"earn"....?

Im not sure that Christians actually should use the term "earn salvation"

salvation is a gift.
I dont earn a gift.
You can only "receive" a gift....

If you earn something then we are no longer talking about the "gift" of salvation, rather we are talking about God owing you a "payment" of salvation.

So because God can never "owe" us anything, we cant say that by doing this___ or that____ that this makes God somehow on the hook to save us, and that He owes us our salvation.

When i talk about how a Christian is saved i use a different manner of phrasing it.

Salvation is a gift.
You receive it by faith into your heart.

It cant be taken away from you by others, nor lost by your own actions.
It's a gift that cant be taken back.

This is why Christians have the needed confidence with their salvation (That its a done deal and never in doubt or danger of loss) that allows us to be bold and to proclaim our faith with all boldness.

So we are saved by Grace alone...

How is this accomplished?
Though Faith.

How does a person get this needed faith?
From hearing the word of God speak to their hearts.

Now as for the different 'rewards' in heaven issue.

I think of it like such:


I went to a funeral of a cl*** member who got killed in a car accident when i was in high school.

I worked with the guy who was killed, and i thought he was a nice guy to work with, but that was about all i knew of him.

I remember he told a few jokes in the break room and never screwed up his work, so he was a good guy to work with.

Thats all i knew of the guy....


Then I went to his funeral and all of the sudden a few other of my co-workers stood up and each gave a little speach about how great a guy the person who had died was.,
They spoke of the number of times he had helped them on issues with car problems, and how he was always looking for fun things to do on the weekend that were interesting.

My co workers spoke of the number of times they had went to football games, and watching the Superbowl,,,and chearing for the home team...

I had no such story to tell.

I felt bad abut this.
I mean my co-workers had actually known the guy who had died the very same amount of time that i had, yet they had enjoyed a rich friendship with him while i never got close to being friends with him at all.

I came away from that funeral thinking about that fact....


and in a very real way that experience has helped me understand the different rewards for Christians in heaven.

The depth of friendship....the depth of love....the depth of sharing....these are things each of us have with our Lord in different ways and different amounts.

Missed opportunities to draw closer to the lord are what we also have.
You learn to lean alot deeper on the Lord, when you have little else to lean on at all.

Many times we think about who will be the "greatest in the Kingdom" just like the 12 debated when Jesus was with them.
We all tend to look at our accomplishments and put a value to them, and consider them of true important merit when it comes to deciding 'who is greatest"...

Thats why the way Jesus gave his answer to that question is so key to our learning how god judges our 'works"

Jesus singles out a small child when showing who is the greatest in the Kingdom.

a child...

a child with no works to list.
No acts of faith to speak of.
noting listed that we can all say of..."Thats a sign of great faith"

Just a child.

a child who stood before the 12 as an example, because the child was told to stand there...


It's not the number of times that you debated that are important.
Or the amount of words you have written here that are important.
Your works that you can point to as being "important" are for the most part not important at all when it comes to your heavenly rewards.

what is important?

The love you showed your foes.
The forgiveness you gave without being asked.
The suffering you went though.
The service you gave.
The voice of the child you listened to.
The sick you comforted.
The hungry you fed.
The guilty you befriend.
The untouchable you embraced.

Of such bring the greatest heavenly reward - of knowing God deeper.