Dangling Future Rewards

I do believe that salvation is a free gift from God. I believe we cannot earn our way to heaven. But what about rewards which are mentioned several times in the Bible? Are we, as Christians, supposed to work to earn rewards in heaven? Or is this just another way that church ministers get their members to serve in the church by dangling future rewards in front of them? We long to hear God say "well done my good and faithful servant", but we sometimes wonder if we are just going to sneak by. Is what I do as a Christian in this life going to determine what I do in heaven? Why do we need extra rewards anyway? Are there different social classes in heaven?
Let’s go over what the Bible says about salvation and rewards. Salvation is by grace. That message is crystal clear in the Bible. But legalism and religious manipulation have many devices and techniques that attempt to nullify, modify and diminish the power of God's grace. One device is to say that we are saved by grace and works. Wrong! Another teaching is that Jesus saves us initially, He gets us started, making a "down payment" on our salvation, but from then on it's up to us. Wrong again! Still others say, in an attempt to control and manipulate, that salvation is by grace but our reward is by works. They go on to say that we can determine our "place" in heaven by what we do now. Wrong again!
But, there are biblical accounts that seem to teach that there are levels of rewards in heaven. What about the parable of the talents (Matthew 25), the pounds (Luke 19), and the passage that speaks of how our glorified, post-resurrection bodies will have different kinds of splendor (1 Corinthians 15:35-41)? And other passages, such as 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; and Revelation 22:12 are understood by some to teach that while we are saved by grace, we will be rewarded based on our works and performance?
Matthew 20 records the parable of the workers in the vineyard, showing that each worker received the same pay even though each worked a different number of hours. The workers did the job they were given, at the time it was offered, and all of it was by God's grace. God's grace, his gracious invitation into the work of his vineyard, enabled all of the effort to be accomplished. So we are saved by grace, and salvation is the same for us all -- eternity in God's presence. On the other hand, the Bible does speak of degrees of rewards. But is it accurate to say that while we are given salvation by grace, the degree of reward, or status if you like, depends on our works? Isn't that contradictory?
The answer is that our salvation and our reward are both by grace. There would be no salvation, nor would there be a reward without grace. "Levels" or "degrees" of rewards the Bible speaks of are based upon OPPORTUNITIES that are given by God's grace. God determines precisely which gifts we are given, when and how many. In the parables of the talents and pounds, the servants are given differing amounts. Catch that. The servants are GIVEN gifts. Yes, they either use the gifts or fail to use the gifts, but the very fact that they possess gifts speaks of God's grace.
Rewards in heaven are not based on what we produce, how well we perform, how much we accomplish -- rather, they are based on UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES that we are given, by God's grace. Rewards in heaven are not the result of works-based righteousness of performance based religion.
Rewards in heaven happen because some humans are given more, and more is expected, in terms of yielding oneself to God so that He may use those gifts to produce His workmanship in us (Ephesians 2:10). Jesus is the vine, we are the fruit. We do not produce fruit because we work hard, fruit is not produced because of our diligence, but because of Jesus. Yes, we are called to yield ourselves to the Master, to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), and to pick up our cross and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). Grace means that we will be active in God's service. But we should never get the idea that what we are doing is going to save us, or that what we are doing is going to cause us to be better or superior to others, either on this side or the other side of eternity.
There are those who hold out the biblical teaching of rewards like some carrot (or by "dangling future rewards"), to motivate, and sadly, to manipulate (2 Peter 2:3). Religious legalism twists and distorts biblical teaching about rewards to control its followers -- but its take on heavenly rewards is not Christ-centered or based on God's amazing grace.

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