by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
October, 1943
REWARDS.
To the infidel much in the Scriptures seems so inconsistent and inharmonious that he charges them with “abounding in contradictions.” That there should be no variableness or shadow of turning with God, yet that He is frequently said to “repent”; that He claims to be omnipotent and invincible, yet complains “ye have set at nought all My counsel” (Prov 1:25); that He is love, yet abhors the wicked (Psa 5:6); that He is of tender mercy, yet has appointed an eternity of torment for all those whose names are not written in the book of life—to mention no others—appear to the sceptic as irreconcilable teachings. To the natural man the Christian life appears to be a mass of bewildering paradoxes. That the poor in spirit and those who mourn should be pronounced happy, that we have to be made fools in order to become wise, that it is when we are weak we are strong, that we must lose our life in order to save it (Matt 16:25), and that we are bidden to “rejoice with trembling” (Psa 2:11) transcend his comprehension. Yet none of these things present any insuperable difficulty unto those who are taught of God.
In like manner there is not a little in the teaching of Holy Writ which perplexes the theologian. As he studies and ponders its declarations, one doctrine—for a time, at least—seems to clash with another. If God has predestinated whatsoever cometh to pass, then what room is left for the discharge of human responsibility and free agency? If the Fall has deprived man of all spiritual strength, then how can he be held blameworthy for failing to perform spiritual duties? If Christ died for the elect only, then how can He be offered freely to “every creature”? If the believer be Christ's “freeman,” then why is he required to take upon him His “yoke”? If he has been set at “liberty” (Gal 5:1) then how can he be “under the Law” (1 Cor 9:21). If the believer be preserved by God, then how can his own perseverance be necessary in order to the attainment of everlasting bliss? if he be secure, how can he be in danger? If he has been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, why does he so often have occasion to cry “O wretched man that I am”? If sin does not have dominion over him, why do “iniquities prevail against” him (Psa 65:3)? Real problems are these.
We have commenced this article thus because the subject which is here to engage our attention seems to many to clash with other articles of the Faith. In ordinary speech the word “reward” signifies the recognition and requital of a meritorious performance, the bestowment of something to which a person is justly entitled. But what can the creature merit at the hands of the Creator, to what—save disapprobation and punishment—is a sinful creature entitled from a holy God? If salvation be “by grace” and eternal life is a “free gift” then what place is left for the recompensing of human effort? Yet whatever difficulties may be involved, the fact remains that Scripture has not a little to say about God's rewarding the obedient and crowning the overcomer. The Dispensationalists (among them most of the so-called “Fundamentalists”) have realized there is a knot here, but instead of patiently seeking to untie they have summarily cut it, by asserting that rewards have a place only under the Legal Dispensation and are entirely excluded from the Age of Grace; yet the very Epistles which, as they allow, belong to the present Era, contain many passages postulating “rewards.” Verily, “the legs of the lame are not equal” (Prov 26:7).
Our present subject is by no means a simple one, and certainly it is not suited for a novice to take up and descant upon. Not that the teaching of Scripture thereon is at all obscure or hard to be understood, but rather that much wisdom is needed in the handling of it, so as to avoid conveying false impressions, weakening the force of other articles of the Faith, and failing to preserve the balance of the Truth. Very little attention was given to the subject of Divine rewards either by the Reformers or the Puritans (less by the latter than the former)—probably they felt that most of their energies needed to be devoted unto counteracting the evil leaven of Romanism, with its strong emphasis upon creature “merits” and salvation by works. Yet in avoiding one error there is always the danger of going to the opposite, and even where that is avoided, it is usually at the price of depriving God's children of some portion of their needed and Divinely-provided Bread. Whatever be the explanation, the fact remains that our present theme is a much-neglected one for comparatively little has been said or written upon it. We are therefore the more cast back upon God for help.
The servant of God must not suffer the fear of man to muzzle him, as he will if he deems it wisest to remain silent on the subject lest he be charged with “leanings towards Romanism”: their very perversion of this truth renders it all the more necessary and urgent that he should give a plain and positive exposition of the same. On the other hand, the fact that Papists have so grievously wrested it should warn him that great care needs to be exercised in the way he presents it. He needs to make it crystal clear that it is utterly impossible to bring God under obligation to us or make Him in any wise our Debtor. In like manner it must be shown that the creature cannot acquire any merit by the most self-sacrificing or benevolent deeds he performs. By so doing he will preclude the laying of any foundation for pharisaic pride. Nevertheless, he must see to it that he does not so whittle away the passages holding up “rewards” to believers, as to render them meaningless and valueless, for they are among the motives, encouragements, incentives, and consolations which God sets before His people.
In a brief and incidental statement upon this doctrine Calvin beautifully preserved the balance when in his “Institutes” (bk. 3, chap. 15) he said: “The Scripture shows what all our works are capable of meriting, when it represents them as unable to bear the Divine scrutiny, because they are full of impurity; and in the next place, what would be merited by the perfect observance of the Law, if this could anywhere be found, when it directs us 'when ye have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants' (Luke 17:10), because we shall not have conferred any favour on God, but only have performed the duties incumbent on us, for which no thanks are due. Nevertheless, the good works which the Lord has conferred on us, He denominates our own, and declares that He will not only accept, but also reward them. It is our duty to be animated by so great a promise, and to stir up our minds that we 'be not weary in well doing' (2 Thess 3:13) and to be truly grateful for so great an instance of Divine goodness.
“It is beyond a doubt, that whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God, and that we cannot properly ascribe the least portion of it to ourselves. If we truly and seriously acknowledge this truth, not only all confidence, but likewise all idea of merit, immediately vanishes. We, I say, do not, like the sophists, divide the praise of good works between God and man, but we preserve it to the Lord complete, entire, and uncontaminated. All that we attribute to man is, that those works which were otherwise good are tainted and polluted by impurity. For nothing proceeds from the most perfect man which is wholly immaculate. Therefore let the Lord sit in judgment on the best of human actions, and He will indeed recognize in them His own righteousness, but man's disgrace and shame. Good works, therefore, are pleasing to God, and not unprofitable to the authors of them; and they will moreover receive the most ample blessings from God as their reward: not because they merit them, but because the Divine goodness has freely appointed them this reward.” Let us attempt to offer some amplification of these excellent remarks.
First, no creature is rewarded by God because he justly deserves what is bestowed upon him, as a hired labourer who has performed his duty is entitled to the wage he receives. For, in this sense, even the angels in heaven are incapable of a reward: according to strict justice, they merit no favour. They are no hirelings, for God has a natural, original, undisputed right in them, as much as He has in the sun, moon and stars; and these, therefore, deserve to be paid for their shining, as much as the angels do for their service. If the angels love God it is no more than He infinitely deserves. Moreover, the angels do not profit God, and so lay Him under no obligation, any more than the birds profit the risen sun by their morning songs or render that luminary under obligation to shine all day upon them. “Can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? or is it gain to Him that thou makest thy ways perfect?” (Job 22:2,3).
It is most essential that this should be insisted upon, more especially in these days, that the Most High may be accorded His due place in our thoughts, His awful majesty, exalted independency and self-sufficiency preserved in their integrity. That the creature may be allotted his proper place: as being not only a creature, but as less than nothing in the sight of Him that gave him being and is pleased to maintain his existence. That the axe may be laid at the very root of self-righteousness. Papists are far from being alone in indulging the flesh-pleasing conceit that even a fallen and sinful creature is capable of performing meritorious deeds, which entitle him to favourable regard by the Lord God. Unless Divine grace has given our pride its death-wound, every one of us secretly cherishes the belief—though we may not be honest enough to openly avow it—that we deserve a reward for our good works; and hence we are apt to think that God would be very hard and severe, if not cruel and unjust, were He to take no notice of our best endeavours and damn us because of our sins. “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not?” (Isa 58:3).
But, second, The fact remains that Scripture abounds in declarations that God has promised to reward the fidelity of His people and compensate them for the sufferings they have endured in His service. “The recompense of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him” (Prov 12:14). “Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded” (Prov 13:13). “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt 5:11,12). “His Lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many” (Matt 25:23). “When thou makest a feast call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:13,14). “Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour” (1 Cor 3:8). “Whatsoever good things any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord” (Eph 6:8). Now these, and all similar passages, must be allowed their legitimate force and given a due place in our minds and hearts.
The principal difficulty which this subject presents to the thoughtful Christian is, What have I done which is meet for reward? and even though I had, how could reward consist with free grace? The solution to this problem is found in noting the grounds on which God bestows rewards. First, in order to manifest His own excellencies. It is in His office as moral Governor that He exercises this function, in which office He evidences His holiness, goodness and benevolence, as well as His sovereignty and justice. As the Ruler of all it becomes Him to manifest His approbation of righteousness, to put honour upon virtue, and to display the bountifulness of His nature. Though according to strict justice the angels in Heaven deserve nothing at His hands, yet God is pleased to reward their sinless obedience in testimony of His approbation of their persons and service. God rewards them not because they do Him any good, nor because they are entitled to anything from him, but because He delights in that which is amiable and because He would demonstrate to the universe that He is a Friend of all that are morally excellent, He liberally recompenses them. Since they love Him with all their hearts and strength, He deems it fitting that they should be made eternally blessed in the enjoyment of Himself.
Second, in the case of His people who fell in Adam and who have also themselves sinned and come short of the glory of God, they neither merit anything good at His hands, nor is it fitting that their persons and conduct—considered merely as they are in themselves—should be approved; nay, so much corruption still indwells them and so much impurity is attached to all that proceeds from them, that the Divine Law condemns them. Thus it must be on quite a different ground that God considers them suited to reward. What that is, the Gospel of the grace of God makes known. It is on account of the believer's interest in the righteousness and worthiness of Christ that his person and performances are accepted and peculiar favours are shown unto and bestowed upon him. He is “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6), and his consecration (Rom 12:1), his gifts or benevolences (Phil 4:18) and his worship are “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5); yea, his prayers ascend up before God only because the “much incense” of Christ's merits is added to them (Rev 8:3,4).
Third, in showing His approval of the service of His saints God is, at the same time, owning the Spirit's work in them, for it is by His gracious operations and power that they are enabled to perform such service. Thus far all is plain and simple: it is when the good works which God rewards are viewed as the saints' own that many are likely to encounter difficulty. But that difficulty is greatly relieved if it be definitely understood that God's rewarding of our efforts is solely a matter of bounty on His part, and not in any wise because we have rendered a quid pro quo and have earned the recompense. The reward bestowed upon us is not an acknowledgement that the same was due us by way of debt, but rather is the reward itself given out of pure and free grace. If an earthly parent promises his child the gift of a new Bible when he has correctly memorized the Ten Commandments, that child did not bring his parent under obligation nor did he merit the book: the book is freely given by way of bounty, yet by constituting it a “reward” or “prize” for an effort of memory it became an incentive and inducement to the child to succeed in his task.
Scripture itself makes the distinction between rewards of justice and rewards of bounty, yea it shows how a thing may be, at the same time, both a “free gift” and a “reward.” “Now to him that worketh [i.e. earns, so that he has ground to be self-complacent, see v 2] is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt” (Rom 4:4), which certainly signifies there are two very different kinds of reward, or rather, that they are bestowed on radically different grounds. That a thing may be at the same time both a free gift and a reward appears by a comparison of Matthew 5:46 and Luke 6:32. In the former Christ asks, “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have you?” but in the latter “For if ye love them that love you, what thank have you?”—the Greek word (“charis”) here rendered “thank” signifies “favour,” being translated “grace” more than one hundred times. Clearer still is Colossians 3:22-24: “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh...fearing God…knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance”—what can be freer or more unearned than an “inheritance”? yet the eternal inheritance is here styled a “reward” as an incentive to obedience unto God.
The same inheritance which is called a reward in Colossians 3:24 is designated “the purchased possession” in Ephesians 1:14—purchased for the saints by Christ. In like manner, in Romans 6:22 we read “Being now made free from sin and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end [that at which you aim, that which will abundantly compensate your serving of God] everlasting life,” yet in the very next verse that everlasting life is said to be “the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Just as the Saviour exhorted the Jews to “labour—not for the meat which perisheth, but—for that which endureth unto everlasting life,” yet He at once added “which the Son of man shall give unto you” (John 6:27). The same apostle who taught that the saints are “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6), hesitated not to say “wherefore we labour [or “endeavour”], whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him” (2 Cor 5:9); and though he insisted that “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8,9), he also exhorted his hearers to “labour therefore to enter into” the rest God has promised His people (Heb 4:11).
J. Owen said, “I grant that eternal life may be called the reward of perseverance, in the sense that Scripture uses that word.” After stating it is procured neither as the deserving cause, nor proportioned unto the obedience of them by whom it is attained, but withal the free gift of God and an inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ, Owen declared it is “a reward by being a gracious encouragement as the end of our obedience.” That the reward is not a proportioned remuneration or return for the duties performed and service rendered is clear from the words of Christ, when He declared that “whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward” (Mark 10:42). So also when Abraham had made enemies of the kings of Canaan by rescuing Lot out of their hands, and then refused to be enriched by the king of Sodom, what proportion was there between his actions and Jehovah's response, when He said to him “Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great Reward” (Gen 15:1). There was a connection between the two things, but no proportion.
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal 6:7,8). The sorrows and joys of the future life bear a similar relation to what is wrought in this as the harvest does to the sowing, one being the consequence, the fruit, or reward of the other. There is a definite relation subsisting between sowing to the spirit and reaping everlasting life, between what is done unto Christ in this life and the joys of the life to come. This relation is just as real as that between sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption, despising and defying Christ and the torments of Hell, though it is not in all respects the same. AWP
(D.V. to be continued.)
Philologos | Bible Prophecy Research | The BPR Reference Guide | About Us