Are Eternal Rewards and Inheritance the Same?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Good Friday morning.
00:00:05.320 | Thanks for joining us again on the podcast.
00:00:07.280 | Here's the question.
00:00:08.640 | The question today, are my eternal rewards
00:00:12.260 | and my eternal inheritance the same thing?
00:00:15.840 | One seems to imply that we can get more, our rewards.
00:00:19.720 | The other seems more static and more out of our hands,
00:00:23.400 | our inheritance.
00:00:25.720 | So are these rewards and our inheritance different things
00:00:29.940 | or are they the same thing?
00:00:31.800 | A perceptive question as always
00:00:33.440 | from our perceptive APJ listeners
00:00:35.840 | and particularly one from a listener named Nathan
00:00:38.480 | who lives in Schenectady, New York.
00:00:41.080 | Pastor John, I have read and really enjoyed your book,
00:00:43.440 | "Reading the Bible Supernaturally."
00:00:45.760 | I believe my question is the beginning fruit
00:00:48.400 | of a deeper grace to look long
00:00:50.520 | and linger over passages of scripture.
00:00:53.720 | That's wonderful.
00:00:55.000 | My question is on 1 Peter 1, 4.
00:00:58.260 | There the apostle refers to an inheritance
00:01:01.040 | which is reserved for us in heaven.
00:01:03.640 | This got me thinking about Matthew 6, 20
00:01:06.360 | where Jesus commands us to lay up
00:01:08.720 | for yourselves treasures in heaven.
00:01:11.400 | My question is about the relationship
00:01:12.800 | between the inheritance Peter refers to
00:01:14.920 | as being reserved for us right now
00:01:18.000 | and the treasure Jesus tells us
00:01:19.640 | to lay up for ourselves over time.
00:01:22.900 | One seems static, the other dynamic.
00:01:27.000 | Are they the same thing?
00:01:28.480 | Are they different?
00:01:29.320 | And if they are different, how do they relate?
00:01:32.440 | This is a great question.
00:01:34.280 | I love this kind of question
00:01:35.680 | because it makes me try to relate different parts
00:01:40.300 | of scripture to each other
00:01:41.880 | to see how they might illumine each other.
00:01:44.840 | And I've never in my life that I can remember
00:01:49.520 | tried to connect these two verses.
00:01:51.520 | And so it was a very, very challenging
00:01:54.760 | and encouraging question for me.
00:01:57.640 | So Nathan is asking about the possible relationship
00:02:01.760 | between 1 Peter 1, 3, and 4,
00:02:04.560 | which says God caused us to be born again
00:02:07.600 | to a living hope through the resurrection
00:02:11.360 | of Christ from the dead to an inheritance.
00:02:15.960 | That's a key phrase.
00:02:17.420 | To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
00:02:20.640 | unfading, kept in heaven for you.
00:02:25.240 | And then Matthew 6, 19 says,
00:02:28.000 | do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth
00:02:31.160 | where moth and rust destroy
00:02:33.360 | and where thieves break in and steal,
00:02:35.120 | but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven
00:02:40.120 | where neither moth nor rust destroys
00:02:42.760 | and where thieves do not break in and steal.
00:02:44.760 | And the difference between these two texts
00:02:48.080 | that stands out is that the inheritance in 1 Peter
00:02:52.960 | seems to be fixed, settled, glorious, firm,
00:02:57.960 | already in existence without any laying up on our part.
00:03:03.160 | It says imperishable, undefiled, unfading,
00:03:07.320 | kept in heaven for you.
00:03:09.380 | Now that's a settled, glorious reality.
00:03:15.000 | Peter says that the way we come into that inheritance
00:03:19.160 | is that God causes us to be born again for it,
00:03:24.160 | born again to it, born again into it.
00:03:28.160 | God caused us to be born again to an inheritance,
00:03:31.400 | for an inheritance kept in heaven.
00:03:34.800 | So there's no emphasis in this text at all
00:03:38.360 | on something we do in order to bring about the inheritance.
00:03:44.200 | The idea of living so as to lay it up
00:03:48.640 | is not in this text in 1 Peter.
00:03:52.040 | We are born again by virtue of the new birth.
00:03:56.080 | We believe on Christ.
00:03:58.240 | Believing on Christ, we are united to the son of God.
00:04:01.200 | We are sons of the living God.
00:04:03.080 | We are heirs of God because he's our father.
00:04:05.920 | That's a closed, done, complete, glorious thing.
00:04:12.080 | Now, on the other hand, the words of Jesus in Matthew 6
00:04:17.080 | tells us to be about the business of doing things
00:04:22.160 | that lay up treasures in heaven for us.
00:04:26.200 | In other words, there's a correspondence
00:04:30.360 | between what we do here in this life
00:04:33.520 | and the treasures that we will enjoy in heaven.
00:04:39.720 | So what sorts of things does Jesus have in mind
00:04:43.960 | when he says that, that we should be doing
00:04:47.480 | that bring about treasures in heaven?
00:04:50.640 | And one answer comes from Matthew 19, 21,
00:04:53.560 | where Jesus says to the rich young ruler,
00:04:57.200 | who's very reluctant to give up his riches,
00:05:00.160 | "Go, sell what you possess and give to the poor,
00:05:04.280 | and you will have treasure in heaven."
00:05:08.240 | You do that, you'll have treasure in heaven,
00:05:10.000 | and come, follow me.
00:05:11.400 | In other words, open the hand
00:05:13.600 | that is clutching your wealth so tightly.
00:05:16.120 | Open your hand, let your wealth drop on the poor,
00:05:20.120 | and take my treasure, take me, take me as your treasure.
00:05:25.000 | You can't serve two masters.
00:05:26.560 | I'm here, the greatest treasure in the world.
00:05:28.960 | Let go and take me.
00:05:31.560 | That's what they gotta do,
00:05:32.400 | and the poor are served in the process.
00:05:35.600 | And then Luke 12, 33 makes the same point
00:05:38.960 | that selling your possessions and giving to the needy
00:05:41.880 | is the way you provide treasures in heaven.
00:05:44.160 | It says, this is Luke 12, 33,
00:05:47.240 | "Sell your possessions, give to the needy,
00:05:50.880 | and thus," I'm adding the words and thus,
00:05:53.960 | 'cause I think it's so plain,
00:05:55.400 | "Provide yourselves that way with money bags
00:05:59.080 | that do not grow old,
00:06:00.240 | and with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail,
00:06:02.880 | where no thief approaches and no moth destroys."
00:06:06.560 | So if we just compare 1 Peter 1, 4 to Matthew 6, 20,
00:06:11.560 | we see that in one of them,
00:06:14.240 | our future as Christians is a fixed, settled treasure,
00:06:19.240 | an inheritance that exists in heaven for us
00:06:21.840 | simply by virtue of our being born again into God's family.
00:06:24.920 | We are children of God by new birth,
00:06:28.560 | and therefore we're heirs of God.
00:06:31.080 | And that doesn't come into being
00:06:32.480 | because we're generous.
00:06:34.600 | In fact, it works just the other way around.
00:06:37.320 | We are able to be radically generous and risk-taking
00:06:41.400 | because we have such a treasure in heaven by faith.
00:06:46.400 | And we can see that, for example, in Hebrews 10, 34,
00:06:50.600 | "You had compassion on the prisoners,
00:06:54.720 | and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property
00:06:57.400 | because you knew you yourself have a better life."
00:07:02.400 | A better possession and an abiding one.
00:07:06.080 | But Matthew 6, 20 and 19, 21 and Luke 12, 32 and 33,
00:07:11.080 | they teach that the generosity we show
00:07:17.360 | does in fact lay up treasures in heaven.
00:07:21.360 | Now, at first, these two emphases,
00:07:25.320 | the one in Peter and the one in Jesus' teachings
00:07:30.640 | seem to be at odds.
00:07:31.720 | And I can think of three possible ways
00:07:34.640 | to resolve this apparent tension.
00:07:37.360 | One, the first one is to say that the treasures
00:07:42.360 | of Matthew 6 and the inheritance of 1 Peter
00:07:47.640 | are totally different things.
00:07:51.000 | So the inheritance is not conditional
00:07:54.520 | upon any particular generous way of life,
00:07:58.200 | but the treasures are conditional
00:08:01.400 | upon a generous way of life.
00:08:03.080 | No conflict 'cause they're totally different realities.
00:08:06.440 | Another possible resolution would be to say
00:08:09.440 | that the treasures laid up in heaven
00:08:12.240 | and the inheritance kept in heaven are the same reality,
00:08:16.440 | and both are conditional.
00:08:20.120 | And that does not hinder the fact
00:08:23.320 | that the inheritance is settled and firm and sure
00:08:27.640 | because God will see to it that all his children
00:08:31.800 | do in fact live generous lives
00:08:35.320 | because they are born again.
00:08:37.880 | So the treasures and the inheritance are conditional,
00:08:42.880 | but they are not uncertain because of that.
00:08:47.440 | That's the second possible way to resolve them.
00:08:50.320 | The third would be to say that the treasures laid up
00:08:56.080 | in heaven and the inheritance, yes,
00:08:58.840 | refer to the same reality,
00:09:01.760 | but that Jesus is calling attention to the fact
00:09:04.520 | that there will be a variation
00:09:07.400 | in the way different Christians experience
00:09:09.960 | the fullness of their inheritance.
00:09:11.920 | In other words, every Christian will receive
00:09:13.800 | the inheritance of eternal life,
00:09:15.360 | but there will be different rewards
00:09:18.040 | within that inheritance for the way we have lived our lives.
00:09:23.640 | Now, I think if we take all of scripture into account,
00:09:27.840 | both the second and the third of these solutions,
00:09:32.840 | these resolutions of the tension are true.
00:09:37.520 | Both of them are true and biblical.
00:09:40.720 | We don't have to choose between them.
00:09:43.160 | Indeed, I don't think we should.
00:09:46.040 | We've talked in this podcast,
00:09:48.040 | I went back and checked, Tony.
00:09:50.120 | We've talked in this podcast at least four times
00:09:53.360 | in the past about how there will be different rewards
00:09:58.360 | in heaven among God's children,
00:10:00.520 | different capacities to enjoy our eternal inheritance,
00:10:05.520 | like the parable of where the one gets to rule 10 cities
00:10:10.680 | and one gets to rule five cities,
00:10:13.600 | different teachings like that,
00:10:15.120 | which point to varieties of rewards.
00:10:19.680 | So what I would say here is this,
00:10:23.640 | let us seek to multiply those rewards
00:10:28.640 | as much as possible with lives of love and generosity
00:10:34.480 | and let that very lifestyle,
00:10:39.680 | let it confirm that we are truly born again
00:10:46.560 | with God's very generous nature within us.
00:10:51.560 | And above all, let us make the certainty of our inheritance
00:10:56.640 | as God's children through faith,
00:11:03.800 | the foundation of both of those pursuits,
00:11:07.280 | the multiplying of rewards
00:11:09.960 | and the confirming of our new birth.
00:11:13.520 | Both of those pursuits built on the by faith alone
00:11:18.520 | confidence we are the children of God
00:11:22.640 | with an eternal inheritance from our Father.
00:11:26.360 | - Amen, thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:27.560 | And as Pastor John mentioned earlier,
00:11:29.160 | we have talked four times
00:11:30.440 | about the differing rewards in heaven.
00:11:32.440 | Those are APJs 417, 549, 996, and 1188 in the archive.
00:11:38.720 | And for that archive,
00:11:41.120 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn
00:11:45.080 | and there search for the episode numbers 417, 549, 996,
00:11:49.960 | and 1188.
00:11:51.640 | Monday, we feel the question from a man, a humorous man,
00:11:56.280 | a man wired to make others laugh.
00:11:58.840 | How much of his personality is a liability
00:12:01.240 | to the earnest Christian life?
00:12:03.600 | And how does he protect sober mindedness
00:12:06.340 | with the deep things of God
00:12:07.520 | so that eternal things don't become punchlines?
00:12:11.320 | It's a great question.
00:12:12.160 | And it's up next time.
00:12:12.980 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:13.880 | We'll see you back here on Monday.
00:12:15.640 | Have a great weekend.
00:12:16.680 | (upbeat music)
00:12:19.260 | (upbeat music)
00:12:21.840 | [BLANK_AUDIO]