Hebrews 11:6 is one of the profound verses of Scripture which we need to consider prayerfully. It says, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
Now most of us want to please God but do we? In order to please God we must live by faith and respond in faith. The author uses three examples to show this, Abel, Enoch and Noah. We will return to these.
The second profound thought is that we must believe that God exists. To do that we must affirm Him as Creator. Now if He is the creator then we are the creature, the created. We know that what we believe about God defines us and if we believe that He created us then we are His creatures. Everything that is created belongs to the Creator and He created all.
There are two lies that plague our society. The first is that we are autonomous and the second is that we are self-sufficient. As created beings we are neither.
To believe that God exists is also to believe that He is sovereign. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is not to help us make sense of life but to live our lives when it doesn't make sense. God sovereignty doesn't mean that He is a far away God but that He is a God near by.
Finally to believe that God exists we must believe in the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
I mentioned Abel, Enoch and Noah. Let me leave those for another post.
3 comments:
This is a very interesting verse, and one that I still wonder about. Why would the author have to mention to first century Jews that they have to believe THAT God exists? Isn't belief in God paramount to their society and culture, one that is Theocratic and based upon God?
I could understand better if this verse was written to another group, such as the Greeks, where belief in a god or gods was so highly and philosophically debated, but it seems out of place being addressed to the Jews.
I've wondered the same thing too. Do you think the author was addressing atheism or a false idea of who God is. Perhaps not a denial of his existence, but a denial in his character (such as what you'd see from the Sadducees who denied the resurrection... which would connect with the idea of "rewarding those who earnestly seek him").
I loved the line "The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is not to help us make sense of life but to live our lives when it doesn't make sense." Where did you steal this from? ;)
Why did you think I stole that comment? Do you not think that I am able to have profound thoughts myself? Actually I believe it came from Os Guinness. I just finished his book Time for Truth - well worth the read. Andrew has my copy right now.
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