AND WITHOUT FAITH
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD
AND WITHOUT FAITH…
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE
GOD
JAN LILLEBY
The false movement in Christendom called for ‘Universalism’ – is teaching (mainly) the doctrine of ‘all human kind is saved, regardless of faith or no faith in God and Christ’.
The entire world is saved whether they believe or not. Even if there exists several fractions inside Universalism, all of these are quoting that one will be saved regardless of faith or no faith.
Such nonsense is killed as soon as we pull up Heb. 11:6, NASB,
“And 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 seek Him.”
These few words expresses the essence of the entire concept of having faith in God – because without doubt it clearly points out to us that one has to please God in order to be saved by God, for all eternity. If we please God, then He gives us His glorious reward: eternal salvation.
If we do not first please God, by having faith in Him, then it follows from such lack of faith, that God shall not let any unbeliever be given eternal salvation. It implicates now, in the aftermath of Christ’s First Advent, that believing on God, is believing on Jesus Christ!
It has consequences NOT to believe in God, and it has consequences believing in God. We have been given but two options. One saves you for eternity; the other leaves you without any salvation whatsoever.
Hebrews 11:6 is God’s key-word in this entire matter. And this passage is reflected very clearly in Paul’s teachings regarding his gospel message. It is also a Biblical truth, that Heb. 11:6 is an inter-dispensational key-word.
In Hebrews this passage is gold-framed by several examples of Bible personalities who had faith, - such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, - David and Samuel and the prophets.
If these super-prominent believers from the times of Old Testament had to have FAITH in God, then I can assure you all that we in our time have to have faith also.
We believe on Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty God and Creator.
If we had not believed on Him, we all would go lost for eternity; - we would have died without any hope of salvation.
PAUL REFLECTING HEB. 11:6
The opening greeting in Ephesians tells us a lot, Eph. 1:1, NASB,
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus”.
Paul wrote to believers. Not to the ‘unbelievers at Ephesus’!
He immediately set the stage without any hesitation…addressing them all as FAITHFUL in Christ. They all believed on Jesus Christ, and thus they also was ‘set aside for God’ – which is the same as being SAINTS. God had by their faith in His Son Jesus Christ, set these faithful believers aside for Himself, and thus saved them by faith, for all eternity.
How did they come to faith in Jesus Christ?
Answer: By Paul’s earlier visits to the city – seen in Acts 19 – as he preached Jesus to them, telling them that Jesus was the genuine Messiah (Christ, in Greek) for Israel.
Paul was sent to testify to them of Jesus. Their faith came as they heard Paul’s testimony and his explanation of the Word of God, proving Jesus as the Messiah. Paul was divinely backed up by extraordinaire miracles and wonders.
The whole point of Paul’s visit to Ephesus and other towns in Asia Minor, had been to get people everywhere to come to FAITH in Christ, for their salvation!
The foolish and lying idea of God as savior of all human kind - regardless of faith or no faith, is self-dead and out of question by these few words from the Bible.
PETER DECLARED UNBELIEVERS AS ENTIRELY LOST
Not only Paul reflected the truth of Heb. 11:6 regarding faith to please God. Peter did this as well. The principle of Heb. 11:6 is inter-dispensational.
2 Peter 3:15-18, NASB,
“15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.»
Peter’s exhortation here is not to be taken lightly!
If it was this strict and of grave importance in the time of the twelve apostles preaching the Kingdom-Gospel to Israel, how much more will it be strict and ultra-important to us, we who have been given a HEAVENLY calling, and not the earthly calling of the Kingdom of God in Israel?
If the believers during the Kingdom-preaching to Israel did not stay in the correct understanding of Scripture…thus falling from their steadfastness (in the faith!) – having distorted and gone against the Word of God – to their own destruction, how much more will we go lost (into destruction: eternal death) who have a greater calling than the Messianic Jews and proselytes under Acts time???
Peter referred to Paul as a faithful apostolic companion here, and not a competitor or one he disagreed with. Paul also agreed that people would GO LOST for salvation, if they did not believe in God, Christ and the Word of God.
The nonsense promoted by the Universalists is contrary to the Word of God. It is a distortion and perversion of the Word, and not just a misinterpretation.
The commission Jesus told His twelve apostles to fulfill, was clearly told them that it was to get Israel to believe on Jesus as their Messiah. If they did not believe, they would NOT be saved, but condemned.
Mark 16:15-16, NASB,
“15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.”
Again we find the two only options presented to those Jesus sent the Gospel: The believers would be saved, the unbelievers would be condemned – which is same as ‘going lost of salvation’.
Paul says just about the same thing in Col. 3:24-25, NASB,
“24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”
The very same two options presented to Paul’s audiences, one gives them the REWARD of salvation, which Paul called ‘inheritance’ (remember Heb. 11:6!!) – but the other was that the wrong-doer (unbeliever) shall receive the consequences of his wrong-doings, namely to lose his salvation.
In another passage Paul exhorts the believers to STAY FAITHFUL and with STEADFASTNESS (same as Peter wrote!) not going away from their faith…..
Col.1:11-12, NASB,
“11 …strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”
The inheritance of the saints in Light: the heavenly calling which we, the ‘one new man’ have in the FAITH in Christ. Without faith, there would have been NO INHERITANCE. This inheritance is God’s reward to us believers in Christ, and was already mentioned in Heb. 11:6 …that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Eph. 4:17-24, NASB, is a real Universalism killer,
“17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
How so?
Because there are several elements going along with our FAITH IN CHRIST. It has a specific spiritual content and high integrity. Something which ONLY A BELIEVER IN CHRIST can be granted by God.
For this I have emphasized the verses 18,19 and 22: Saying the very same as Peter in my references above to 2 Pet. 3:15-18, that we are not to be like the ungodly unbelieving Gentile world. Faith in God has the high demand to make total distance to the ways of the world!
Paul’s exhortation is genuine Christendom, and not some shady religiousness trying to climb the ladder to come up to God. This passage has everything to do with our lives as genuine true believers in Jesus Christ, following our apostle Paul, the prisoner of Christ!
But ‘Universalism’ is contradicting Paul, saying that it is irrelevant whether to believe or not to believe. Since here, Paul tells us what real unbelievers is DOING IN REAL LIFE: They are DARKENED IN THEIR UNDERSTANDING; EXCLUDED FROM THE LIFE OF GOD; such ones that are practicing every kind of impurity with greediness!
What an attestation we have in the Word of God against the lewd and ungodly manners of the world, the unbelievers who, according to the lying Universalism, still will get saved by God for eternity!
You see this foolishness and utter lack of any normal functioning brains?
If someone is EXCLUDED FROM THE LIFE OF GOD, he is indeed unsaved, and lost for eternity. Their life will be over for good. That is the ‘reward’ of all those who in our time refuses to believe on Jesus Christ.
PAUL’S ESSENTIAL DECLARATION ON FAITH
Eph. 2:8-9, NASB, - - I just love this passage,
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Gracepano.com
