Chapter III: Slavish fear and servile hope not the springs of true obedience.
Slavish fear and servile hope not the springs of true obedience.
Nom. But stay, sir, I pray you, would you not have believers to eschew evil and do good, for fear of hell, or for hope of heaven?
Evan. No, indeed, I would not have any believer to do either the one or the other; for so far forth as they do so, their obedience is but slavish. [296] And therefore though, when they were first awakened and convinced of their misery, and set foot forward to go on in the way of life, they, with the prodigal, would be hired servants; yet when, by the eye of faith, they see the mercy and indulgence of their heavenly Father in Christ, running to meet them and embrace them; I would have them, with him, to talk no more of being hired servants, (Luke 16). I would have them so to wrestle against doubting, and so to exercise their faith as to believe, that they are by Christ "delivered from the hands of their enemies," both the law, sin, wrath, death, the devil, and hell, "that they may serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives," (Luke 1:74,75). I would have them so to believe God's love to them in Christ, as that thereby they may be constrained to obedience. [297]
Nom. But, sir, you know that our Saviour says, "Fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," (Matt 10:28). And the apostle says, "We shall receive of the Lord the reward of the inheritance," (Col 3:24). And is it not said, that "Moses had respect unto the recompense of reward"? (Heb 11:26).
Evan. Surely the intent of our blessed Saviour, in that first Scripture, is to teach all believers, that when God commands one thing, and man another, they should obey God, and not man, rather than to exhort them to eschew evil for fear of hell. [298] And for those other Scriptures by you alleged, if you mean reward, and the means to obtain that reward, in the Scripture sense, then it is another matter; but I had thought you had meant in our common sense, and not in Scripture sense.
Nom. Why, sir, I pray you, what difference is there betwixt reward, and the means to obtain the reward, in our common sense, and in the Scripture sense?
Evan. Why, reward, in our common sense, is that which is conceived to come from God, or to be given by God; which is a fancying of heaven under carnal notions, beholding it as a place where there is freedom from all misery, and fullness of all pleasures and happiness, and to be obtained by our own works and doings. [299] But reward in the Scripture sense, is not so much that which comes from God, or is given by God, as that which lies in God, even the full fruition of God himself in Christ. "I am," says God to Abraham, "thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward," (Gen 15:1), and "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" says David; "and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee," (Psa 73:25); and "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness,"
[300] (Psa 17:15). And the means to obtain this reward is, not by doing, but by believing; even by "drawing near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith," (Heb 10:22); and so indeed it is given freely. [301] And therefore you are not to conceive of that reward which the Scripture speaks of, as if it were the wages of a servant, but as it is the inheritance of sons. [302] And when the Scripture seemeth to induce believers to obedience, by promising this reward, you are to conceive that the Lord speaks to believers as a father does to his young son, Do this or that and then I will love thee; whereas we know, that the father loveth the son first, and so does God; and therefore this is the voice of believers, "We love him, because he first loved us," (1 John 4:19). The Lord doth pay them, or at least gives them a sure earnest of their wages, before he bid them work;
[303] and therefore the contest of a believer [according to the measure of his faith] is not, what will God give me? but, what shall I give God? "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his goodness? For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth," (Psa 116:12, 26:3).
Nom. Then, sir, it seems that holiness of life, and good works, are not the cause of eternal happiness, but only the way thither?
Evan. Do you not remember that our Lord Jesus himself says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"? (John 14:6); and doth not the apostle say to the believing Colossians, "As ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in him"? (Col 2:6); that is, as ye have received him by faith, so go on in your faith, and by his power walk in his commandments. So that good works, as I conceive, may rather be called a believer's walking in the way of eternal happiness, than the way itself; but, however, this we may assuredly conclude, that the sum and substance both of the way, and walking in the way, consists in the receiving of Jesus Christ by faith, and in yielding obedience to his law, according to the measure of that receiving. [304]