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Hebrews 11:6
“Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Having considered the divine attribute of omnibenevolence—God’s all-goodness (James 1:16–17)—we are now going to look at other descriptions of the Lord and several of His other attributes that may be subsumed under His goodness. The first of these we find in Hebrews 11:6, where we read that our Creator “rewards those who seek him.”
The author of Hebrews identifies God as the Rewarder of those who seek Him in the context of explaining the kind of faith that pleases God. Such faith has two components. First, God-pleasing faith believes that God exists (v. 6). This does not surprise us, for at root faith cannot exist apart from the conviction that the Lord exists. While God-pleasing faith believes that the Almighty exists, such faith must go beyond the mere affirmation that there is a Creator. After all, many people believe that God exists, and even demons affirm that there is a God (James 2:19). The faith of demons says that there is a Lord. God-pleasing faith includes more, specifically that God rewards those who seek Him.
Why must God-pleasing faith believe that God is the Rewarder of those who seek Him? The answer lies in the nature of saving faith. Saving faith, as we see in the example of saints such as Abraham, believes the promises of God. Abraham took God at His word that the Lord would provide the patriarch with an heir, and Abraham was justified—declared righteous before God—by that belief (Gen. 15:1–6). Saving faith, God-pleasing faith, believes what the Lord says, for how can one truly trust in our Creator if one will not trust in what God has revealed, in His promises? On a human level, we trust people only if we believe what they say, so how much more true is this of trusting in the Lord?
The Lord gives us many promises, but one of the most important is surely His pledge to give eternal life to all those who trust only in Christ (John 3:16). If we do not think He will give us eternal life by trusting in Jesus, we will not trust in Jesus, and if we do not trust in Jesus, we do not have God-pleasing faith. Eternal life is our reward for trusting in God’s promises through Christ, but this reward is not given to us as something we merit. This reward is the free gift of God. So when we conceive of God as the Rewarder of those who seek Him, we must with John Calvin remember that “reward refers not to the worthiness or value of works but to faith.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God rewards us with eternal life not because our good works merit eternal life. Nevertheless, the way that we prove that we have true faith is by seeking to obey the Lord, trusting His promises and doing what He says. Our willingness to sacrifice where He tells us to and to follow Him where it is hard to do so demonstrates that we really do believe that He will reward those who serve Him.
For further study
- Proverbs 13:13
- Luke 17:7–10
- Hebrews 10:35–36
- Hebrews 11:24–26
The bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 23–25
- Luke 16:1–18