For part one, read here.
This is the verse that I am focusing on:
Hebrews 11:6 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. (NIV)
In this verse are two aspects of the faith that pleases God. First, the one who comes to God must believe that he exists. Now, this might seem like a weird sort of requirement - almost a given. I mean, if you are coming to God, then you obviously believe that he exists, right? You wouldn't come to God if you believed that he was a figment of peoples' imaginations or a plot of a domineering religious organization. As an analogy, suppose you wanted help with a computer problem. If you didn't think I existed, then you wouldn't ask me for help, would you? Also, isn't this a somewhat pale requirement? Many people believe that God exists, but they think that he is remote and uninvolved in their lives and thus their belief doesn't affect how they live their lives. Is this belief pleasing to God?
I think that this verse implies something about the type of belief in God's existence that you must possess in order to please God. I don't think that it is a great stretch to read this part of the verse as "must believe that he exists as revealed in the Bible." This means that faithful belief in God isn't belief that considers God to be remote and uninvolved. It is belief that God is the Creator of the world, that he is involved in his creations, and that as Creator he has power over the world. If he is Creator, then he can make or unmake any part of it that he wants. He is in control, and he is powerful. This is faithful belief in God's existence.
I term this portion of faith the "He can" aspect of faith. Because he is Creator, he can affect his creation. Because he has power over his creation, he can make changes. Faithful belief in God first believes that he is able to act.
Now, this is cool. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3), Moses asked God what his name was, so that Moses could tell the Israelites the name of the God that had sent him. God answered "This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I am has sent me to you.'" A variation of this - "He is" - became the personal name of God for the Israelites; this name is the Tetragrammaton, which is commonly rendered as "Yahweh" in English. Notice, God's very name for himself proclaims his existence. This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "believe in the name of the LORD [Yahweh]". Believing in the name of God is believing in his existence. To believe in the name of the LORD fulfills the first aspect of pleasing faith in God, because it is belief that he is the capable Creator God.
Now I have to sleep so I can take my kids to the Barn early in the morning for their trip to Belize.
I am loving this, Peaj! My favorite part is "Now I have to sleep..." (just kidding)! I love the paragraph about Moses. Nowadays, names (at least in my opinion) don't seem to have the importance to people that they did in the past. You see people making up names, naming their kids after fruit, whatever. The understanding in Bible times was that a person's name represented that person or God's purpose for that person. John and I were very deliberate when we named our son. Nathan means "gift of God" and Zachary means "the Lord remembers". These days it is very comforting to me to think that God will never forget Nathan (even if, at this time, Nathan seems to have forgotten God). I realize, as I write this, that I'm not really commenting on the faith part of your teaching, and I love all of that, but this bit about the name of God is just jumping out at me!
ReplyDeleteWill we get to hear this in church sometime?
This is great, PJ! So far I'm right with you! Waiting for part 3
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