In my previous post I looked at Hebrews 11:6 which states, But without faith it is impossible to please Him (God), for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I focused on the first part of the verse, noting that the faith that pleases God is a faith that sees the invisible God as He is, as He has revealed His infinitely valuable being in the glory of His creation, in the Old and New Testament scriptures, and most clearly and gloriously in the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ, by faith, we see the infinite worthiness of God to be loved with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, which is required for us to receive the gift of eternal life (Hebrews 1:3) (John 1:14-17), (Luke 10:25-28) (Romans 6:23).
The second part of the verse is equally important, stating that this God we believe in by faith is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I would suggest that believing and seeking go hand in hand, in that if we truly believe that God is the infinitely glorious being He has revealed Himself to be in Jesus Christ, then we can do nothing less than diligently seek Him as the object of our deepest love and the source of our greatest joy, the one who in Himself is our exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1).
We are commanded in Isaiah 55:6-7 to seek the Lord for forgiveness of our sins and restoration to the glorious life with Him for which we were created. In Psalm 27:7-8 and Psalm 105:1-4, we are called by God to seek His face – to seek personal intimacy with Him such that we would come to know and love and be loved by Him in a relationship similar to that which we would have with a loving parent.
However, according to Psalm 14:2-3 and Romans 3:11-12, we live in a world where no one seeks for God, at least not the God of the Bible revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Some may seek a god of their own or someone else’s imagination, or a god revealed out of an angelic visitation (see Islam and Mormonism) (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), but not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of all spiritual blessings required for our redemption (Ephesians 1:3).
The Bible reveals multiple reasons for our unwillingness to seek God, multiple barriers resulting from our fallen, sin condemned condition that we can neither recognize nor overcome apart from a supernatural work of God in our lives and on our hearts.
First and foremost of these barriers is the revelation in God’s word that, because of our sin (Ezekiel 18:4), we are born into this world spiritually dead, cut off from the glorious relationship with God for which we were created (Psalm 58:3) (Ephesians 2:1) (Colossians 2:13).
In this condition, we have no ability to desire to know and understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14) when they are presented to our mind, a mind that is darkened in its understanding of the greatness and goodness of God; a mind that is inherently hostile toward God (Ephesians 4:17-18) (Romans 8:7).
Secondly, the Bible reveals that at the core of our being, what the Bible refers to as our heart – the seat of our thoughts, affections, desires, longings and motivations – we are desperately wicked, so wicked that we can’t know just how wicked we are (Jeremiah 17:9). Genesis 6:5 reveals that the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts are only evil continually, while Jesus reveals that it is from men’s hearts that all moral evil originates (Matthew 15:18-19). We are told in Jeremiah 13:23 that we can change this condition of our hearts about as easily as a leopard can change its spots or an Ethiopian can change the color of his/her skin.
Thirdly, we are told in Romans 1:18-25 that mankind actively suppresses the truth of the knowledge of the glory of God that is displayed in creation and revealed in our consciences, exchanging that truth for the lie, namely the devil’s lie in Genesis 3:1-4 that we can, in pursuit of our individual happiness and wellbeing, determine for ourselves good and evil, right and wrong independent of and in opposition to God’s rule over our lives.
And then we are told in 2 Corinthians 4:3-5 that this devil, referred to here as the god of this age/world, has through continued lies and deceptions (Revelation 12:9) blinded men’s minds to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as it is most clearly revealed in the Gospel, the good news of what God has done in and through the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ, through His sinless life, substitutionary death on the cross, and miraculous resurrection, to, on our behalf, provide everything necessary to overcome these barriers, including Satan’s blinding lies, and to bring us into the glorious relationship with God for which we were created (John 6:40).
He will do so by the power of God the Holy Spirit, who graciously restores us to spiritual life, by what Jesus referred to as being “born again”, wherein we can now see the glory of the Kingdom of God and more importantly the glory of its eternal King, our Lord Jesus (John 3:3-7).
God then grants us the gift of faith, the ability to see beyond the lies of the devil to the truth of the beauty and glory of God, as well as the infinite love of God as it is revealed in the person and work of Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9) (2 Corinthians 4:6) (Romans 5:8).
He grants us a new heart with new affections, new desires and new motivations, wherein knowing, loving and being loved by God becomes our heart’s deepest longing, obeying Him a delight and not a duty, and pleasing, honoring and glorifying Him as our exceeding great reward becomes the all-consuming passion of our lives (Ezekiel 36:24-28).
And one more thing, if all the above is not glorious enough, we have the promise that the day we finally see Jesus, no longer by faith, but face to face, we will be made like Him in His glorified humanity, never to sin again, ruling and reigning with Him over a new universe and new earth, knowing only fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (1 Corinthians 13:12) (1 John 3:1-3) (Revelation 3:21) (Psalm 16:11).
Hallelujah, what a Savior!!
Grace and Peace ×