In my sermon this past Sunday, I touched on the varying degrees of rewards that the saints will receive in eternity—rewards in eternity that accord with works of faith done now. Here is an excerpt from my sermon which highlights Paul’s aim to maximize his reward in heaven,
Every saint will enter into eternal life because of Christ’s gospel work. Every saint will receive an imperishable crown of glory, as Scripture says (1 Peter 5:4; James 1:12), but like theologian Sinclair Ferguson says, “these crowns will be different shapes”—different levels or degrees of reward. Paul aims to maximize his reward by his works of faith on earth. Now is this selfish? Does this seem an odd motivation? It’s not selfish and it shouldn’t be odd. If works of faith spring from Christ in you, as Philippians 1:8 makes clear, then all your fruits of righteousness come through Jesus Christ, not ultimately through you. That means any reward you receive ultimately glorifies him! So the bottom line here is this: Paul just has a bigger appetite for God’s glory and beauty in Jesus than you or I do. If you want to do works of faith for God, you have to first desire more of his glory. That’s what Paul really wants. That’s his reward. Us? Our pleasure-o-meters are just broken. We settle for lesser pleasures and glories like, as C.S. Lewis says, children who choose making mud pies over going to spend a vacation by the sea! We settle because we don’t actually know what we’re missing. But Paul says, “I run and discipline my body because I want so much evidence of what Christ did for me to pile up that he shines with such beauty and glory…”—And as Paul beholds that greater glory in eternity, he not only receives eternal life, but a more potent draught, a 100-proof reward compared to others.
That final line, “as Paul beholds that greater glory in eternity, he not only receives eternal life, but a more potent draught, a 100-proof reward compared to others” speaks to the idea of varying degrees of reward in eternity. The idea here is that while everyone enjoys perfection of happiness in their beholding of God’s glory and the King in his beauty in eternity, some will have a greater capacity for that glory. Hear Jonathan Edwards,
For all shall be perfectly happy, every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others.
Varying degrees of reward that accord with their deeds on Earth mark the saints’ experiences in eternity. There exists a glory hierarchy of sorts in eternity. Some fly further up and further in, treading ever closer to the throne, able to take in more of the glory of God by virtue of their increased Christlike capacity. The remarkable reality is that because of the absence of sin, namely envy and pride, this varying degree of reward, this glory hierarchy actually works to everyone’s greatest joy in heaven. No one I’ve read articulates this mysteriously beautiful reality better than Jonathan Edwards. I commend the following meditation from his sermon on Romans 2:10, “The Portion of the Righteous” which he preached in December of 1740.
There are different degrees of happiness and glory in heaven. As there are degrees among the angels, viz. thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; so there are degrees among the saints. In heaven are many mansions, and of different degrees of dignity. The glory of the saints above will be in some proportion to their eminency in holiness and good works here. Christ will reward all according to their works. He that gained ten pounds was made ruler over ten cities, and he that gained five pounds over five cities. Luke 19:17; 2 Cor. 9:6, “He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” And the apostle Paul tells us that, as one star differs from another star in glory, so also it shall be in the resurrection of the dead. 1 Cor. 15:41. Christ tells us that he who gives a cup of cold water unto a disciple in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose his reward. But this could not be true, if a person should have no greater reward for doing many good works than if he did but few. It will be no damp to the happiness of those who have lower degrees of happiness and glory, that there are others advanced in glory above them. For all shall be perfectly happy, every one shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into this ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others. And there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven, but perfect love shall reign through the whole society. Those who are not so high in glory as other, will not envy those that are higher, but they will have so great, and strong, and pure love to them, that they will rejoice in their superior happiness. Their love to them will be such that they will rejoice that they are happier than themselves; so that instead of having a damp to their own happiness, it will add to it. They will see it to be fit that they that have been most eminent in works of righteousness should be most highly exalted in glory. And they will rejoice in having that done, that is fittest to be done. There will be a perfect harmony in that society; those that are most happy will also be most holy, and all will be both perfectly holy and perfectly happy. But yet there will be different degrees of both holiness and happiness according to the measure of each one’s capacity, and therefore those that are lowest in glory will have the greatest love to those that are highest in happiness, because they will see most of the image of God in them. And having the greatest love to them, they will rejoice to see them the most happy and the highest in glory. And so, on the other hand, those that are highest in glory, as they will be the most lovely, so they will be fullest of love. As they will excel in happiness, they will proportionally excel in divine benevolence and love to others, and will have more love to God and to the saints than those that are lower in holiness and happiness. And besides, those that will excel in glory will also excel in humility. Here in this world, those that are above others are the objects of envy, because that others conceive of them as being lifted up with it. But in heaven it will not be so, but those saints in heaven who excel in happiness will also in holiness, and consequently in humility. The saints in heaven are more humble than the saints on earth, and still the higher we go among them the greater humility there is. The highest orders of saints, who know most of God, see most of the distinction between God and them, and consequently are comparatively least in their own eyes, and so are more humble. The exaltation of some in heaven above the rest will be so far from diminishing the perfect happiness and joy of the rest who are inferior, that they will be the happier for it. Such will be the union in their society that they will be partakers of each other’s happiness. Then will be fulfilled in its perfection that which is declared in 1 Cor. 12:26, “If one of the members be honoured all the members rejoice with it.”[1]
[1] Jonathan Edwards, “The Portion of the Righteous” Romans 2:10, December 1740.
