God’s Word for You

Psalm 62:11-12 Rewards in heaven

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, September 29, 2022

11 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard:
  that you, O God, are strong,
12 and that you, O Lord, are loving.
  Surely you will reward each person
  according to what he has done.

Are there rewards in heaven? Let’s look carefully at what David says, not only in verse 12, but in verse 11 as well.

David teaches us something about heaven with these final words of the Psalm. Notice how the king gives all credit and honor to God, whether about things here on earth or things in heaven. Heaven itself is the reward, and an eternal reward for all who will live there. And all of the rewards and blessings of heaven come from God himself, with his continued and constant working, power, control, and his divine will.

God, David confesses, is “strong” and also “loving.” These are his holy attributes of omnipotence and love, and love is closely connected to his grace. Grace is the undeserved love God shows for us without regard for anything in us, but that he shows on account of his nature.

So, are we saved by the grace of God, or by things we do, or is it somehow both? Or to put it in clearer terms, which of these is correct?

1, We are saved by the grace of God alone, through the merits of Christ alone, without any contribution from ourselves or others.

2, We are saved by our own works and worthiness alone, through our own merits, without any contribution from Christ at all.

3, We are saved partly by the merits of Christ, who gives us spiritual life, so that our salvation is then completed by each one of us individually, thanks to God’s help.

4, We are saved partly by the merits of Christ, partly by our own contribution of good works, and partly by the contributions of the saints, whose collective treasury of merits enables us to achieve, finally and forever, heaven.

It cannot be any of the latter three options. Each of them rejects Christ. Both Peter and Paul preach that “it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus [alone] that we are saved” (Acts 15:11; Ephesians 2:5,8). Paul makes it even clearer: “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Adding anything to the merits of Christ robs Christ of his divine work on our behalf. To try to add the works of the individual in order to obtain salvation is to say, “I can keep the law of God.” But “you who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4). So to add anything to Christ is to reduce the work of Christ as if it were not enough. It’s like a sinful woman saying to her husband, “You aren’t enough for me. I have to go and sleep with another man tonight to be happy and for our marriage to be complete.” She isn’t adding to her marriage by doing that; she is destroying her marriage. Our Confession declares: “The kingdom of Mohammed has rites and works by which it seeks to be justified before God, denying that men are freely justified before God by faith for Christ’s sake… They take honor away from Christ when they teach that we are not justified freely for his sake by such rites, and especially when they teach that for justification such rites are not only useful but necessary.” And again: “In his eleventh chapter Daniel says that the invention of human rites will be the very form and constitution of the kingdom of Antichrist (Daniel 11:38).”

Most importantly in the context of this Psalm, David has already expressed the doctrine of salvation by the grace of God alone through faith when he said, again and again: “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him” (verses 1,2,5 and 6). There would be no comfort at all for the troubled soul to have to confess: “My soul finds rest in God a little, but mostly in myself or in the saints. My salvation depends on me.” Who, saying that, could ever be sure of their place in heaven? Who, saying that, could do anything but fall wailing and grieving into the pit of despair?

Let’s return, then, to the question David raises about rewards. Such rewards are not the achievement or arrival in heaven itself, but they can only be something given by God as a special delight in heaven after our arrival there. Or as the 17th century Lutheran pastor Johannes Quenstedt wrote: “The variety and inequality of the blessings of eternal life (apply) only with regard to accessory rewards.” According to the rest of Scripture, degrees of glory will be present in heaven.

Daniel says: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). He distinguishes those with wisdom (faith) and those who lead many to righteousness (perhaps pastors and teachers, or the apostles, or missionaries, or parents, or others).

Jesus says: “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). The Lord is clearly talking about the Apostles.

And in one of his parables, the Lord presents a scene where a master rewards a faithful servant: “‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Matthew 25:21). He is talking there about a faithful Christian, not necessarily a leader or an apostle, but a faithful servant.

We must also add a warning: A greater degree of glory is not at all to be sought by us, whether we are still here on earth or later when we are raised from the dead. A special reward in heaven is for God alone to give, like Christ pulling out a chair at the banquet table. The Lord said: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place” (Luke 14:8-9).

The essential reward of heaven will be the same for us all: the same in perpetual and eternal duration, the same security, the same peace, the same joy, the same reunion with loved ones, the same sufficiency of happiness, the same security in God’s grace, the same freedom from anything adverse (sad, guilty, wicked, tempting, etc.), the same flourishing love, the same glory. But in some way, an additional or somehow differing glory will be given to some. How different, and how often this will be on display, is not for us to concern ourselves with today. But if my stool is wooden and my wife’s chair is deeply padded with armrests and a footstool, that is her glory well deserved and earned on account of her life of faith, and if that or some other thing is a special glory given to her and the apostles and Moses and others, then I have no complaint.

In all of these things, David concludes with a reminder that our understanding of God’s grace, of heaven, and our salvation, is not in the least up to us or to our imagination. My opinion has no value here. Why not? Because, as David proclaims: “God has spoken.” All of these things are the declaration of the Word of God. And the Word of God is more precious than any earthly treasure or reward.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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