Eternal Rewards or Eternal Punishment!

Commentary By:  Gordon King

Not all will see nor hear the truth.  In fact, many will turn away from the truth in order to live a lifestyle in rebellion to God, to His nature, and to His principles.  As the world turns darker, the spirit of antichrist spreads like an out of control disease, like a cancer metastasized throughout the body.  The world is in spiritual darkness, deceived into believing lies, led by the god of this world, Satan!

We all follow someone whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, it’s the truth.  We either follow Jesus Christ or we follow Satan.  That’s it, no other choices!  You may say that you follow no one, but in fact you do.  You may not know it but you do.  Satan is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air.

Ephesians 2:1-10

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³ among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

If you are not saved, not born again, then you are of the world, a follower of Satan.  Born into sin, with a sinful heart, wicked in our ways, we all have sinned.  We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

^“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

And if we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, then we cannot pay the price required to enter heaven.  Nothing we could do or say would be enough to pay our sin debt, nothing!  God requires perfection, nothing any of us could ever obtain.  Only by the grace of God can we obtain salvation, by God’s grace through our faith, nothing of our own doing.  And if our works cannot obtain salvation, then by the same token our works cannot lose our salvation either, because it was not by our works that we were saved in the first place!

God wants us to know that when we are born again that it means forever!  Could you imagine if it were not so…saved, unsaved, saved, unsaved, on and on it goes!  No one would ever know if they had salvation or not.  Just because we are believers does not mean that we do not sin, we all sin and if we say that we don’t then we are liars.  And if we say that we can lose our salvation then we are saying that the death of Christ at the cross was not good enough!  The blood of Christ continually washes us clean of all sin, now and forever.

Jesus Christ paid our debt once and for all!  All of our sin, past, present, and future.  Nothing can snatch us out of His hand, nothing!  He gives us eternal life forever, we shall never perish.

John 10:28-30

“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and My Father are one.“

If you have been saved, born again, then take comfort in knowing that you will get to heaven and be with Christ for eternity!

Romans 8:38-39

^“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Does this mean that all of us will live out eternity the same way?  I’m not so sure about that, but I do know that we can earn rewards in heaven, eternal rewards, the bible is very clear about this.

Matthew 16:27

“For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

2 Corinthians 5:10

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 Revelation 22:12

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done.”

So Jesus Christ will reward us in heaven, for both our good works and evil works.  So we get rewards for our good works, but do we then get punished for our evil works?!

1 Corinthians 3:13-15

“Each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

I believe from scripture that our (believers) evil works will be burned up as in fire, but we will suffer loss from those works.  How will we suffer loss?  I’m not really sure, but perhaps it means that we could have had rewards if those works would have been good instead of evil?  Or perhaps our evil works will take away from our good works?  I don’t really know, however I tend to believe the former to be true, that we will still get rewards for our good works, but the evil will be burned up.  Only our good works for the Lord have any value and eternal treasures in heaven.

God is good and loving, He loves His children dearly, and we are washed clean by the blood of Christ, all of our sins washed away, as far as the East is from the West.  I know this to be true, and if it is then we will not be punished for our evil works.  Remember, when we are in heaven there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain!

I believe that once in heaven, and once rewarded for our works, that we will not all have the same rewards.  Some of us will have much more than others, and some may get into heaven with very few rewards at all!  Isn’t this how it is in our physical life, or how it’s supposed to be?  Those who work hard are rewarded for their efforts, and those who choose to do little are rewarded little?  However there are some governments who try to change that by giving the same to everyone, no matter how much or how little they contribute to society.  God will change all of that in heaven!

Whether or not we receive little or much in heaven, I believe that it will be the best place ever!

And while I’m on the topic of rewards in heaven, what about hell?  Are there different levels in hell?  Some people believe that there are, while many others believe not, and yet there are those who do not believe that hell is eternal.  I for one do believe that hell is eternal, that our spirit lives on forever, in either heaven or hell.  I believe that life without God is hell, that it is not life but death, however our spirit remains.  I do not believe that death as described in the bible means to exist no more, but that without God we are already dead.  Life is with God, Jesus Christ is life, eternal life!  Our spirit is alive with Christ, yet without Christ it is dead.

Matthew 10:28

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.“

The book of Matthew does not say that the spirit will be destroyed in hell, only the body and soul.

I believe that God will judge us all, and those (unbelievers) at the Great White Throne Judgment will be judged also according to their works.  However, their rewards or in their case punishment, will not be the same as for those at the Bema Seat Judgment.  I believe that their rewards will be different levels of hell according to their works. 

Revelation 20:12-13

“And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.”

I don’t know this for sure, no one does, but it does seem that there are certain punishments for the works of the unbelievers.  Several verses from scripture seem to allude to this.

Luke 12:47-48

“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. ⁴⁸ But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.“

Matthew 10:15

“Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!“

Luke 10:13-14

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴ But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.“

I for one do not want to go to hell to find out!  Whatever the punishment it is still hell!

There are those who do not believe, they choose to ignore what the bible tells us about salvation, about heaven and hell!  They would rather believe that all roads lead to heaven, that there is no right or wrong, no absolute morals or values, that all lifestyles are good as long as they are pleasing to man!  They would rather believe lies than the truth as long as it fits what they want the truth to become.

The good Lord has spoken, the truth is the truth and shall always remain the truth no matter what anyone says or believes.  No matter how the world views the truth, it is still the truth.  And when people of the world attempt to change the truth, they become the victims of lies and deception, theirs is a path leading to destruction!

Revelation 22:18-21

“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; ¹⁹ and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

²¹ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.“

 

God bless my friends!  Maranatha!