In my last post I made it clear that the gospel of John indicates that salvation comes to those that believe (trust) in Jesus. The reason some Christians add things to salvation is not because they themselves are lost. Saved people often add requirements to salvation because they never learned understanding. They do not know the scriptures or they mishandle the scriptures, and then want everyone else to comply with their own misunderstanding.

Fallen descendants of Adam played no role in Adam’s sin resulting in the fall. They also have zero  ability to become anything more than the sinful mortal creatures that they are. Only God could redeem fallen humankind to the beings He had in mind for them to be. God accomplished this redemption by sending His own Son to become a mortal man and pay the price for Adam’s sin. By Adam’s disobedience, he and all his descendants became mortal. By the Kinsman Redeemer’s obedience unto death and His resurrection into immortality, humans trusting in Him receive His Spirit and share in His eternal life. Humans play no role in their salvation other than to accept it by trusting in the righteousness of their Creator to do what was necessary to restore what Adam had lost.

Because only belief in the Biblical Jesus is required for salvation, I think there will be more souls saved than most fundamental Protestants believe. However, because belief in the Biblical Jesus is required, I also think there will be less saved than what most liberal Protestants believe. Most Catholics don’t claim to have a clue, so no point in me speculating there. All saved come in through faith in the Son that God sent to be the Kinsman Redeemer of the human race. Having said that, getting saved is not a reward because rewards only come to those that earn it. We did nothing to earn salvation. Rewards come to those saved who perform faithful service for their Creator.

A baby born into the natural world has potential, but is not very useful to anyone as an infant. A babe in Christ has unlimited potential, but until he grows in Christ he is not going to be very useful in helping to build upon the house of God. Those hearing and believing the gospel are born into a new creation but only those doing works of the Spirit are accomplishing anything worthwhile. Living in our flesh nature does not nullify what God birthed in believers. Nevertheless, the flesh wars against the spirit. Living in the flesh stunts our spiritual growth.

All that receive Jesus eat of the tree of life and get eternal life. Even so, learning to live by the power of the Spirit takes faith. Believers already have been given eternal life, but only those doing works of the Holy Spirit receive eternal rewards.

What I am trying to point out is that getting saved and going to Heaven is not the reward. Many Christians want to think that it is. Salvation is the only thing many ignorant Christians work for. Salvation is offered to everyone that believes, apart from anything they did. However, eternal rewards are only given to those that had faithful service. Paul compared it to a race (1Co 9:24). Getting saved gets us into the race, but only those that run a good race will get rewards at the finish line.

The rewards are crowns, and leadership positions in God’s Kingdom. Contrary to what some think,  there will not be equal outcomes for everyone saved. We will not all be floating around harping for eternity. God always has hierarchy in His creation. The book of Revelation makes it perfectly clear that there is hierarchy in heaven. We also see hierarchy on the earth. Israel had a hierarchy of kings and priests. The Hebrews were even told to pick rulers over tribes, thousands, hundreds and tens by merit. The Church is also told to choose elders and deacons by merit.

In the gospels, Jesus gives us a number of illustrations of servants receiving different payments for what they did. Jesus said his twelve apostles in the Kingdom would be sitting on twelve thrones leading the twelve tribes of Israel  My point is that receiving salvation is not the end game. It gets the saved in the race for eternal rewards. We advance by doing spiritual works pleasing to God. Some of those saved will do that, and they will win crowns and eternal rewards, and some won’t (1 Cor 3: 12-15).

Paul makes it clear that there are mature Christians, maturing Christians, babes in Christ and carnal Christians (1Cor 3:1). Paul called those he was writing to brethren, so he considered even carnal Christians saved. Some claim you can know who the Christians are by their fruit, but what fruits are babes in Christ and carnal Christians going to have? The passage in Matt 7 about knowing them by their fruits implies knowing prophets and religious leaders by the fruit they produce. I think Christians would be wise to taste the fruit their leaders are selling before they buy any of it. There would be far less heresy.

How do babes in Christ, simple people and mentally handicapped people measure up to the requirements of the Christian fruit inspectors? Do we determine who is saved by their works, or by their confession? Why do we even presume that we can judge the salvation of anyone confessing to be Christian?

I think it would be far better if we assumed those confessing to believe in Jesus are saved people. Then there would be far less preaching to the choir each Sunday for the choir to get saved. Maybe pastors and teachers could then move on to topics that actually aid in spiritual growth. I think it is rather moronic to keep preaching salvation to the saved every time Christians meet. The assembling together of believers is primarily for believers, but you would not know it by the messages given each Sunday in most churches.

In any case, congregations are not usually made up of all mature Christians. Those saved will not all grow to become disciples of Christ. Jesus will judge who deserve the rewards and positions of authority for His Kingdom. We cannot determine who really will be deserving of these rewards because all humans have different natural handicaps and all have different natural and spiritual gifts. To those to who more is given, more will be required. The Lord will be a fair judge. Frankly, some acting the most holy and mature in our congregations are just better at acting or are more naturally gifted than are others.

Long term Carnal Christians could be comparable to prodigal sons. They will walk away and do their own thing in the world, but it will eventually make them miserable. True sons will return to God at some point. Any father will rejoice when a wayward child of his comes to his senses and returns to his presence, but it is the faithful older brother that inherits all that the father has. The prodigal son comes back to his fathers house because he knows things are better there, but he still squandered his inheritance. My moral of the story is the Father is merciful and does not disown His children. However, worldly living has consequences. Believers can be comforted in the assurance of salvation, but they should fear losing eternal rewards if they depart to take the worldly path.