One of the more intriguing passages in the Bible is found in one of the most important chapters of the Bible, Hebrews 11, a chapter that centers on faith – what it is, examples of it in redemptive history and its ultimate importance in our relationship with God. In Hebrews 11:5-6 we read,
“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”.
Before I look at the faith that pleases God – the faith that reconciles us to God and sustains our relationship with God while in this world and throughout eternity, I want to address this issue of pleasing God, because ultimately that is what we were created for, and subsequently redeemed to do (Revelation 4:11) (Psalm 149:4) (Philippians 2:13).
I would suspect, based on the noxious condition of our world and culture, that there are relatively very, very few people in this world who live their lives with pleasing God as their primary motivation or goal in life, at least not the God of the Bible.
That’s because the philosophy that drives most people’s lives in our world and society today is proclaimed in an old Ricky Nelson song called Garden Party, in which we have the refrain. “But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well, You see you can’t please everyone, so You got to please yourself. Ricky’s philosophy was not new – it is the age-old philosophy of living self for self, and the hell with everyone else. It is philosophy, a world view that originated with the angel Lucifer – the devil and has been espoused by all of sinful mankind since the fall of Adam and Eve, who joined the devil in embracing this philosophy, which resulted in the spiritual and ultimate physical death of all mankind (Isaiah 14:13-14) (Romans 5:12) (Proverbs 14:12).
The nature of fallen mankind is to seek our own personal interests and private happiness independent of God and in opposition to God (Jeremiah 18:11-12). We are concerned most about us, believing that true happiness can only be found if I am free to live under the authority of the unholy trinity of me, myself and I. This is the result of the lie that the devil convinced Adam and Eve of in the Garden of Eden, and every man and woman since, that our greatest happiness is to be found in the freedom and ability to do as we please, whenever we please, however we please, accountable to no one, just like God (Genesis 3:1-5). Thus, we spend most of our time trying to facilitate what ultimately pleases us or what pleases someone of whom we are trying to gain their approval, acceptance, or cooperation, but not ultimately what pleases God or Christ (Galatians 1:10) (Philippians 2:21).
In our man-centered, self-centered existence we believe that others should please us, that our needs, our desires, our preferences, our views and opinions should be acknowledged and accommodated by the people around us, and thus we get impatient, angry, indignant or depressed when they are not.
The inevitable misery and destructiveness brought about in living self for self, is displayed most prominently in our disobedience to parents and other lawful authority; manipulative, exploitive and abusive relationships; interpersonal violence; depression and suicide; mass demonstrations and riots in our cities (see Paris, France) and wars among and within the nations (James 4:1-3).
And this carries over into our relationship with God wherein when He allows circumstances into our life that are not pleasing to us, we become displeased, even angry with Him, believing that if He were truly good and truly loving He would want to please us with favorable circumstances and with success in all of our endeavors; that He would sanction our choices and readily meet our needs and fulfill our desires, much like a hired servant or rich indulgent grandfather.
However, the Bible places its emphasis on our pleasing God – not as a means of earning His acceptance or approval or manipulating Him to gain His favor like we do with people (people pleasers), nor as a means of placating or meeting the needs of the petulant and capricious “gods”, found in Greek mythology or polytheistic pagan religions. We are to make pleasing God our priority in life because that is what we were created by God to do, such that in doing so we would find our ultimate and eternal happiness in Him (2 Corinthians 5:9) (Psalm 37:3-4).
Colossians 1:16 tells us that all things were created by God and for God. God, who is eternally happy in the fellowship of the trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit), reveals in Isaiah 43:7 and Psalm 19:1-6, that His reason for all of His creation, particularly mankind, was for His glory. When the Bible speaks of the glory of God, which it does quite frequently, it is speaking of the outshining or outward display of His holiness, of the infinite value of the infinite perfections of His being. His glory was/is to be seen and displayed in the natural creation and in, to and through men and women whom He would create in His “image and likeness” to know, love and be loved by Him and one another under His wise and loving authority (Isaiah 6:1-3) (Psalm 8:3-9) (Jeremiah 31:3) (Matthew 22:34-40).
God’s kind and gracious intentions were that man, beginning with Adam and Eve, would rule over and freely enjoy the beauty and magnificence of His natural creation in a world filled with innumerable and unending expressions of His lovingkindness, goodness and grace, and thus a world of eternally glad, joyful and thankful men and women rejoicing in and being rejoiced over by God (Genesis 1:26-31) (Psalm 145:1-12) (Psalm 36:7-9)(Psalm 16:11) (Zephaniah 3:17).
However, the maintenance of this glorious life and relationship with God did require one thing from man, the one thing that alone pleases God, namely faith – our being fully persuaded that God is the infinitely good and glorious eternal being He had revealed Himself to be in the creation, and thus is fully inclined, fully committed to and fully able to make us exceedingly, abundantly and eternally happy within that relationship; a faith which would be displayed in our love for and glad obedience to God (Romans 4:20-22) (Galatians 5:6) (John 14:23). Such is the faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6)
Tragically, this is the faith Adam and Eve failed to demonstrate in the Garden of Eden; failure that brought all of mankind into the faithless and perverse condition we are in today, living our self for self lives under the just judgement of a good and faithful God (Matthew 17:17) (Psalm 12:1-4) (Romans 14:23).
In my next post, I hope to look at how it pleased God to redeem us from that judgement, and the essential role faith plays in our redemption.
Grace and Peace ×