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Friday 4 November 2016

Hebrews 11:5,6 - Impossible to please God without faith

11:5
We read about Enoch in Genesis 5:18-24. There it tells us that Enoch walked faithfully with God, then God took him away and he was no more. The writer’s interest in Enoch is that he walked faithfully with God, and then did not experience death. We will die, but we will also live forever. He also tells us that “he pleased God”. In evangelical circles we tend to ignore these sorts of statements because we believe, rightly, that we are saved by grace through faith. This is true, but what we do with our lives matters, and it affects our relationship with God. We can do things that please Him, and things that displease Him. This does not affect how much God loves us, but in any relationship the actions of one side affect that relationship, and we are in a relationship with God. How much better if we live our lives in way that pleases God? How much better the relationship will be, and the way to please God is to have faith in His Son.

11:6
This is one of the best known verse in Hebrews. If we want to please God we need to have faith, and having faith requires believing He exists. This may seem obvious, but there some deluded people in some mainstream churches he seem to think believing in God’s existence is an optional extra. See also the importance of believing that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. What we do matters, and what we do has an effect.  Our lives will be better if we truly seek God. I do not mean this in a cheap prosperity gospel sense, I mean this in a depth of our relationship with God sense.
Within the immediate context of Hebrews, the temptation to go back to Levitical practises would be motivated by a desire to please God, The writer is saying that if we want to please God then we need to have faith, and specifically faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice.

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