Every false world religion such as Roman Catholicism teaches salvation as a reward, Scripture defines salvation as a gift. What is the difference, you ask?

A “reward” is defined as “a thing given in recognition of one’s service, effort, or achievement.” A gift is defined as “a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present”. So the difference is quite clear, the one who views salvation as a reward is working for their salvation, where as one who believes salvation as a gift also believes that gift was given unconditionally or not on the basis of any work.

Those is the “rewards” camp view their church attendance, religiosity, their “charitable” works, their inherent goodness, and subjective moral obedience, as all giving God a basis to reward them, to give them salvation based on their effort, service to Him, and their various subjective achievement. In the end, they view God weighing all these things against their sins, and if the scale tips in their favor, God will reward them with eternal life. Every world religion will pervert Scripture or disregard it all together to preach this demonic humanism. This rewards camp basically eliminates the person and work of Jesus Christ in favor for their own.

The problem is, Scripture does not teach salvation as a reward, it never did. Romans 5:6 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Scripture teaches that God saves the “ungodly” sinner, not the godly, so what does this mean? It means that when and if you are saved, you did nothing, Jesus Christ did it all in your place. Thus salvation is always a GIFT, never a reward. Because salvation is a GIFT, it means you did not deserve it! By grace alone God granted it. And since it is a gift, as Romans 3:27 and Ephesians 2:9 clear teach us, that the one granted this gift of salvation can NEVER boast. They can never boast, because they achieved nothing, they gave zero effort, they did not serve God, and the gift was granted.

Which camp are you in? The rewards camp whose end is eternal hell, or on the gift road, the narrow way which ends in eternal life with Jesus Christ.