Facing Your Final Job Review - Back to the Bible

Back to the Bible Radio Transcript
Series: Facing Your Final Job Review (Week 1 of 3)
Program Title: Facing the Great Job Review
Dr. Woodrow Kroll
April 1, 2011
Woodrow Kroll: Eternal rewards. Do we ignore them or look forward to
them?
Tami Weissert: We'll settle that debate as we go Back to the Bible.
Woodrow Kroll: Stay with us, won't you? Hi, I'm Woodrow Kroll.
Tami Weissert: I'm Tami Weissert.
Woodrow Kroll: And this is Back to the Bible.
Tami Weissert: OK, today we're talking about rewards. And Wood, just so
we get the proper perspective, give us a quick review on rewards versus
salvation.
Woodrow Kroll: The big difference is that salvation is a free gift; it cannot
be earned. Rewards on the other hand are a gracious wage; they must be
earned. Rewards are only earned after a person is saved. You earn your
rewards only for the things that you do in service to God, things that are
acceptable to Him. And before you are saved, there's really nothing you can
do to make yourself acceptable to God.
Tami Weissert: So no need for guilt, then, when we think or talk about
rewards?
Woodrow Kroll: A little guilt doesn't hurt. We clearly need to have the
proper attitude when we're serving the Lord. I think we need to double
check our motivations. We need to make sure that they're wholesome, that
they're pleasing to God. But we never need to feel guilty about not doing
things that God has not gifted us to do or things that He has not given the
opportunity to do. Our job is to take what we have and who we are and
maximize that for the glory of God.
Tami Weissert: Wood, you wrote an entire book on this subject. It's called,
like our radio series, Facing Your Final Job Review. As you were working on
this book, were you surprised on how little was written about each one of
our rewards outside of the Bible?
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Woodrow Kroll: Yes, I was surprised. Actually, I wrote a book on this same
subject way back in the late 70s; and at that time there was nothing in print
on this subject. Since that time, not much has been added.
Tami Weissert: Wood, you did a thorough and outstanding job of covering
salvation, eternal rewards, and the Judgment Seat of Christ in your book,
Facing Your Final Job Review. And for any of you who would like to order it,
you can do that by going to our website backtothebible.org or in Canada
backtothebible.ca. Let's begin today's study. Here's Dr. Kroll.
Woodrow Kroll: Here's the question: Is it right for you and me, as
Christians, even to think about eternal rewards? Shouldn't we just serve the
Lord because we love the Lord? Isn't that reason enough to serve the Lord?
What I want to do today, I want you to see how often the Bible talks about
payment, how often the Bible talks about reward.
By the way, in Genesis 15:1 it says, "After these things the word of the
LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Fear not, Abram, I am your shield,
your reward shall be very great.'"
All the way back in Genesis 15, the whole subject of rewards is already
introduced to us.
Let's see some of the Old Testament references.
Starting with Ruth 2:12: "The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a
full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you
have come to take refuge."
Notice: ". . . a full reward given you."
Now listen to Psalm 19:9-11: "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring
forever; The rules of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. More
to be desired than gold, even much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and
drippings from the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned;
and in keeping them there is great reward."
This verse not only tells us there is reward; it also tells us there must be
degrees of reward as well.
Another Old Testament verse, Isaiah 62:11: "Behold, the Lord has
proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold,
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your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense
before Him.'"
All right, I just read three Old Testament verses about reward. So the
concept of rewards is not a new concept for us today. The Old Testament
talks about rewards often.
And also the New Testament talks about them. Here's Matthew 6:3,4: "But
when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right
hand is doing, that your giving may be in secret; and your Father who sees
in secret will reward you."
Rewards again in the New Testament, Matthew 16:27: "For the Son of Man
is going to come with His angels in the glory of his Father, and then He will
repay each person according to what he has done."
And then Luke 23:40,41: "But the other rebuked him saying, 'Do you not
fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we
indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this
man has done nothing wrong.'"
As you can see, the concept in the New Testament is not much different
from the concept in the Old Testament. And both Old Testament and New
Testament writers do not back away from talking about rewards.
If the Bible doesn't back away from the subject, why would we?
First of all, I think we ought to talk about rewards because the Bible talks
about rewards.
Secondly, it's important for you and me to be discussing rewards, whether
it's here on Back to the Bible or any place else, because it's rewards that
confirm our salvation.
You cannot serve the Lord until you are saved. Until you become a servant,
you can't be a servant to the Lord.
If you've ever listened to me on radio, you know that I often talk about
Ephesians 2:8-9. And I always say: You should never quote Ephesians 2:8-9
without verse 10, because 8 and 9 talk about salvation being by faith, but
verse 10 talks about why there is a salvation in the first place. And that is,
we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has already
ordained that we should walk in them.
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The purpose of my salvation was not just to get me to heaven. The purpose
of my salvation was to create a servant who could serve the Lord all my
days here on earth.
Let me read something to you from Randy Alcorn about rewards and
eternality. He says, "Somewhere we've gotten the erroneous idea that God's
works is a dirty word. This is totally false. While He condemns works done to
earn salvation, and works done to impress others, our Lord enthusiastically
commends righteous works done for the right reasons."*
God created us to do good works. He has a lifetime of good works for each
of us to do and will reward us according to whether or not we do them.
Indeed, Scripture ties God's reward giving to His very character. "God is not
unjust; he will not forget your work and the love that you have shown him
as you have helped his people and continue to help them." That's Hebrews
6:10.
Rewards are God's way of simply saying, "You've followed through. Good
job. Well done good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord."
Rewards are important to us because they confirm our salvation. You can't
get rewards unless you do the work that the Lord gives you after you've
been saved.
Tami Weissert: Dr. Kroll is talking about eternal rewards here on Back to
the Bible.
Wood, we've been taught all our lives that as Christians we shouldn't seek
rewards here. So we get that in our mind and then we turn to the idea of
eternal rewards, and it's hard to make that switch or that distinction. Any
way for us to balance those two?
Woodrow Kroll: What we've been taught in Sunday school and what we do
in life generally is never the same thing. We work for rewards here all the
time, but we do it in the arena of our occupation, not in the arena of eternal
salvation. While we have an idea that you cannot work for your salvation
(that's a dirty word, as Randy Alcorn says), once we're saved that's what
we're all about—working for the Lord. And if we separate salvation from
rewards, as we've been doing all this week here on Back to the Bible, it's
pretty clear that rewards come post-salvation. Nothing you do prior to the
day you are saved contributes to rewards afterwards. But everything you do
afterwards either brings about a reward or causes you to lose a reward.
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Tami Weissert: Wood, Scripture tells us over and over not to reject the
discipline of the Lord. Psalm 13:18 even says that discipline will result in
honor.
Woodrow Kroll: If God loves us, and He does, and He knows the things we
do will rob us of reward if He doesn't stop us or correct us, then if He loves
us, He needs to stop us or correct us. And we don't like that. But as the
Bible says, that may hurt for a short time, but it's going to have eternal
benefit to us. And that's what doing constant judgment in our lives is all
about.
We have to constantly be looking at our lives and saying, Does this please
the Lord? You've heard me say this before, I want to say it again right now:
We need to start every day at the Judgment Seat of Christ and work
backwards, because everything I do today and everything you do today will
one day be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ. I can't put that off until
some future day. That has impact on how I live my life today. So I want to
judge everything I do today based on what I know about that day.
Tami Weissert: Wood, Jesus saves us, He gives us eternal life, and we love
that, but the day is coming when He will also be our Judge.
Woodrow Kroll: Yes, and that's a very important day for us. So I think we
need to know what to expect. That's what this radio series is all about. And
I've entitled it Facing Your Final Job Review.
Tami Weissert: You also wrote a book called Facing Your Final Job Review.
Woodrow Kroll: I did, and it parallels what we've been studying here on
the radio. It's my collection and explanation of Bible verses on the Judgment
Seat of Christ, salvation, and also on rewards. I decided to write the book as
an easy biblical reference for everything the Bible says on these subjects.
Tami Weissert: We have Dr. Kroll's book, Facing Your Final Job Review,
available to order. And when you place your order, we'll add his study guide
at no extra cost. So give us a call for his book and bonus study guide. Here's
the phone number: 1-800-759-2425.
Future rewards have an impact on how we live our lives today. But do we
focus on the rewards or the service for the rewards. Dr. Kroll talks about our
actions, our motivations, and our rewards as we continue our study here on
Back to the Bible.
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Woodrow Kroll: Today we're thinking about the issue of whether or not we
even ought to be discussing rewards. Is it spiritual for us to do so? I mean,
shouldn't we just serve the Lord and let it go at that?
But we've seen already that rewards confirm our salvation. That's one of the
reasons why God gives us rewards. But some people will say to you, "OK
look, forget all this talk about eternal rewards, we ought to just serve Jesus
because we love Him."
I appreciate that sentiment. I agree we ought to serve the Lord because we
love Him, but that sentimentality is not biblical thinking.
I'm sorry if that offends you, but that's what the Bible says. You don't serve
the Lord just because you love Him. That ought to be reason enough.
But let me see if I can give you an example. You love your mother, right?
Well, of course you do. Supposing your mother is now a widow, lost your
father, and your mother is living in a distant city from you. And you decide
(you and your wife or you and your husband decide) that you're going to
bring your mother to live with you. But not in your house; you're going to
build on to your house, add a little mother's apartment for your mother. You
want her to be close to you and the kids, but you want her to have her own
space.
You're not a carpenter. You don't know the first thing about framing out a
house, but you've got a hammer, and you go to a local store and you get
some lumber and things, and you start pounding away.
Well, lo and behold, after a few months you have this nice little apartment
you've made for your mother. So she moves into her little apartment
because you love her, you built it for her. And she starts to hang some
pictures of your father. And she puts a nail in the wall and, lo and behold,
the nail goes right through; just pounds it right through the wall. And she
comes to you and says, "Son, I need you to help me find that board that's
behind the wall. I need you to help me find that board."
So you take a nail and you pound it in the wall, and you miss the stud, and
you move it, and you pound, and you miss it. First thing you know, your wall
looks like Swiss cheese.
Your neighbor comes over and says, "What's the problem?"
You say, "I can't find the stud in this wall."
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And he says to you, "Didn't you put all those studs 16 inches on center?"
You say, "What?"
See, you love your mom so you built an apartment for her, but you didn't
build it according to the rules. You just built it because you love her.
If you serve the Lord just because you love Him, and you don't pay any
attention to the rules, what you're going to have is an apartment you can't
hang any pictures up in.
Sure, we ought to serve the Lord because we love Him. But loving Him is not
sufficient reason to serve the Lord. There are other reasons we have to dig
out of the Bible so we serve Him appropriately. And if we serve Him
appropriately, all the studs in our life are going to be 16 inches on center.
Loving Jesus, serving Him--that's good. That's good motivation, by the way,
but God doesn't stop there. His gracious rewards are strong and legitimate
motivation for you and me to serve the Lord.
In fact, Jesus commands us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth and rust do not corrupt. He urges us to be rich toward God,
Luke 12:21. It's an ambition that's both a healthy ambition and a holy
ambition. It's something we ought to do--to labor for rewards to please Him,
and also benefit us at the same time.
Rewards ought to be an important motivation for us, if for no other reason
than there are so many people in the Bible that talk about how rewards
ought to motivate us to serve the Lord.
Let me give you some examples. The Lord Jesus Himself lists rewards as a
motivation for service. Listen to this, Matthew 6:1, "Beware of practicing
your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then
you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Jesus warned
you, "Watch how you live your life, because if you don't live it correctly, your
reward is gone; you already have your reward." That's the Lord Jesus talking
about rewards as a motivation.
Here's the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:24, "Do you not know that in a race
all runners compete, but only one receives the prize? [Now, listen to this,]
So run that you may obtain it." Run that you can obtain the prize set before
you.
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Paul doesn't say, "Get in the race and love the Lord." You know, boy it would
be so great if you just showed your great admiration for the Lord while you
run. Paul says, "Get in the race, love the Lord and run to win." That's
rewards. That's motivation.
Here's what Peter says, 1 Peter 1:17, "And if you call on Him as Father, who
judges impartially according to one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear
throughout the time of your exile." God will judge us impartially, but He will
judge us according to our deeds. That's motivation to serve the Lord
correctly.
Here's what James says, James 1:12, "Blessed is the man who remains
steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the
crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him."
OK, God promises the crown of life to everybody who loves Him. Why then
does James talk about standing steadfast under trial? Because loving Him is
not some emotional, mushy, gushy feeling in which you say, "Oh, God, You
know how much I love You!" That's what you sing about. That's not what
you do.
When you translate your feelings into life, you have to stand up under the
trials of life. That's what motivates you for a reward.
By the way, here's what the Apostle John says, 2 John:8, "Watch yourselves,
so that you may not lose what you have worked for, but so that you may
receive a full reward" (paraphrase). Just be careful! Watch how you live your
life. Don't allow anything in life to rob you of receiving a full reward.
If he talks about a full reward, I have to guess then that there's a partial
reward. And maybe even no reward at all. We'll get to that eventually in our
study. But for today, the issue is: Should we talk about rewards or not? And
the answer is: The Bible does, Jesus does, Paul does, James does, John
does. Why would we not talk about them today?
Rewards are designed by God to motivate us to service. Whatever God
designs, it has got to be for our good.
Tami Weissert: We're talking about eternal rewards today here on Back to
the Bible.
Wood, I appreciate this because if we're living our lives for the Lord and
things come in to distract us or pull us away from that, rewards are there as
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something tangible we can relate to and understand. And that motivates us
to keep going, even when we may not feel like it.
Woodrow Kroll: Motivation, I think, is the key factor in doing anything.
People who are motivated to do nothing always accomplish nothing. And it
takes genuine motivation to serve the Lord honestly and to serve the Lord
well. But that motivation first and foremost should come from our deepseated
desire to glorify God in everything that we do. We want to please God
and His Christ. We want to work for His Kingdom, not for our own. We want
to do His will, not our own will. And when that's the case, we can't help but
be properly motivated in the way that we serve the Lord.
Tami Weissert: Wood, talk a little bit about balance—focusing on rewards
versus focusing on service.
Woodrow Kroll: I think we ought to be focused on service. Service does
bring reward. But let's focus on the right thing. It's not that we shouldn't
ever focus on rewards. We shouldn't live our lives there. I mean, our lives
are lived in service to the Lord. And whether or not we get a reward, we still
belong to Him and we need to serve Him for that reason. It's not, however,
unspiritual or ungodly or even unbiblical to think about rewards because
that's one of God's motivations to keep us focused on service.
Let me say one last thing before we wrap up today, and that is: Let's
recognize that rewards were God's idea. You don't like to talk about
rewards? You wipe out of the Bible something God does like to talk about.
Let's face it, rewards aren't about us. Service isn't about us. Rewards reflect
the gracious character of God more than they reflect any useful service that
we have done.
Rewards are not about us, they're about the giver of the reward. While we
have a tendency to focus on you and me and our rewards, what we need to
focus on is the glory of God and the One who gives rewards to us.
Rewards are God's idea; that's a good thing. We focus on God while we're
receiving our rewards; that's a good thing. Thankfully, God motivates us to
receive rewards and He helps us in the process of being motivated to serve
Him to become more intimate with Him.
The more we serve in rewardable service, the more intimate we become
with God. You want to become intimate with God? You can read a ton of
books, you can walk in the rain, you can commune with God. But if you want
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to really get know God, get to know Him through the way you live your life.
And when you and I do that, we'll be pleasing God.
Fathers love to reward their children. Let's not deny God the great joy of
providing rewards for you and me.
Tami Weissert: Thanks for joining us today here on Back to the Bible.
Wood, I think it's pretty clear after today that we know it's all right and, in
fact, may be a good thing that we're motivated by eternal rewards. So thank
you for that.
You made a comment about how you want to start every day at the
Judgment Seat of Christ. Help us out a bit. What does that look like?
Because we want that too.
Woodrow Kroll: Next week we're going to actually see what the Judgment
Seat of Christ is like, not physically, but what does it mean to us as
individuals.
In my mind every day, I want to start my day at the Judgment Seat and
say, OK, by six o'clock, I'm going to be doing such-and-such. By nine
o'clock, I'm going to be doing such-and-such. And I have to ask myself
along the way during the day, Is what I am doing now what God wants me
to be doing? Am I wasting my day? Am I wasting my time. Am I wasting my
eternity and my reward based on the things that rob my time today?
So every day I have to start at the Judgment Seat of Christ, submit
everything that day to the Judgment Seat so when I put my head on the
pillow at night, I can say, "OK, Lord, this was my last 24-hour period. What
do You think?" I don't want to wait until tomorrow to find out how things
went today. Because if things didn't go so well today, I need to correct them
by tomorrow. So we start every day at the Judgment Seat.
Tami Weissert: You're listening to Back to the Bible with Bible Teacher
Woodrow Kroll. Today's radio study is part of Dr. Kroll's series called "Facing
Your Final Job Review." That's a complete three-week radio series, and you
can order it on CD. Also available is Dr. Kroll's book by the same title. And
when you order it, we will include the accompanying study guide as a bonus.
"Facing Your Final Job Review," the CD series, the book and the study guide
are all available to order. Just give us a call at 1-800-759-2425.
This was our first week of preparation for facing our final job review. We
have two more to go. What's in store for us next week, Wood?
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Woodrow Kroll: We're going to look at the evaluation that happens at the
Judgment Seat of Christ. And on Monday, I'm going to talk about two things:
1) That evaluation is absolutely necessary. In other words, none of us can
escape. And 2) That evaluation is absolutely universal. In other words, none
of us can escape. This is something every Christian (and if you are a believer
today, that means you--every Christian) can look forward to. That's Monday
here on Back to the Bible.
The weekend is here. Make sure you're in your church this weekend, as well,
being faithful to your local congregation and your pastor.
Then join us on Monday as we come back to Facing Your Final Job Review
right here on Back to the Bible. God bless you. I'm Woodrow Kroll. Have a
good and godly day.
*Randy Alcorn, "The Believer's Judgment of Works", Eternal Perspectives,
January/February, 1994.
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