Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8).

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you may or may not have noted that I subtitled my page as “Meditations on Faith.” In the background of whatever I write is the thought that believing and trusting in God is what makes us Christians – not outward behaviors (important outcomes of belief) or assertive declarations. By saying this, I’m not claiming to be the king of faith or something like that. But I do mean that, in this space, we talk about faith as if it really matters. Faith, hope, and love are all eternally abiding virtues. Love is certainly the greatest of the three, but faith is an indispensable access door to love.

If I presuppose faith at every turn, then you would have the right to ask what I mean by the word itself, especially if I think it’s such an important theological concept. So I’m going to take the next several posts to consider what faith is, what it does, how we get it (a very short answer), and why Scripture emphasizes it so insistently. At the heart of this exercise are two facts: The Holy Spirit has put into our hearts a desire to honor and please the Father. And – as above – we cannot do either of these things without faith (Hebrews 11:6).

So let’s ask two questions this week. The first is: How do we define faith? The answer has several layers. At its most basic, faith is an assent to an idea or proposition. If you tell me that the world is round, I can simply accept or reject your claim regardless of whether I’ve circumnavigated the globe or seen pictures of a spherical earth. I might do so (or not) simply because I know and believe you (or I don’t) as a person. Alternatively, my agreement with you might come from my own experience. I could somehow witness terrestrial roundness through flying, floating, or taking a very long walk from my door and back again.

Our example immediately reveals that faith has a good deal to do with trust in and reliance on a person. In order for me to believe that the earth is a sphere, I need to take on a worldview that goes against what is immediately evident to my sight. When I look at the horizon, there seems to be no question that if I travel far enough I will plunge over some kind of land’s end. So whether I take the time and effort to find out if you’re correct or not, to accept your claim means that I have come to think of you as trustworthy. This is all the more true if you recruit me for a months-long sea voyage that might result in the aforementioned plunge to our deaths.

As simple as the notion of trust is, I think it is essential to articulate it. Otherwise, it is too easy for us to focus on the outworking or expectations of faith (or of hope, which is faith’s sibling). This is especially true of us when we pray. Our intercession is, quite naturally, an exercise in asking for good answers from God. We believe or hope for Uncle Billy’s healing, that our children will follow Jesus, that our house will sell, that we will find a good job, or spouse, or parking place. This makes sense, even in biblical terms: “Ask, and you will receive”; “If you have faith as a mustard seed …” But our natural inclinations can lead us away from the primary truth of faith, which is that our trust is in God himself, in his goodness and mercy, in his power and grace, regardless of he allows in our lives.

Faith that goes to the Father in Jesus and in the Spirit, and that trusts and rests in him is what makes sense of a rebellious world that works so hard to thwart his kingdom. Such faith is what leads three young men to defy the greatest ruler of their age when he insists that they bow to his idolatrous statue. Their declaration is preposterous to human understanding: We will not serve a false god even if we die offering ourselves to the One who is true. We can say the same of Job’s faith, which avers that “I will trust him even if he slays me.” And of Abraham and Sarah, and of the martyrs of every century, and of you and me if we take the same challenging and narrow path that leads to life.

The seeming irrationality of every radical expression of faith and trust reveals something that lies beneath its potency, which is that faith is a gift, something that comes from outside ourselves. Let me take this two steps further: As a gift, faith is free, an offering from God with no strings, and requiring no labor on our parts. But even more than being FROM God, faith is a gift that is IN God. At heart, faith is God’s own confidence and trust in himself. He is never uncertain, never caught off guard, never unsure of his sovereign ability to govern with justice, righteousness, mercy, and love. This God-inspired conviction is what we receive when we accept the gift of faith.

Without experiencing God’s own belief in himself, we come under burdens of confusion, fear, and self-reliance. It is too easy for even long-time Christians to lose sight of the fact that chaos, sin, suffering, and disorder are all products of human will run amok, not symptoms of divine incompetence or complacency. Coming into possession of God’s transcendent confidence …

… leads us to our second question, which is, what does faith do? A fuller answer awaits my next post. Generally speaking, though, I want to say three things to set us up for subsequent discussion. One, we can say that faith is intended to connect us to the person of God – to his power, his love, his purpose, his grace so that we can accomplish the daily call to live as disciples of Jesus. Faith allows us to do what Abraham and Sarah did, which was to obey God even when they didn’t know where they were going. Two, faith counters the depravity inherent in us and in the world around us so that we can transcend the temptations to unbelief and despair that arise from  Finally, an intimate relationship with the Lord through faith turns around Hebrews 11:6 such that, however  impossible it is to please God without faith, it is, in Christ, equally possible to please him WITH it.

Faith that moves mountains comes only from the one who made the mountains.

Until next time (which might be a couple of weeks as we take some vacation time) …