“Without faith it is impossible to please Him…2” Heb. 11:6 (146)
“The Spirit must first work in the soul a realization that sin has alienated us “from the life of God” Eph. 4:18. We have to be made to feel that we are away from God, out of His favor, under His righteous condemnation, before we shall really do as the prodigal did, and say “I will …go to My Father…say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and…Thee” Lk. 15:18. The same principle holds good in connection with the repeated “coming” of the Christian 1Pet. 2:4; it is a sense of need which causes us to seek Him who is the Giver of every good and every perfect gift. There is also a maintained communion with God…we renew our access to God in Christ: in reading of or hearing His Word, we come to Him as Teacher, in prayer we come to Him as Benefactor.” Pink Arthur W.
- God has to be sought in faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him,” therefore, “he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” There has to be first a firm persuasion of His being, and second of His bounty. To believe that “He is” means much more than assenting to the fact of a “First Cause” or to allow that there is a “Supreme Being”; it means to believe in the character of God as He has revealed Himself in His works, in His Word, and in Christ. He must be conceived of aright. Thus, to believe that “God is” is to exercise faith upon Him as such a Being as His Word declares Him to be: supreme sovereign, ineffably holy, almighty, inflexibly just, yet abounding in mercy and grace toward poor sinners through Christ.
- Faith is to lay hold of His graciousness: that He is “a Rewarder”. Gen. 15:1, Rut. 2:12, Matt. 5:12; 6:1, 2, Lk. 6:35. The acting of faith toward God as a “Rewarder” is the heart’s anticipation of the fact that He is ready and willing to conduct Himself to needy sinners in a way of bounty, that He will act in all things toward them in a manner suitable unto the proposal of which He makes of Himself through the Gospel. It was the realization of this which stirred the prodigal to act. Just as it would be useless to pray unless there were a hope that God hears and that He will answer prayer, so no sinner will really seek unto God until there is born in his heart an expectation of mercy from Him, that He will receive him graciously.
- “God is a “Rewarder,” but of whom? Of those who “diligently seek Him.” “The wicked shall be turned into Hell, all the nations that forget God” Ps. 9:17: not only “deny,” but “forget” Him; as they cast God out of their thoughts and affections, so He will cast them out of His presence. What is meant by “diligently seek Him”? To “seek” God is to forsake, deny, go out of self, and take Him alone for our Ruler and satisfying Portion. To seek Him “diligently” is to seek Him early Pro. 8:17, whole-heartedly Ps. 119:10, earnestly Ps. 27:4, unweariedly Lk 11:8. The promise is, “And ye shall seek Me and find Me…with all your heart” Jer. 29:13 and cf. 2Chro 15:15, Matt. 6:33. And how does God “reward” the diligent seeker?
- By offering Himself graciously to be found of them who penitently, earnestly, trustfully approach Him through the appointed Mediator. By actually bestowing His favor upon them, as He did upon the prodigal. By forgiving their sins and blotting out their iniquities Is. 55:7. By writing His laws in their hearts, so that they… forsake all idols and serve Him only. By giving them assurance of their acceptance in the Beloved, and granting them sweet foretastes of the rest and bliss which awaits them on High. By ministering to their every need, both spiritual and temporal. Finally, by taking them to heaven, where they shall spend eternity in the unclouded enjoyment of the wondrous riches of His grace.” Pink Arthur W
- But does this word “Rewarder” have a legalistic ring to it? Does it signify that our “diligent seeking” is a meritorious performance which is entitled to recognition? Of course it does not. What, then, is meant?
- First, according to John Owen: “That which these words of the apostle hath respect to, and which is the ground of the faith here required, is contained in the revelation that God made of Himself unto Abraham, ‘Fear not: Abram: I am thy shield, and they exceeding great reward’ Gen. 15:1. God is so a rewarder unto them that seek Him, as that He is Himself their reward, which eternally excludes all thoughts of merit in them that are so rewarded. Who can merit God to be his reward? Rewarding in God, especially where He Himself is the reward, is an act of infinite grace and bounty. And this gives us full direction unto the object of faith here intended, namely, God in Christ, as revealed in the promise of Him, giving Himself unto believers as a reward, (to be their God) in a way of infinite goodness and bounty.”
- “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt” Rom. 4:4: is not the implication clear that grace itself also “rewards”? Col. 3:24 makes this clear: “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” The “inheritance” is Heaven itself, salvation in its consummation. But is not salvation a free gift? Yes, indeed; nevertheless it has to be “bought” by its recipients Is. 55:1, yet “without money and without price.” Salvation is both a “gift” and a “reward.”
- While it be true that Heaven cannot be earned by the sinner, it is equally true that Heaven is not for idlers and loiterers. God has to be “diligently sought.” To enter the strait gate the soul has to agonize Lk 13:24. We are called upon to “labor” for that meat which endureth unto eternal life Jn. 6:27 and to enter into the heavenly rest Heb. 4:11. Such efforts God “rewards,” not because they are meritorious, but because He deems it meet to recognize and recompense them. Heaven, or completed salvation, is spoken of as a “reward”
- to intimate the character of those to whom it is given, namely, the diligent laborer.
- Second, because it is not bestowed until our work is completed: 2Tim. 4:7, 8.
- Third, to intimate the sureness of it: we may as confidently expect it as does the laborer who has been hired by an honest master: Jas. 1:12.
- This “reward” is principally in the next life: Heb. 11:16, 2Cor. 4:17—it is then that all true godliness shall be richly recompensed: Mk 10:29, 30.
- It only remains for us now to add that the ground on which God bestows the “reward” is the infinite merits of Christ, and out of respect unto His own promise. That which He “rewards” is the work of His own Spirit within us, so that we have no ground for boasting.” Pink Arthur W.
