The only manner in which God can be pleased is by our joyously seeking His face continually, understanding that the Lord is a rewarder of all who seek Him with their whole heart. This was true under the old covenant. It is true today. It always shall be true. Faith is our conviction that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently. Also, everyone who has faith in God is sternly obedient to God.

The concept that under the old covenant men pleased God by works, and that under the new covenant men please God by doing nothing but believe in doctrine, has arisen from Paul's controversy with the Judaizers. Paul declared to the Judaizers that now that Jesus has come, it is not possible to please God by continuing in the numerous statutes of the Law of Moses.

Christian teachers, not having the background of the Law and therefore not understanding Paul's argument with the Jews, and not striving for righteousness as was Paul, convey the concept that men please God under the new covenant by doing nothing. "We are saved by unconditional grace," they preach, a doctrine completely alien to the Old and New Testaments, and the bulk of the followers of such teaching have little knowledge of the Holy One of Israel and are drowning in the lusts of the flesh because they are not seeking God diligently.

Notice, in the following verse, the presentation of faith as an attitude toward God that governs our behavior:

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition [destruction]; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39)

Drawing back to destruction does not mean changing our mind about the theological facts concerning salvation. To draw back to perdition means to cease pressing forward in prayer, holy living, and obedience to God. To believe to the saving of the soul is to lay hold by faith on the living Jesus and to take up our cross and follow Him daily. It is not a case of mental belief but of coming out of the world and serving God's Christ.

If we would save ourselves and those who hear us (I Timothy 4:16) we must continue pressing toward Christ each day. There is no time or strength left for us to become entangled in the world. Either we attain the glory of the Kingdom or we come under the judgment of the Lord. Either we use our talents diligently or we will be thrown into outer darkness. Either we press on to perfection or we fall back to destruction.

It always is today. In the life of faith, yesterday is forgotten except for the lessons taught to us by the Holy Spirit. If the sinner turns from his sin and begins to live righteously, God forgets about his sin. If the righteous individual turns from his righteousness and begins to sin, God forgets about his righteousness.

To be continued.