Good Works for Christ
Our good works are done only because Christ lived and died to make them possible. Peter declares, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Pet. 2:24). In other words, Christ died so we could and would do good works. His death will not be in vain. For God to reward our good works, then, expresses his pleasure with the work of his Son. If we think about God rewarding our good works in terms of his honoring his Son’s work, perhaps we will be less nervous about this topic. It is wonderful to think of God honoring and rewarding his Son by rewarding us for our good works done in Christ’s name. This keeps us from being too anthropocentric about rewards and places a more Christ–centered focus on our approach to this important doctrine.
Mark Jones. A Christian's Pocket Guide to Good Works and Rewards: In this Life and the Next (Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2007), 23