the theodicy of God. God will use the works of men to demonstrate and vindicate his righteous judgment, such that his glory and honor are acknowledged by every rational, moral creature.

The simple teaching of these texts must be mangled in order to draw out that the reward is according to works, such that the believer receives more or less glory based on his deeds. What these texts set forth is the nature of God’s judgment, not the nature of heavenly life. And the natural contrast in these texts is between elect and reprobate, not between different kinds of believers.

What about article 24 of the Belgic Confession? The article reads, “We do not deny that God rewards good works, but it is through his grace that he crowns his gifts.”¹⁴ At the very least, does the article not establish a connection between good works and the reward?

The teaching of the Confession must be understood in light of all that God gives his people by his decree of election. For example, Alsted wrote,

Eternal life is felt by us in this world, but it is after this life that it touches us fully and in this sense it is divided into imperfect and perfect, inchoate and consummated.”¹⁵

In connection with Alsted’s statement, Heppe added, “What believers already possess in germ here on earth, is imparted to them [in heaven] in its perfection.”¹⁶ What ties the spiritual life that the believer experiences on earth together with the fullness of his life in heaven? Election! Election is the fountainhead from whence flow both the “inchoate” and the “consummated.” The beginning of eternal life that the believer now enjoys shall culminate in that everlasting life with Christ in heaven. The good works that the believer now enjoys shall culminate in his reward of grace from Christ in heaven.

If one speaks about the relationship between good works and the reward, this relationship makes no sense unless it is rooted in what God has decreed for his people by their election in Jesus Christ. Good works and the reward must never be abstracted from election. They are included in election.

Therefore, what does it mean that “God rewards good works” and “through his grace… crowns his gifts”? To use the figure of the Confession, the reward comes upon a life of good works like a crown comes upon a head that is first prepared with anointing oil. The oil does not cause the head to be crowned. The oil does not determine the crowning at all. But God pours the oil, and then God places the crown. And through these actions he gives his covenant friend-servant a name and a place in the kingdom of his Son.¹⁷

Replacement

Thus far I have shown that the reward of grace is the wages of Jesus Christ, which God freely bestows in election. What remains is that the reward “superabundantly replaces all that the children of God lose in this life as they follow after Christ.” This aspect of the definition rightly describes how the church should use the reward in her preaching and pastoral care.

There is a wrong way to use the reward. The “Reward of Grace” sermon used the reward in a wrong way. This was acknowledged in 2020 by Classis East of the PRC when it sustained the objection of a protestant against the sermon. The sermon asserted that the reward is according to good works, so that “the less number of works, the less of a reward one receives.”¹⁸ In response to the sermon, the protestant asked, 

If this is true that we are rewarded less of a good work the less the reward and more of a good work the more the reward, how is a child of God to find his comfort and his assurance in that?¹⁹

Classis East concurred with the protestant and stated that the sermon was “susceptible to the interpretation that the believer is left with no comfort or assurance of grace.”²⁰

But the right doctrine of the reward always leaves the believer with comfort and assurance.

In this life the child of God experiences loss. In Matthew 16 Christ instructs his church about this loss that they must endure as his disciples.

24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.²¹

Psalm 45 echoes this exhortation of Christ:

10. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
11. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

The calling to follow Christ means that his disciples must forsake their old lives. Throughout their lives they must die to themselves, mortifying the flesh and the deeds of the body. Disciples of Christ must forsake the world. They may also be required to forsake family and friends. They may lose possessions. They may exhaust themselves for the cause of Christ and his gospel. They may even be required to lay down their lives for his sake. All these things bring sorrow and grief. An outstanding example of all this was Moses. Moses forsook his place among aristocracy as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter in order that he might bear the reproach of Christ, “for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward” (Heb. 11:26).

All of this is so eloquently summarized by Luther:

Once you have become a Christian and have a gracious God and the forgiveness of sins…a certain result will be that you will have to do much and suffer much on account of your faith and your Baptism. As [Jesus’ sermon on the mount has] shown in detail, the devil himself, together with the world and the flesh, will attach himself to you and torment you from every side, making the world seem too narrow for you. If we were left to be stuck in this, without Word or consolation, we would despair and say, “Who wants to be a Christian or preach or do good works? You see what happens to them. The world tramples them underfoot, defames and slanders them, and tries every kind of villainy and evil trick on them, finally robbing them of their honor, their property, and their life. All Christ can call me is poor, troubled, hungry, meek, peaceable, afflicted, and persecuted! Is this supposed to last forever and never change?”²²

In these narrow circumstances Christ promises his reward to encourage his church.²³ These circumstances are explored in more detail below.

First, Christ gives the promise of the reward to the church when she is threatened by apostasy, so that the church might take heed and expend herself to fight against that apostasy.

This is the explicit teaching of 2 John 8. After warning about many deceivers and antichrists in the world, the apostle exhorted, “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” To the church at Pergamos, the risen Lord said, “Watch! Do not remove the sentinel of discipline and give evil men a place in your assembly! And those who overcome shall have their reward.”²⁴ To the church at Thyatira, the Spirit exhorted, “Root yourselves in the objective truth of God’s word, and do not drift away in the subjective experience of man! And those who overcome shall have their reward.”²⁵ And Herman Hoeksema, in connection with the dead church at Sardis, warned,

Many a church has fallen asleep in our day…Shall we remain faithful?…We shall, if, by the power of the grace of God, we fight the good fight even unto the end.

Watch…that no one take your crown!²⁶

It is appropriate for the church to exhort and encourage herself with the promise of the reward in these late hours, when apostasy tightens its grip upon the church world. In times like these a few elders and deacons may be called to stand up against ministers, professors of theology, and even entire denominations. To those few the consolation of the reward comes. And such an exhortation and encouragement will be most appropriate when Babylon sweeps down upon the faithful remnant to shed its blood.²⁷ Take heed that you lose not the truth but that you receive the reward!

Second, Christ gives the promise of the reward to the church when she faces persecution for his name’s sake. That the church of Christ must suffer persecution is expected. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:27–29, “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ…And in nothing terrified by your adversaries…For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.”

In Romans 8 Paul wrote,

16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Belgic Confession article 37 speaks of the faithful and elect who are “condemned by many judges and magistrates as heretical and impious” because their cause is the cause of Christ.²⁸

The early church father Irenaeus even spoke of the reward of the saints as “the reward of their suffering.”²⁹

Sometimes, persecution comes upon the entire church. Other times, persecution comes upon certain members of the church, whose spouses or children or parents belittle them for the truth’s sake and call them wicked.

To his persecuted saints Christ said in Matthew 5,

10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

To the saints at Smyrna, who would be persecuted by the devil, Christ exhorted, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life!” (Rev. 2:10). And to those who endure loss from enemies, Christ exhorted, “Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35).

That the reward may be used to encourage the church in times of suffering is observed in the writings of the early church fathers. In a letter to Athanasius and his church at Alexandria, an ecumenical council wrote,

You have undergone many severe and grievous trials; many are the insults and injuries which the Catholic Church has suffered, but “he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” Wherefore even though they still recklessly assail you, let your tribulation be unto you for joy. For such afflictions are a sort of martyrdom, and such confessions and tortures as yours will not be without their reward, but ye shall receive the prize from God. Therefore strive above all things in support of the sound faith, and of the innocence of your Bishop and our fellow-minister Athanasius.³⁰

After one of his expulsions from Alexandria, Athanasius wrote to the bishops of his province, saying,

For this is what they thirst after; and they continue to this day to desire to shed my blood. But of these things I have no care; for I know and am persuaded that they who endure shall receive a reward from our Saviour; and that ye also, if ye endure as the Fathers did, and shew yourselves examples to the people, and overthrow these strange and alien devices of impious men, shall be able to glory, and say, We have kept the Faith; and ye shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love Him. And God grant that I also together with you may inherit the promises, which were given, not to Paul only, but also to all them that have loved the appearing of our Lord, and Saviour, and God, and universal King, Jesus Christ.³¹

Third, Christ gives the promise of the reward to those whom he has called faithfully to rule his church and preach his gospel.³² Such labor is often wearisome and thankless, if not plagued by opposition. They must promote and defend the truth regardless of the cost. Sometimes they labor night and day to bring God’s word, only to be called the spawn of Satan. Paul described in 1 Corinthians 4 what he endured as a faithful minister of truth: hunger and thirst and nakedness, buffeting, lack of dwelling, reviling, persecution, and defamation. He was treated as the scum of the earth.

Such laborers scripture consoles with the promise that they have a reward. In connection with the fields of harvest, Christ said to his disciples, “He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together” (John 4:36). Peter said to the church, “The elders which are among you I exhort…Feed the flock of God which is among you…And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1 Pet. 5:1–4).

Athanasius illustrated this legitimate usage of reward in a letter to a fellow minister named Lucifer, who had labored diligently to defend the truth against the fierce opposition of the Arians:

O truly Lucifer, who according to your name bring the light of truth, and have set it on a candlestick to give light to all. For who, except the Arians, does not clearly see from your teaching the true faith and the taint of the Arians. Forcibly and admirably, like light from darkness, you have separated the truth from the subtilty and dishonesty of heretics, defended the Catholic Church, proved that the arguments of the Arians are nothing but a kind of hallucination, and taught that the diabolical gnashings of the teeth are to be despised…But I know and believe that the Lord Himself, Who has revealed all knowledge to your holy and religious spirit, will reward you for this labour also with a reward in the kingdom of the heavens.³³

Fourth, Christ gives the promise of the reward to those who labor as slaves in this world, whose gain from their labor is little to none.³⁴ The reward is used to encourage them as they diligently serve their masters. For example, Colossians 3:

22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
23. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

Although a slave may gain nothing from his earthly masters in this life, yet as a slave of Jesus Christ he gains everything in the life to come.

Finally, Christ gives the promise of the reward so that the church may pray with ever-greater intensity, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”³⁵ The church who hears about all the catastrophic events that must shortly come to pass will not work herself into a frenzy. Rather, as she becomes more and more conscious of her present misery and tribulation and suffering in the midst of the world, she looks forward to the manifestation of the glory of her bridegroom and the time when she will be ever with him. Thus the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”

Superabundance

A marvelous promise is the reward of grace. It superabundantly replaces all that the child of God loses in this life.

The reward is superabundant because it is unspeakable glory. The eye has beheld the flowering fields and the radiant sun and the towering peaks, but it has observed nothing comparable to the sights of heaven. The ear has heard the melodious birds and the thundering clouds and the babbling brooks, but it has heard nothing comparable to the sounds of heaven. The believer has seen the glory of Jesus Christ evidently set forth in the preaching. The believer has heard the resounding of his savior’s fame in the gospel. Yet what things God has prepared for him have not entered his heart.

The reward is superabundant because it is eternal. Light affliction—this is what the apostle called being troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, and scarred by the world’s hatred of Christ. Momentary affliction! Indeed, such tribulation is heavy and grievous, but it works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Superabundance implies that there can be no proportion between the believer’s labor on this earth and the reward of grace. This correct doctrine of the reward is liberating to the believer. He is freed from all his furious calculating about gaining his place in heaven. Rather, he trembles that God has so loved him from eternity that he has chosen for him a place in his new and splendid creation forever. It is a place that is wholly other than the believer’s wearisome pilgrimage on this earth.