Hello dear ones,
Today, let’s take a look at how the author of Hebrews states that without faith, it is impossible to please God:
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
— Hebrews 11:6
The eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews is one of the most popular chapters in the Bible. This chapter highlights examples of faithful men and women throughout the Scriptures. Some have called this chapter “the hall of fame of faith.” In this chapter, we see significant figures in biblical history such as Abraham, Enoch, Isaac, and Moses, just to name a few.
As the author speaks of Enoch, he reminds the readers that it was by faith that Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death:
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for prior to being taken up, he was approved as being pleasing to God.
— Hebrews 11:5
This was because Enoch was approved by God as being pleasing to Him. Here was a man, a human being like us today, who was pleasing to God. The Scriptures tell us that Enoch’s walk with God was a very long one. It was a lot longer than any of us living today could fathom:
Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.
— Genesis 5:22
Living in the world as a believer means that we have to battle sin constantly, and the longer we live on earth, the longer this battle with sin is. For Enoch, this meant hundreds of years of battling against sin and submitting himself to God.
The author of Hebrews tells us that the reason Enoch was able to walk faithfully for such a long period of time was because of faith. To put things in perspective, we need to define what faith is in order to fully understand what Enoch was holding on to for the millennia he lived. Thankfully, the author offers us a straightforward definition of what this faith is:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
— Hebrews 11:1
It should be noted that, unlike the common usage of the word “faith” in our day, the New Testament usage of the word has a very different way of expressing it. The difference between how we understand the word “faith” today and how the readers of this letter to the Hebrews understood it is in the level of certainty.
The typical definition of the word “faith” today is “a strongly held belief.” Such faith is mostly regarded as a blind faith. We’re not fully certain of what it is we trust, but we hope that it is the right thing.
However, the level of certainty in the faith as described in the New Testament is absolute. When the author of Hebrews speaks about faith, he’s not blindly and wishfully thinking that there is a God; no, when he says there is a God, he absolutely believes without a shadow of a doubt that there is a God who created the heavens and the earth:
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
— Hebrews 11:3
One commentator speaks regarding faith in this way:
In like manner the Christian believes what God says. He has never seen heaven; he has never seen an angel; he has never seen the Redeemer; he has never seen a body raised from the grave. “But he has evidence which is satisfactory to his mind that God has spoken on these subjects,” and his very nature prompts him to confide in the declarations of his Creator.
— Albert Barnes
After speaking of Enoch’s faith, the author of Hebrews states that he pleased God. He also states that it was by faith that he pleased God. It is this conclusion that leads him to make the statement that without faith it is impossible to please God. One commentator states:
We cannot come to God unless we believe that He Himself is revealed in the Scripture. Those who would find God must seek Him with all their heart.
— Matthew Henry
In order to come to a place of pleasing God, we need to do the will of God. However, we cannot know what the will of God is unless we first come to a place of believing and trusting that He exists and that we are fallen sinners who need to be reconciled to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Paul, in a letter to the Romans, speaks to this, stating that those who are not indwelled by the Holy Spirit are not able to please God:
and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.
— Romans 8:8
He later states in the next verse that only those who have placed their faith in Christ actually belong to Christ, which is another way of stating that the indwelling by the Holy Spirit is the evidence of true saving faith. This also clarifies the statement that he makes to the Ephesians that it is by faith in Christ that we are saved:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast.
— Ephesians 2:8-9
The statement that the author of Hebrews makes here is one that needs our close attention. It is indeed impossible to please God without faith. We should remember that not only are we saved by faith, but we are also sanctified by faith:
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
— Hebrews 12:14
Without faith, it is not only impossible to please God by becoming saved, but it’s also impossible to please God by living out the kind of lives that God wants us to live. Paul, again speaking to the Colossians, elaborates on this point by praying for the Colossians that they may come to the full knowledge of God to please Him in all respects:
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.
— Colossians 1:4
For this reason also, since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
— Colossians 1:9
We see that pleasing God really begins with faith. It is through faith that we know that God exists; it is through faith that we understand our fallenness and God’s love and mercy; it is through faith that we are saved into a loving relationship with God where we’re adopted into God’s family; it is through this same faith that we are progressively sanctified day after day as we walk in faith; and finally, it is through faith that we will be glorified and enter into the eternal presence of God.
Let’s ask ourselves this one question: do we have absolute faith in God in order to please Him?
I pray this word encourages us to have faith in God in all areas of our lives and remind us that He is the rewarder of this who believe.
Blessings,
Paul
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