REWARDS. 2

First, no creature is rewarded by God because he justly deserves what is bestowed upon him, as a hired laborer 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 favor. 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 of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?" (Job 22:2,3).

It is most essential that this should be insisted upon, more especially in these days, that the Most High God may be accorded His due place in our thoughts, His solemn 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 who 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 favorable 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 endeavors and damn us because of our sins. "Why have we fasted—and you have not seen it?" (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). "Whoever despises the Word shall be destroyed—but he who fears the commandment shall be rewarded" (Prov 13:13). "Blessed are you 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; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many" (Matt 25:23). "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Luke 14:13,14). "Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor" (1 Cor 3:8). "Whatever good things any man does—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 fit 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 befits Him to manifest His approbation of righteousness, to put honor 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 who 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 favors 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); yes, 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 is definitely understood that God's rewarding of our efforts is solely a matter of bounty on His part, and not in any way because we have have merited or earned the recompense. The reward bestowed upon us is not an acknowledgment 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—yes it shows how a thing may be, at the same time, both a "free gift" and a "reward." "Now to him who works [that is earns, so that he has ground to be self-complacent] 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 you love those who love you, what reward have you?" but in the latter "For if you love those who love you, what thanks have you?"—the Greek word ("charis") here rendered "thank" signifies "favor," being translated "grace" more than one hundred times. Clearer still is Colossians 3:22-24, "Servants, obey in all things your masters...fearing God…knowing that of the Lord you 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, you 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 Savior exhorted the Jews to "labor—not for the food that perishes, but—for that which endures 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 labor [or "endeavor"], whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him" (2 Cor 5:9); and though he insisted that "By grace are you 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 "labor therefore to enter into" the rest God has promised His people (Heb 4:11).

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