In QUESTIONS - Is God Ever Thankful Toward Us?, the host analyzes Luke 17:7-10 and 1 John 1:8-9 to argue that while God rewards obedience, He never offers gratitude for human duty since no one achieves sinless perfection. Drawing on Jonathan Edwards and the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the discussion posits a heavenly hierarchy where varying degrees of sanctification determine eternal enjoyment of God, rejecting final justification in favor of salvation by grace alone. The segment concludes by promoting Right Response Ministries' May 5th-7th conference featuring James White and Joe Boot, alongside calls for support for their new post-millennialism documentary and studio construction. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Unworthy Servants and Heavenly Rewards00:11:08
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A friend and I had a discussion over this question Is God thankful?
Is he thankful to those who obey his word or only pleased with their obedience?
Is he generally thankful for anything or does he have no reason to be?
That's a good question.
All right, let me look something up.
I think that the text that I want to look at is Luke chapter 17.
It's a parable.
Luke chapter 17.
And we'd probably start in verse 7.
Let's see.
Let me just read it.
Could be the wrong passage.
We'll see.
Luke chapter 17, starting verse 7 through verse 10.
Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and recline at table?
Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink?
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants, we have only done what is our duty.
There you go.
Let me read it again.
And remember, this is Jesus, right?
This is a parable.
It's talking, you know, in the parable, the characters at play are earthly servants and an earthly master.
But the guy who's telling the parable is the Lord Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God.
And Jesus seems that he's not, he's not.
Now, Jesus uses different parables for different purposes.
But in this particular parable, it doesn't seem as though Christ is saying, this is the way the world works, but not so with me.
As the heavenly master.
Not so with God, who is your ultimate true master, eternal master.
It doesn't seem like that's the purpose of the parable.
It doesn't seem as Jesus is saying, this is what occurs in the earthly servant master relationship, but that is entirely distinct and contrasted from the heavenly relationship between Christians and God as their master.
No, instead, it seems like Jesus is saying, here's a scenario, an illustration, if you will, that we can find on earth.
That is indicative of the relationship that we find in heaven.
The way that a master and servant relate to one another on earth is similar, at least similar, not contrasted, but similar to the nature of the relationship between Christians and their master who is in heaven, their relationship with God.
I'll read it one more time.
This is Luke 17, verse 7 through 10.
Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping a Sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and recline at table.
Oh, you just got done working.
Now, have a seat.
Take off your coat and stay a while.
Let me fan you to help cool you down, get you a nice cold glass of lemonade.
Does that occur?
And the implicit answer is no.
No, that's not how it works.
Come at once and recline at table.
Verse 8 now.
Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink?
And afterward, you will eat and drink.
Does he thank the servant?
There's your question, Luke McLamb.
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
So, you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, right?
So now he's speaking to the disciples.
So, you also, when you have done all that was commanded of your heavenly master, God, you should simply say, We are unworthy servants.
We have only done what was our duty.
Meaning this no man can say to God, I have done you a favor.
No matter what it is that we do in this lifetime for the Lord, no matter how we're remembered by church history, Whether we're a martyr, whether we're one of the most faithful people who have ever lived, whether you're the Apostle Paul or whatever it might be, the most sanctified man on earth who lives his entire life towards the Lord Jesus Christ, not sinless perfection, because no man can do that but Christ alone, but he gets as close as you could possibly get, right?
Let's say that apart from Christ, you're the most sanctified man to walk the earth, you do much faithful ministry for the Lord Jesus.
In that scenario, you still could not claim when you stand before Jesus and he says, Well done, good and faithful servant.
This is the master commending the servant, but that's not necessarily to be taken as the master thanking the servant.
There is a difference between commending and gratitude.
Jesus will say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
And Jesus, right now, he's giving us our cue.
He's saying, When you step into the pearly gates and when you see me and I say, Well done, good and faithful servant, here's your response We are unworthy servants.
We have only done what was our duty.
We did not do you a favor, master.
The Lord Jesus Christ, God, our Heavenly Master.
We did not do you a favor.
We simply did what we owed.
And in fact, because we don't reach sinless perfection in this life, we would have to say we have only done what was our duty.
And in some degree or another, in this way and in that, we actually failed to do our duty.
We did less than our duty, would be the biblical teaching.
So no one does God a favor.
The best that a Christian can do by grace through faith in Christ in obedience is not doing God a favor above and beyond, but simply doing their duty.
And because we don't believe in sinless perfection in this life, right?
1 John 1, verse 8 and 9.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So every single Christian, the best that we can say when we stand before Christ and he says, Well done, good and faithful servant, we can respond by saying, We have only done what was our duty, and we are deeply repentant for all the ways that we did less, not more, but less than our duty because we are sinners saved by grace.
He doesn't thank them.
So I don't know.
I mean, you could read into it a little bit more.
That's my hot take, right?
That's my hot take.
But in terms of what I can tell, biblically speaking, I don't think that God thanks us for our obedience.
I do believe that God rewards us for obedience, but this is grace.
And I believe that God commends us.
For obedience, I do believe in heavenly rewards, right?
That's a highly debatable thing.
I don't believe in final justification, another John Piperism.
So I don't believe in final justification.
I would stand against other things that are similar to that, federal vision.
So I don't believe in final justification.
We're justified by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.
That's it.
That's it.
But I do believe that we will be rewarded in heaven, not with salvation.
Salvation is received by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.
That's it.
That's it.
Justification is all of grace.
But I do believe that as we seek in our Christian lives post justification, as we seek to obey God, that we will receive certain heavenly rewards.
There's a lot of debate as to what those are.
Jonathan Edwards, I'll just do this real quick, as quick as I can.
But Jonathan Edwards talks about people's capacity for enjoying God, right?
Westminster Catechism, shorter catechism, first question and longer is what is the chief end of man?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
All right, so it's to glorify God.
We do that by obeying God.
That's one of the ways we bring Him glory, trusting in God, faith in God, obedience to God, but also to enjoy God forever, right?
John Owen talks about that.
The heart of the gospel is justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
But the end of the gospel is eternal and perfect, satisfying communion with the triune God, right?
So enjoying God is the chief end of man, it's part of the chief end of man.
And what Edwards argues is that people in heaven will have varying.
Right, because again, it's not egalitarian.
There's hierarchy in heaven, right?
There are cherubim and seraphim.
There's four living creatures covered with eyes, with six wings, with two they fly, two they cover their feet, two they cover their faces, and they cry out, Holy, holy, holy.
There's 24 elders, and then there's a lot of angelic beings that are not elders.
24 elders sitting on thrones, casting their crowns, right?
But then there are, you know, so there is a pecking order.
There's a hierarchy in heaven, and God has created hierarchy on earth.
There is no Marxism in the Christian faith anywhere.
Not even in hell.
Jesus literally talks about how one will be given a severe beating and one will be given a lesser beating.
Hell will be no picnic for anyone.
Hell will be bad for everyone, but it will not be equally bad.
Right?
Jesus says when he's pronouncing woes on Jewish cities, on cities in Israel, he says, it will be worse for you than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah.
For if the miracles that I performed in you were performed in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented long ago.
Meaning what?
When there are degrees of sin, Not all sins are equal.
All sins are equal in their ability to separate us from God, to send us to hell for eternity, and all sins are also equal for the redeemed in the sense that a little sin or a big sin still merits, if we are to be saved, it merits the death of Jesus on the cross.
So all sin is equal in that regard.
But there are sins that God detests and sins that God hates.
God hates all sin, but he does not hate all sin equally.
And all sin does not have equal consequences in earthly terms, in physical terms.
Some sins will ruin your life.
The Bible even says there are sins that lead to death, right?
So sin is not equal, hell is not equal, heaven is not equal, and earth is not equal.
And so getting to heaven, everyone who's in heaven has been equally justified.
There are no degrees of justification, there are degrees of sanctification.
Yet God is sovereign not only over our justification, but also our sanctification.
So if someone is more sanctified than someone else, even that is still of grace, it's God's doing.
God creates by his grace, God performs, I should say, by the Spirit in his grace, a greater degree of sanctification for one than the other.
Degrees of Sanctification in Heaven00:04:57
And then God rewards in heaven with a greater reward.
God is ultimately graciously rewarding his own gracious work of sanctification.
But some will get greater rewards because God graciously performed a greater degree of sanctification than the other.
Edwards says that what those rewards may look like is that everyone will be satisfied in heaven.
There will be no lack, there will be no discontentment.
Everyone will be satisfied.
Everyone will be, right, the chief end of man to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Everyone will be fully enjoying God, but we will have varying capacities for enjoying God.
So think of it like, don't think of it as like a bunch of cups set up on a table, and one is half full, and one's three quarters full, one is a fifth full, and one is completely full.
Don't think of it like that.
Think of it like balloons, all right?
And think of all these balloons.
Is there any square inch, cubic inch inside of the balloon that's not filled with air?
They're all full, but think of balloons that one is, they're all full of air.
There's not one space inside of the balloon that doesn't have air in it, right?
But think of some balloons are this size and some are this size, right?
So, those of you who are listening on the podcast, some balloons are larger and some are smaller, meaning that there's no space inside of the small balloon or the large balloon that's not filled with air, but some balloons have more air blown into them than others, right?
That the cup grows, to switch it back to that illustration.
And so Edwards argues that varying rewards, heavenly rewards for obedience on this earth, which is still brought about by God's grace, it's He who wills and works in and through us, that which is good and pleasing in His sight.
But God rewarding His own grace, God rewards not equally, but there will be a variance in God's rewards for that same variance of God's sanctification that He brings about by grace in this life.
But nobody is empty.
Everyone's full, but people have a varying degree of capacity for fullness.
And full of what?
Satisfaction, fulfillment, enjoyment of God.
And personally, I believe that in heaven, we will evolve, right?
Not like Darwin evolution, but we will continue to grow.
We will continue to develop.
When we go to heaven, we will immediately be sinless, but we won't be omniscient.
We will always be creatures.
So even after glorification, we are still creaturely.
We are not ever going to be infinite.
So we'll still be finite.
Now, will we die in heaven?
No.
Will we get sick in heaven?
No.
Will we sin in heaven?
No.
So there's a minimum bottom baseline entry into heaven that comes with glorification.
1 John says, When we see him, we'll be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
We'll be like him in what way?
He's divine.
So when we see him in his divinity, we'll be like him.
We'll also be divine.
No.
That's a heresy.
No, it's speaking of his sinlessness.
When we see Christ in his sinlessness, we will be like him in that regard, also sinless.
But my point is, we will develop in heaven in terms of Learning, right?
We will know certain things 10,000 years into heaven that we did not know upon our first entry into heaven.
And I also think not only will we increase in our knowledge, well, knowledge of what?
Knowledge of a myriad of things, but the chief knowledge being knowledge of God.
And as we know more of God, that increases our capacity for enjoying God.
And I think that some people will enter heaven, the starting baseline, there's a minimum bottom line, sinlessness, glorification, done with sickness, done with death.
We won't grow weary, all those kinds of things that the Bible teaches.
That's the minimum baseline for all Christians, regardless of degrees of sanctification, because there are no degrees of justification.
You are fully justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
You have His righteousness, and His righteousness doesn't vary, it's the full righteousness of God, and that's the basis of our justification.
So everyone will enter heaven with a bottom baseline, as I've already said.
But upon entry, those who have been more sanctified in their obedience, I think, will receive greater rewards.
And one of those rewards is, I think, starting out in heaven.
With a higher capacity for enjoying God, knowing God and enjoying God.
But everyone, regardless of where they start, I think will be growing in heaven.
I don't think that we'll be still, that we'll be stagnant, that we'll be stuck, right?
That you get into heaven like this and that's where you stay.
I think we'll all be increasing in the knowledge and glory of God.
We'll all be developing, we'll all be improving, we'll be growing in wisdom, never infinite, never omniscient, always creatures, but glorified creatures and developing.
Elevating Our Film Endeavors00:03:55
Creatures.
I believe that the Bible speaks to that.
Now, I've gotten way off, I guess, but Nathan, can you pull that question up one more time?
The question that I was already answering.
I just want to make sure that I actually got to it.
Is God thankful?
Beautiful.
Yep.
So, all that being said, rewards, heavenly rewards?
Yes.
Final justification?
Heck no.
But heavenly rewards?
Yes.
Commending?
Faithful servants?
Yes.
Thanking?
No, I don't think so.
And I would base that off of Luke chapter 17, verses 7 through 10.
All right, all right, all right.
Stop twisting my arm.
I know you want to hear the inside scoop.
Here it is the glorious vision of Right Response Ministries for the first half of next year, 2023.
We have not one, not two, but three massive endeavors that we will accomplish by the grace of God.
The first you already know about it's our Theonomy and Post Millennialism Conference, May 5th, 6th, and 7th, with James White, Joe Boot, Gary DeMar, Dale Partridge, and yours truly, Pastor Joel Webbin.
This is selling out incredibly fast.
By the time this commercial airs, you may not even be able to get a ticket.
I really don't know.
So don't waste another moment.
Go to rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com to join us for the Theonomy and Post Millennialism Conference next year.
Now, this is where you come in.
We need your help.
Our next two endeavors are number one, a documentary style film, and number two, a brand new studio.
Both of these things are seeking to accomplish one primary goal, which is Excellent, high quality, glorious Christian media.
We are tired of, as Christians, doing things poorly.
We've done our best with what we have, but by God's grace, we want to do even better.
This is not going to be just another video.
This is not going to be a sermon or an interview or a podcast, but we're going to make a documentary style film.
And we're going to be hiring Nathan Anderson, the director of On Earth as It Is in Heaven, a very, very successful post millennialism.
Documentary that's on Amazon and YouTube came out a couple years ago.
He's going to be flying in from Chile to help us direct this film.
And our documentary is going to be on post millennialism and theonomy why it's biblically valid, why it's absolutely necessary, and why, by the grace of God, theonomy and post millennialism are currently on the rise.
So we're going to make this film and we need your support.
And not just this film, but we're going to make all of our videos and podcasting and everything we do here at Right Response Ministries.
Better.
We want to achieve the highest level of quality and Christian excellence that we possibly can.
That's where the new studio comes in.
This new film, our date that we're shooting for is that it would be complete and publicly available in May or June of 2023, next year.
The studio, our goal is that it would be completely done in its construction and the equipment and the setup and the stage and everything by January, February of 2023, next year.
We need your prayers.
We need your encouragement.
And for those of you who are willing to do so, we need your generous support.
You can give towards these endeavors by going to rightresponseministries.com forward slash donate.