Principal Rainy (Robert Rainy 1826-1906), commenting on Philippians 4:15-19, writes,
“We are not to shrink from the doctrine of reward because it has been perverted. It is true the good works of a Christian cannot be the foundation of his title to life eternal. They proceed from the grace of God; they are imperfect and mixed at their best. Yet they are precious fruits of Christ’s death, and of God’s grace, arising through the faith and love of soul’s renewed and liberated.
When a penitent and believing man is found devoting to God what he is and has, doing so freely and lovingly, that is a blessed thing. God sets value on it. It is accepted as fruit which the man brings, as the offering which he yields. The heart of Christ rejoices over it.
Now it is fit that the value set on this fruit should be shown, and the way God takes to show it is to reward the service. Such a man “shall in no wise lose his reward.”
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