musings on the idea of future rewards

Attending three funerals of close family members in the past 16 months has made me think a lot about eternity and how I should prioritize or re-prioritize my life.  Another related question is the matter of rewards.  Can we speak of future eternal rewards? As a good Protestant who takes his justification doctrine straight, I know that my sins are forgiven past, present and future.  So the future of justification is already here in my life in that the final judgment of the End has invaded my present with the verdict of "not guilty."  This verdict rests solely on the completed work of Christ and His obedience in life and death and resurrection.  But what about rewards?  Do we get to have awards, like at a graduation where some receive distinctions while other don't (e.g. Tommy Boy)?  What about the texts that speak to giving an account at the end? 2 Cor 5:10, "for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil" (see also Roman 14:10).  Or the other famous one in 1 Cor 3:13, "each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done." 

One way to look at this question is to affirm  both a salvation based on Christ's completed works, with the resulting transformed life (= a living faith), and accountability for our lives on earth.  The justified life will be lived out by righteous actions, which will then result in rewards on the last day when our good works will be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ.  Our ultimate "Graduation" (=life eternal) is based on Christ's work on the Cross, but we are still held to account for what we do in the body (see Titus on this in particular) and this is where we'll have the different GPA's, as it were, revealed.  This is perhaps what Paul meant, also in 1 Cor 3, when he concludes his thought in v 14, "If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward."  Then comes the contrasting outcome in v 15, "if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."    The same sense of urgency to "do good" is also reflected in Revelation and the stern messages to the churches in Asia Minor (see Thytira in particular, Rev 3: 26-28).    So, our works won't justify and thereby save us before the Holy One of Israel (ask the hapless Isaiah in Isa 6!), but we must be committed to a life of holiness and obedience (1 Peter). 

In the end, however, any notion of future rewards in fact circles right back to God Himself.   He is the One who empowers His servants for service by the Holy Spirit, as Paul makes clear in Romans 8.  God Himself actually gets ALL the glory for our faithful service/rewards (e.g., the visual aid of the elders casting down their crowns before the throne, Rev 4). So we can all take courage in our brief wilderness wanderings on this earth, knowing that the Lord Himself will be our reward!