The Believer’s Payday: Why Standing Before Christ Should Be Our Greatest Moment. By Paul N. Benware. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002. 209 pp. Paper, $17.99.
“One of the current myths in the Church of Jesus Christ is that all believers are the same and will always be the same. This is only partly true and has led to some faulty and really dangerous conclusions.” So says Dr. Paul N. Benware in his outstanding book, The Believer’s Payday. This book should be in the library of every believer. It would serve as an excellent book study for a church small group.
Benware gives a thorough explanation and defense of the doctrine of eternal rewards. He covers the need for the Judgment Seat of Christ; what we need in order to earn eternal rewards (faithfulness with proper motives); and the subject of the judgment (not our sins). He offers several insightful case studies of rewarded believers (some from the OT). In addition, he discusses what the rewards will be (crowns and ruling in the millennial kingdom).
The strengths of this book are both theological and exegetical. Benware is unabashedly Dispensational. He takes a pre-millennial, pretribulational view throughout the book. Rather than just prooftexting, he exegetes his positions. For instance, in chapter three, “Entering or Not Entering God’s Rest,” he overviews Hebrews 1–2 as the precursor to the “rest” in chapters 3–4. He defines the believer’s rest, as “the future reward that will be given to obedient believers when they stand before the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. These rewards relate to life in Messiah’s kingdom” (p. 49).
This book challenges church leaders. The author stresses the imperative for pastors to rightly divide the word of truth. Few pulpits emphasize either the Judgment Seat of Christ or the doctrine of rewards. Benware exhorts shepherds to teach the whole counsel of God: “Whenever leaders in the local church fail to indoctrinate those in their flock and to protect them from error, they do their flock an incalculable disservice” (p. 66). If believers can gain or lose rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ, how much more accountable are pastors to teach this monumental doctrine?
But are these rewards only for the millennial kingdom? No, says Benware, they are eternal: “…Paul spoke of his sufferings for Christ in this life as that which was producing an ‘eternal weight of glory’ (2 Cor 4:17).”
This book is not only theologically and exegetically correct, but is also immensely practical. It devotes an entire chapter to “Preparing for Payday,” focusing on 2 Pet 1:5-11.
In light of so much Biblical detail, the last chapter is a welcomed review and particularly helpful. It acts as a chapter-by-chapter “executive summary” of the entire book. Each chapter is reviewed by a propositional statement, followed by a short summary. For instance, in chapter 11, he says:
Believers need to carefully evaluate their lives ‘today’ to see if they are truly trusting and obeying. Believers cannot afford to live in a condition of spiritual delusion, nor can they afford to put off to a future day serious reflection about their own walk with Christ. It is imperative to immediately face these critical matters. It is important to decide to live fully and completely for the Lord Jesus Christ now, and then to daily build on that decision in the power of the Holy Spirit (p. 198).
There is one appendix in the book entitled, “The Security of the Believer.” Benware rightly points out the difference between eternal security and the false doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which he rejects. He gives a Biblical basis for eternal security while also dealing with misinterpreted passages like John 15:1-11; Matt 24:13; Gal 5:4; 1 Tim 4:1; Ps 69:28; and Ps 109:13.
It is in the appendix that I have my only quibbles with the book. Benware thinks a believer can have eternal security without ever having had assurance. He says:
A believer may lack assurance of salvation, nevertheless that believer is totally secure in his salvation. A believer who does not believe in the doctrine of eternal security may have the assurance of his salvation (for at least that moment in time)… Lack of assurance in the life of a true believer in no way negates his eternal security. Of course, if a person is unsure about their own salvation, then he or she would be wise to come to the Lord and settle the matter by acknowledging Jesus Christ as the God-Man, as the substitute for sin and to personally place trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins (p. 200).
My quibbles are two-fold:
First, what does one need to believe or be convinced of in order to have eternal life? Is it not to believe the promise Jesus made to give eternal life to all who have believed in Him? Does one have to believe in the substitutionary atonement to be saved? If so, Martha could not have been saved. Jesus made a propositional promise to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me (for eternal life) shall live even if he dies…” (John 11:25).
I certainly think the more one knows about the doctrines of substitution, redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation, the better. The offer of eternal life could not have been made by our Lord had these things not occurred. But one does not need to understand how Christ can give eternal life in order to believe that He does give it to the believer.
Second, unless you have had assurance at some point, you have not believed the message of life. Not being clear on what Jesus promised—that is, eternal life—leads to doubt and uncertainty about salvation. If you believe Jesus is credible and that He is capable of giving you eternal life, then you have it.
Shawn Lazar worded it this way:
Assurance is the essence of saving faith because it is the necessary conclusion to believing Jesus’ promise. Since Jesus promised that everlasting life was the present possession of all believers, if you believe Jesus’ promise, you must necessarily believe you have everlasting life as a present possession. Hence, you will be assured of your salvation. If you do not have assurance, you either do not understand Jesus’ promise of everlasting life, or you do not believe it (“Gordon C. Clark and Assurance,” Shawn Lazar, JOTGES [Autumn 2016]).
Even with these quibbles, I highly recommend this book for personal and group study. I am taking the men of our church through it.
Dix Winston, III
Pastor, Crosspoint Community Church
Centennial, CO