Pleasing God with Faith

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, May 16, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Hebrews 11:1-12, 17-30.

            We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s one of the basic Christian beliefs.  You’ve heard me say it over and over.  You’ve heard lots of other people say it, too.  We’ve heard it so often that we almost take it for granted.  We are saved, not by our good works, but by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            But Christians did not always take it for granted.  You remember that, before Jesus came, the Jewish people thought their salvation came from following the law.  And in the first decades following Jesus’ death, that idea was still prominent--that faith in Jesus alone was not enough, that instead you had to earn your salvation through acts of righteousness.  And in fact, you still hear that idea today.  People will sometimes talk about needing to be a “good person” to go to heaven, rather than going to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ.

            That idea is one of the things the author of the letter to the Hebrews was working against.  And so, he goes through a list of some of the most important people in the Old Testament, from Abel to Joshua.  

            Now, these were people who lived good lives.  They were people who did great things.  But the author of the letter to the Hebrews says that what’s important about them is not the things they did.  What’s important about them is the faith they had.  It was their faith that made them do the things they did.  It was their faith that led them to live good lives.  And it was their faith that pleased God.

            In fact, the author says more than that.  He says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Think about that.  If that’s true, then no matter what we do, no matter how good it is, it is not pleasing to God unless we have faith.  We could do something that saved the lives of millions of people, we could come up with a cure for COVID or bring peace to the world or end poverty forever or do any other great thing you can think of.  And yet, it would not be pleasing to God unless we have faith--faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            So, what do you think about that?  Do you believe it?  Do you think that doing something great, something incredible, something that would benefit mankind, would not be pleasing to God if we don’t have faith?  Because that’s what the letter to the Hebrews says:  without faith, it is impossible to please God.

            Here’s what I think.  It’s not that God would not be pleased to have someone cure COVID, or bring world peace, or do anything else that benefits humanity.  If someone who does not have faith did that, I think God would be pleased with what they did.  

            But that does not mean that the person who did that would live a life that was pleasing to God.  For one thing, it’s possible to be incredible smart, incredibly talented, even to be a genius, and still be a jerk.  You could be a great scientist, a great economist, a great anything, and still mistreat your spouse, ignore your children, and demean and belittle the people around you.  The fact that someone achieves something that humans consider great does not mean they’re a great person, or even a good person.  

            But beyond that, the fact is that we cannot please God by being good people.  Why?  Because of what Jesus said.  He’s quoted saying this twice in the Bible, at Mark Chapter Ten, Verse Eighteen and Luke Chapter Eighteen, Verse Nineteen.  Someone referred to Jesus as “good”, and Jesus responded, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good--except God alone.”

            The reason we cannot please God by being good people is that none of us is a good person.  We might do good things, sometimes, and God’s probably pleased about that.  More pleased than when we don’t do good things, anyway.  But none of us is a good person.  No one is good except God.

            God is perfect.  Perfectly good, perfectly loving, perfectly everything.  You and I are not perfect.  Not perfectly good, not perfectly loving, not perfectly anything.  As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans Chapter Three, Verse Twenty-three, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

            You see, when we think of being “good” we think of it in comparison to other human beings.  We think this person is good because they’re better than someone else.  Sometimes we think we’re good because we’re better than someone else, too.

            But that’s not how God thinks of it.  Not at all.  God thinks of being good in comparison to Himself.  And of course, we all fall short in that comparison.  We don’t even get in the same ballpark. When it comes to being good, you and I are not in the same area code with God.  We’re not even in the same universe with God.

            And so, we can never be “good” enough to please God.  Now, we should always try to be good, of course.  We should be the best people we can be.  But we will never impress God by how good we are.  We will never win God’s favor by how good we are.  And we will never receive salvation because of how good we are.

            That’s the point the author of Hebrews is making with his examples.  Abel did not please God by how good his gift was.  He pleased God by the faith his gift showed.  Noah did not please God by building an ark.  Noah pleased God by having the faith to do what God told him to do, even if it meant building a boat in the middle of the desert.  Abraham did not please God by the good things he did.  He pleased God because of the faith he showed by going where God told him to go and doing what God wanted him to do, even when God told him to kill his own son.  

And on and on and on.  None of the great heroes of the Bible pleased God by how good they were.  They pleased God because they had the faith to do what God told them to do.  They pleased God because they had the faith to trust God even when what God told them to do might not have made a lot of sense to them.  They pleased God because they said, “If this is what God wants me to do, then I’m going to do it, even if I don’t really understand it.”

            That’s the faith you and I are called to have.  A faith that says we will trust God enough to do what God wants us to do, to go where God wants us to go, to say what God wants us to say, even when we don’t understand.  Because there will be times when we don’t.  I suspect many of us have had those times, where we felt God calling us to do something or go somewhere or say something, even if we did not know why.  

That’s why the author of Hebrews says faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  When we don’t understand, but we trust God enough to be faithful to Him anyway--that’s the kind of faith that pleases God.  When we don’t understand, but we have enough faith to say, “If God wants me to do this, then it must be right.”--that’s the kind of faith that pleases God.  When we decide to stay faithful to God, regardless of the consequences--that’s the kind of faith that pleases God.

And when we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, that kind of faith pleases God the most.  Because the reason God sent Jesus, the divine Son, into the world, to live and die for us, is so our sins could be forgiven, by our faith in Jesus and by God’s love and grace and mercy.  And the thing is, Jesus did not just die for “humanity”, in general terms.  Jesus died for each human being as an individual.  Jesus died for you.  Jesus died for me.  

But the forgiveness we can receive through the death of Jesus Christ is only effective if we have faith.  If you and I don’t have faith, then in our case, Jesus died for nothing.  Jesus went through all that agony on the cross for nothing.  Jesus was arrested and mocked and ridiculed and beaten and shamed and ultimately killed for nothing.

            How do you think that makes God feel?  How do you think God feels, to know that in some people’s cases, He sent His only son to die for nothing?  God has to be very sad about that. Because again, no matter what wonderful things that person may have done in human terms, they are still a sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation.  And they could have that forgiveness and salvation if they would only believe in Jesus as the Savior.  And they refuse to do it.  God has to be so disappointed when that happens.

            But on the other hand, that’s why our faith does please God.  Because when we do have faith, it makes everything Jesus went through worth it.  It makes Jesus’ suffering and shame worth it.  It makes all the pain, and ultimately the death, that Jesus endured worth it.  Because you and I have accepted what Jesus did for us, and we do receive forgiveness and salvation.

            You and I can never be good enough to please God.  But we can have a faith that pleases God.  Let’s have that faith.  Let’s trust God with everything about our lives.  We may not be considered great in human terms.  But when we please God through our faith, we are always great in God’s eyes.