6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God MUST believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. [Heb. 11:6]
The writer is citing two critical tenets for the requirements of Christianity …the word ‘must’ indicates compulsion…it’s not a suggestion.
There are a number of Bible verses that instruct us on how to be saved…probably John 3:16 is the most well-known…but here the author gives two compulsory requirements…1) we must believe that He exists …2) and that He rewards those who seek Him.
This verse in many ways is a summary of this entire 11th chapter of Hebrews…a chapter that revolves around faith…the faith of the people who walked with God and the rewards of their faith.
That’s something that is never talked about in the list of requirements in coming to God…we are all familiar with the basic steps necessary for salvation…the ABC’s of becoming a Christian:
Admit that you are a sinner
Believe that Jesus is God’s Son
Confess your sins
Last of all…accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
BUT…how many times have you ever heard a pastor ask someone as part of their profession of faith…do you believe that God rewards those who seek Him? …but here it is… for he that comes to God must believe that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
This is the third time the author explicitly refers to rewards…goes back to the fundamental message of the book of Hebrews [10:35 / 36] the importance of:
(not throwing) away your confidence, which has a great reward…so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
The author continues to make mention of what the final outcome will be when we hold fast with confidence and maintain our endurance…it is the promise of a great reward.
The promise of rewards is given to Christians based on how we have conducted ourselves during our stay while on earth…which includes fulfilling the purpose God has predestined for every person who’s a Christian.
Notice something else in this verse…it’s the words ‘faith’ and ‘believe’ …in this verse the author uses faith and believe almost interchangeably.
Is there a difference? …certainly, having faith and believing in God is a requirement for salvation:
…believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved [Acts 16:31] …By grace are ye saved through faith [Eph. 2:8].
So both are essential ingredients in our relationship with God…but isn’t it a little redundant using both faith and believe in the same verse?
It’s been suggested that throughout Scripture there is no distinction between faith and believe…that’s why faith and believe are used interchangeably…but in its English usage believe and faith often do imply different meanings.
Difference Between Belief and Faith
Belief is the acceptance of something…faith is a strongly held conviction.
Belief is based on probability…faith is a commitment.
Belief depends on proof…Faith is based on unseen certainty.
Our modern concept of belief can lead to confusion…to some, belief means nothing more than mere hope or speculation…considering something to be true even though we are not 100% sure or able to prove it.
With respect to faith…it has a deeper meaning than belief …the English usage of belief says I have an intellectual acceptance of something…whereas faith says I have a wholehearted commitment to something.
The New Testament Greek word believe means to “be convinced of something” not to merely hope…we must be convinced that more than 2,000 years ago Jesus died on a cross and rose the third day.
Just for a few minutes I want to look at the difficulty in doing what Scripture is asking of us…without faith it is impossible to please him…then look at the absurdity of taking the Bible to an extreme that has nothing to do with faith.
First…there is a difficulty in doing what Scripture is asking us…that if we want to please God we must believe that He exists…now on the surface that sounds rather obvious…but there are times in the Bible when we’re asked to stretch our belief…a wholehearted commitment of something…even further.
First…is in asking me to believe in someone I’ve never seen…and then asking me to believe that the someone I’ve never seen created what I can see…but that is exactly what is faith is requiring.
By faith we understand the universe to have been formed by the word of God [3].
There are two scientific arguments here…only two possibilities for the existence of the universe…everything was created by a supernatural being OR everything was created by nothing…it just appeared on its own.
On the surface…the idea that everything was created by nothing is preposterous …so the most realistic explanation is there had to be something through which everything came…the question then is…who or what is that something.
When you analyze creation how can we know that the world was made?…we were not there when it happened, but, even if we had been there, we could only see the results of the act of creation because all you can see is the results of God’s Word.
Scripture attributes the creation of the world to the word of God…that He literally spoke the world into existence…this directly relates to the definition of faith: the evidence of things not seen.
Atheists, skeptics, and non-believers, not willing to accept the idea of an intelligent designer, put their faith in the creative power of nothing…for them the possibility of a supreme being who created the universe flies in the face of logic and science.
Scripture is asking us to believe by faith…unseen certainty…that because of His great power God spoke the world into existence.
Changing the wording slightly verse 1 defines faith…the worlds were created by the word of God so that what is seen was made out of things that are not seen.
The second question reveals the absurdity of taking the Bible to an extreme that has nothing to do with faith…how old’s the earth? …that question has produced heated discussions on the…internet…TV…in classrooms…and in churches.
—Young-earth proponents using God’s Word as the source…state the age of the earth is about 6,000 years old…that’s assuming you believe the six days of creation were six twenty-four-hour days.
—Old-earth proponents…using science and the study of the earth’s most ancient rocks, determined Earth’s age is 4.5 billion years old.
So…are we to believe that the age of the earth is about 6,000 years old or 4.5 billion years old?…does picking one date over another make you less of a Christian?
Who’s right? …who cares? …again, a question that has produced heated discussions that only reveals the absurdity of taking the Bible to an extreme that has nothing to do with faith.
It’s like trying to answer such questions as, “What was God doing before He made the world?” … “Can God make a square circle?” … “If God is glorified by forgiving sins, shouldn’t we sin more?”
When people want to engage in such foolish discussion you need to ask yourself what has that got to do with the basic premises of religion?
—That Christians believe there is only one true God.
—That Christians believe in the Trinity, represented by the Father (God), Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.
–That Christians believe that Jesus was born of a virgin…sent to earth as a man and The Messiah to save people from their sins.
—That Christians believe that after three days Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven to be reunited with God.
—That Christians believe that there will be a second coming in which Jesus will return to Earth.
—That all those beliefs are grounded in the promises found in Old and New Testaments that together form the Holy Bible.
Let me ask a question…does it show a lack of faith in God’s Word if I believe the world is billions of years old as opposed to what Biblical scholars think that the world was created in six 24-hour days and is only around 6000 years old?
Here’s what IS important…that man as a creation of God with a soul has been on the earth for only approximately 6000 years…but the age of the earth itself could be far older.
Here’s the danger…am I prepared to place my whole belief system regarding who God is…what He has done for me…His promises regarding rewards and eternity on the single concept that the world is only 6000 years old?
That if I don’t believe that…then I can’t believe anything in the Bible…if I don’t agree with that then I’m doubting God’s word based on the idea of creation being done in six 24-hour days?…if I don’t believe that will it damage my relationship with God…and cause my faith to teeter?
See the foolishness here?…am I willing to throw my entire faith in God out the window because some theologian demands that I must agree that the world was formed in six 24-hour days?
Am I denying the very words of God to be true?
I teach more than I preach and for some that may not be what you’re used to…I don’t intend for my sermons to be a seminary discourse…in addition…I try to allow myself 30-35 minutes for my sermons.
At the expense of wasting that time…and your time…I want to explain to you why the 6000-year date for the earth’s existence is uncertain and why it should not be an issue regarding your relationship with God…IT IS A NON ISSUE.
What has this got to do with faith?…people get off on tangents regarding what Scripture says…and because of their misinterpretation…their denominational doctrines…or personal beliefs they become critical of other people and their positions on what the Bible says about matters that have nothing to do with salvation or the basic premises of religion.
I want to show you one example of how at times the English translation can be at odds with good Biblical exegesis.
Biblical exegesis is the critical interpretation of biblical text to discover its intended meaning.
That’s why I preach what is known as expository preaching…it focuses primarily on one or more passages centering on a single subject using the biblical text as its source.
So…getting back to the question of how old is the earth…who cares…I am more aligned with what is known as the “framework hypothesis”.
‘Days’ as translated in Genesis One can mean many things depending on the context in how it’s used…can mean one day or extended periods of time [Gen 2:4 / Joel 1:15 / Zech. 12:3] …meaning creation could have taken thousands to millions of years between each of the seven days in Genesis.
I take this position based on the scientific data regarding the age of the world…
to believe that creation occurred in six twenty-four-hour days and has only around 6,000 years is to embarrassingly denying the scientific proof regarding the Cambrian rock that evolutionists believe is around 500 million years old.
Physical evidence all points to the conclusion that ‘day’ as used in Genesis one is referring to longer periods of time (Ps. 90:5-6 / Jer. 6:4) …the time needed to justify the age of the Cambrian rock and our galaxy’s expansion.
This is just one of hundreds of discrepancies…and mistakes in the Bible that cause people to question the reliability and accuracy of the Bible…something seminary says to never tell your church.
There are people in our church who are serious students of the Bible…they run across these discrepancies every day…so to make the statement that there are no errors or mistakes in the Bible is to stick you head in the sand.
I’m not discrediting the Bible because there are scientific errors…historical errors…and spelling errors…in it…there are people out there dedicated in finding and revealing these mismatches in order to discredit the Bible.
Probably one of the best known critical scholars of the Bible today is a man named Bart Ehrman…he is the James Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina…he is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity in the U.S.
His work has been featured in Time, the New Yorker, the Washington Post…he has appeared on NBC’s Dateline, CNN, The History Channel, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, the BBC, NPR, …he speaks Greek and Hebrew like we speak English…he is no ordinary Bible scholar.
A man who once pastored a church…until he admittedly lost his faith:
The problem of suffering haunted me for a very long time. It was what made me begin to think about religion…it was what led me to question my faith…it was the reason I lost my faith.
So why am I taking up your time mentioning this guy and what has it to do with today’s text?…because as Christians Scripture tells us…without faith it is impossible to please him…that faith includes believing in the accuracy and the inspiration of the Bible to be the true Word of God.Here’s what I want you to know…there are those who dedicate their lives to discrediting the Bible…who go through Scripture to reveal errors in God’s word to flagrantly expose discrepancies…spelling changes…missing words or portions of texts that were added or removed…all of these are what is known as textual variants.
People point out these mistakes for the sole purpose of causing you to doubt the authenticity of Scripture…here’s what Bart Ehrman…a man who travels the world debating the Bible…the most critical of all critical scholars says about
the reliability of the Bible and these textual variants:
The essential Christian beliefs are not affected by textual variants in the manuscripts of the New Testament…page 252.
Know what that means?…these variants people find to cause you to doubt the Bible do not affect any essential Christian beliefs:
—That Jesus is the Son of God.
—That he died on the Cross in your place, bearing your punishment, and paying for your sins.
—That on Resurrection Sunday He literally, physically, bodily rose from the dead never to die again.
—That salvation is by faith alone.
—That Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.
Essential Christian beliefs are not affected by textual variants…meaningthe Bible is completely trustworthy without defect as a guide to salvation.
That validates the infallibility of the Bible regarding faith and God’s design for the salvation of mankind is true and without error.
Want to know what pleases God?…we must believe that He exists…and believe that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
If we want to continue to please God once we’re saved we are to continue to trust Him by believing His Word, living by faith, and diligently seeking His purpose for our lives daily…that’s why only a believer can please God.