When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. Those who say God rewards every saved Christian equally sometimes point to a specific parable of Jesus to make their case:įor the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. The question is only whether or not there is an additional reward waiting for some of us. Now remember as we proceed, every faithful follower of Jesus Christ will receive the best gift of all eternal life. So let’s examine both cases and see if we can determine the best inference from the Biblical evidence. Some argue all heavenly reward is measured out equally to those who are saved. Now, not everyone in Christendom agrees with this idea. The orthodox Christian view of Heaven sees it as a place where rewards are distributed to the saints in accordance with the nature of their lives here on earth. The issue here is not Salvation it is reward. So, why is it so important for us to “work”? Is it so that we can earn our Salvation? No, that can’t be the reason, because the passage we just read in Ephesians makes it clear our Salvation is not the product of our work. “We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day night is coming, when no man can work.” The Apostle John reminds us of the importance of the need to “work” while we are here on Earth: This is clear from the Biblical record of Scripture. While we, as Christians, don’t believe our works have anything to do with our entry to heaven, we do understand our works have everything to do with our reward once we get there. The beliefs of Christians are often mischaracterized. After all, do we actually think all believers are acceptable to God no matter what they do or how they behave? Do we believe someone can simply say they believe but then live a life exhibiting very little evidence of this belief and still expect to get into Heaven? Doesn’t the Mormon notion of levels of Heaven (for example) seem to be a more equitable and fair position on the nature of the afterlife?Īren’t We Asked to Work While We Are Here? We cannot ‘earn’ our way into Heaven, this is a gift of God, so no man or woman could ever boast they ‘earned’ a place in Heaven with God.įor by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.īut when we make this claim to non-Christians who believe salvation results from some human effort in combination with the work of God (Jewish believers or Mormons for example), we often hear the complaint orthodox Christianity seems to ignore the behavior of believers altogether. Our ‘works’ play no role in our salvation. When we say this, we mean we believe God sets us apart for salvation based not on anything we could do on our own effort, but based on the “free gift” of salvation offered by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. As Christians, we believe that we are saved solely by the grace of God.