And 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 seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
The Amplified Bible says that God is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. When I first launched out into the Christian life it was into a context where nothing but whole-hearted discipleship was the norm. In light of who God is and what Christ had done to rescue me, seeking Him earnestly and diligently made perfect sense and seemed a manageable cross to carry. Just how I managed I can only speculate but in spite of how this verse actually reads, I, in my youth and zeal, interpreted it like this;
God is pleased with those who earnestly and diligently seek Him. And, without this kind of faith, pleasing Him is impossible. (REV – Rob’s Erroneous Version)
There was a serious and costly flaw in my interpretation. In the REV, God’s approval rests on the qualitative nature of my seeking. In other words it is not; without faith it is impossible to please Him (as the author has said) it is; without earnest and diligent effort that it is impossible to please Him. This is a serious error because it leaves out the full-council of scripture and it is costly because of what is lost in my translation. Allow me to explain and repent.
It is a serious thing to inject effort as a qualifying attribute to faith. It does violence to the very essence of the concept of faith. I know some busy beavers who will rush to James now so they can remind me, “But brother you know that faith without works is dead.” “Yes”, I respond, “That is absolutely true but it is also true that faith based on works is even deader.” (intentional bad grammar)
Think about this. How could God’s approval of us be based on even a tiny bit of our earnestness and diligence when we know that while we were yet sinners Jesus died for us? When Paul caught the Galatians trafficking in this kind of compliance / performance- based religion, he called them foolish. Actually (if you read the Amplified Bible) Paul is a bit more descriptive….
O you poor and unreflecting and thoughtless and silly and senseless Galatians!
A useful acronym to recall this serious state of the heart is (PUTSS). Sorry. I am being silly now but this was serious business to Paul. He lays into the Galatian PUTSS with a barrage of redundant questions to emphasize his point. Here are the main two;
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Here is Paul’s point; Christ (not our earnest and diligent efforts) redeemed us from the curse of the Law (compliance / performance-based religion), having become a curse for us…..in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
There is also a great cost in thinking as I did – that God is pleased with those who earnestly and diligently seek Him and that without this kind of faith, pleasing Him is impossible. That cost is rest, the truest indicator, far above works, (sorry James) that one is living by faith. Rest and works are like oil and water; they are utterly incompatible. Rest is the qualitative fruit of authentic faith not the basis of it. Rest takes the whole council of scripture into account and says, “If I think of my works as qualifiers, my earnestness and diligence are as filthy rags to God. Rest is trusting that there is nothing I can do that will alter God’s acceptance of me as long as I am trusting that His life has become my own. Rest is ceasing to work for approval because in Christ I am approved. Rest acknowledges that in-Christ IT IS (truly) FINISHED!
I can only concur with Paul when he says….
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatans 3:24-25)
Repentance
As my youth and my zeal waned with age, I so did my earnestness and diligence. Witnessing, scripture memory, serious bible study all dropped off. In fact, I ended up after years of what I thought of as authentic zeal, feeling somewhat abandoned by God. I thought (with no small amount of bitterness), “So…THIS is my reward for diligently seeking you; strained relationships, failing health, financial problems, ministry and vocational disasters?!
So, how was the law (or performance / compliance – based religion) my tutor? It allowed my earnestness and diligence to run their course. It allowed me to wear myself out. Exhaustion reduced me to a core awareness of my inner poverty – a place where I knew (with deepest conviction) that I cannot go one step further in my own strength. There in the epiphany of my spiritual bankruptcy He once again found a more teachable me. Where, as a young prodigal, I was found wallowing in a debauchery-based deception; this time He found me wallowing in a religious-based deception.
Whether it is the delusion that joy can be obtained through sensual pleasure or whether it is the other delusion that our efforts can win God’s favor, it’s still darkness; where we and our fallen reasoning are at the center of our woes. What an absolute joy it has been on both occasions to find that God (while I was yet a lost son of one sort or another) had been loving me all along and drawing me to Himself. How powerful it has been to accept by faith, resting in the fact, that He became sin (my sin) and that in His perfect life He met all the standards of righteous compliance. What a stunning revelation that by enduring the shame and brutality of the Cross He has received the reward of His suffering – Rob (and hopefully you) who are now justified by faith – qualified by His work (not our own) to stand blamelessly with boldness and joy before Him now and forevermore.
Father, please break down the strongholds of deception in our hearts that reason falsely, maintaining that we can win your love and approval through our own efforts. Please let our performances exhaust us so that we can transfer all our dependencies to You alone. May we enter into the rest You have purchased for us so that we can live out of the abundance of Your life before a world we have helped mislead in our own deception. Help us to grasp that being whole-hearted has first to do with Your heart, not our own. Amen.
I am an American from Oklahoma where the work ethic is news on every TV channel. In Mexico the paradigm shift to rest does not require the same twerk of mind set. “God bless the man that’s got his own…” Americans sing this well known song with vigor and feeling.
We start at a young age- pick-up your toys, eat your food, do what I say, pay attention, sit down and eat, do your home work, mow the yard… Where is the example of rest = reward. I guess we know rest is rewarding but it comes with guilt and thoughts of what we should be accomplishing. As a Christian we know we can not enter the presence of God without some activity.
A paradigm shift is like the old saying – “a watched pot never boils” you can’t force it to happen. I remember when I was young with children. We slept with the kids in our bed, we fed the kids, we took the kids to play at the pool, we read to the kids, changed the diapers, and you know all the things parents are dedicated to doing for their children. I remember a guy I knew (“the commercial should be “be like that guy you know” who rests in the Lord and has an understanding of who He is and His love for him) who spent time in the Lord and loved God. Once when we were leaving a church event, I was holding the hand of one child and holding the younger child in my arms – He said to my kids “take good care of Dad”. Wait a minute. Take good care of Dad? Now that is an idea I can get my head around. There was love in the words, changed my thinking, took the pressure off me. I never would have thought that way on my own. So I trained my oldest daughter to get me beers from the fridge. Lol, I may have done that but my point is the love of God is usually passed along and requires a change in thinking to realize and experience.
Thanks Rob for passing to us many examples of the shift we make to resting in God’s love for us.