“The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1).
Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Stephen Charnock: “For it is not a seeking God in any way of man’s invention, that renders him capable of this desired fruit of a reward. He that believes God as a rewarder. Must believe the promise of God concerning the Messiah. Men under the conscience of sin, cannot tell without a divine discovery, whether God will reward, or how he will reward the seekers of him; and therefore cannot acts toward him as an object of faith. Would any man seek God merely because he is, or love him because he is, if he did not know that he should be acceptable to him? The bare existence of a thing is not the ground of affection to it, but those qualities of it and our interest in it, which render it amiable and delightful. How can men, whose consciences fly in their faces, seek God or love him, without this knowledge that he is a rewarder? Nature doth not show any way to a sinner, how to reconcile God’s provoked justice with his tenderness, The faith the apostle speaks of here is a faith that eyes the reward as an encouragement and the will of God as the rule of its acting; he doth not speak simply of the existence of God.”
Clay Miller: Man seeking God in his own way will not be rewarded. The reward that matters is Jesus Christ…knowing God. And God has prescribed how sinful men can know Him. It is by recognition of his sinfulness, and believing on Christ for forgiveness of sin. We come to God only through Jesus. That simply means, we do not come to God on our own merits, but on His merits. But in order to come to Him on Christ’s merits, we must believe Christ died for our sins and that God credits that righteousness to the sinner’s account. True belief bears fruit. Ideas have consequences. Causes have effects. There will be a changed life in a true believer.
Why do people “love” God? True Christians do because of what He has done in and for them. They believe God will keep His promise and reward them with salvation. Knowing this results in a deep love for God. If I knew there was a God but I did not know of His salvation, His reward, of those who put their faith in Christ’s righteousness, I would not love Him…I would hate Him, I would wish He did not exist because I would know I am condemned by Him and without hope. So just believing in God is not enough. I must have the faith He speaks of. Faith that pleases Him. That is not merely faith that He exists. But faith that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. What kind of reward? The fulfillment of His promise to save me in Christ. That is the faith that pleases God.
Here is the point. God has promised a reward to believers. There is no way for sinners to know about or what that reward is unless God reveals it. In Scripture, God reveals the offer and the reward. The next step is loving the reward…having affection and passion for the reward. In order for that to happen the sinner must see the sinfulness of sin, and the amazing grace of the atonement. Two people can read the same gospel and one may not believe it, and the other does. What made the difference? Was the one who accepted God’s offer more sensitive? More loving? Smarter? No. The difference is God opens the heart of the one who believed…which is why he believed. That man will read or hear the gospel, be affected by it, turn from himself to Christ and have a love and passion for Him forever. He believes God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him and will seek Him, as He is, for the rest of His life….more later.
