Faith and Relationship with God
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
But 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 diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:1,6)
As the name implies, the book of Hebrews was written to first century Jews. Imagine you were a lifelong Torah keeper and you read this: “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” You might reckon it was a misprint. Shouldn’t it be “Without works (Torah keeping) it is impossible to please God”? After all, when God came down to Mt. Sinai, He gave His people things to do and things not to do. God wants us to behave, and if we do, we will be blessed. If we don’t, we will be cursed (Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26).
To many in that day and in our day, this is the nature of relationship with God. Do good and God will give you a good life. Do bad and He will make life bad. Yet, the book of Hebrews challenged that paradigm. It says faith pleases God, and it has always been what pleases God. Hebrews chapter eleven illustrates this mindset in detail.
Jesus was the perfect expression of the heart of God. He never praised people for great Torah keeping. The Pharisees were zealous for God’s Law. For instance, they prohibited thirty-nine types of work to keep people from breaking the Sabbath. These included everything from common tasks like tying or untying a knot to how far you could walk. Jesus never said, “Good Sabbath keeping, Pharisees! Love those extra rules!” What pleased Jesus was what Hebrews says pleases God, our faith.
Consider Jesus’s encounter with the centurion (Matthew 8:5-13). This Roman was pagan. He was not a descendant of Abraham. He most likely did not keep the Sabbath, and he was unclean and uncircumcised. Yet, he had confidence in Jesus. That is all he had, and it was more than enough. The Lord healed the centurion’s servant from afar and said He had not seen such great faith in all of Israel. Could you imagine what the people thought? “He is praising a Roman, a gentile, a dog?” It would challenge people to rethink their relationship with God.
“He who comes to God must believe… (Hebrews 11:6).” The writer of Hebrews chose his words carefully. He did not say, “He who receives from God must believe.” Instead, he spoke of coming to God. Faith is for receiving, but more importantly, it is for knowing God. To help us understand why faith is foundational in relationship with God, we turn to the nature of God:
Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13–14)
The burning bush was the beginning of Moses’s relationship with the Lord. Often, human relationships begin with an exchange of names. Moses wanted to know the Lord’s name. God’s response was I AM WHO I AM. In our day, we often give names to our children without considering meaning. In that day, a name had meaning. It told something about the one who bore it.
What was God saying about Himself? Some scholars maintain the name implies God is the one through whom all things were created. Others conclude God was not just saying that He is a being, but He is being itself. This fits with Paul’s description of the Lord at Mars Hill. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) We see similar thoughts concerning Jesus. John 14:6 tells us Jesus is the truth. Here, the Greek word for truth does not merely mean He is right about everything. It is the word the ancient Greeks used for reality (alētheia). Christ is reality itself. The implications are mind-blowing.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
God’s name, as revealed to Moses, points to the Lord’s infinite nature. When we hear the word eternal or infinite, we reason in terms of space and time, because we are creatures of space/time. That which is eternal has no end, but the infinite transcends space and time. It has no beginning either. The infinite is.
How do we have a relationship with the One who is? We cannot make God be and we cannot make Him not be. It is arrogant to reckon anything we do defines God. Rather, it is God who defines us. The infinite defines the finite. What is left but faith?
Hebrews says we must believe God is. Sound familiar? No doubt the first century Jews reading Hebrews 11 would remember God’s name, I AM WHO I AM. God is. We could meditate on these two little words for the rest of our lives and not reach the magnitude of their meaning. In fact, these two words define who we are and every moment of our lives. Faith is realizing this is so.
Some would say believing God is means we are on the right side of the atheist vs. believer debate. God is = God exists. Lest we conclude there is a reward in this mindset, the scriptures say even the demons acknowledge God exists.
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19)
Let us not confuse having the right facts about God with a relationship with God. In fact, when we have no relationship, we are left with doctrine and commandments. The Pharisees possessed the commandments, but they did not know God. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. The telltale sign they knew the Law but not God was their self-righteousness and their contempt for others.
Likewise, those who measure themselves and others by doctrinal correctness are often of the same spirit of the Pharisees. Behavior is not the only source of self-righteousness. We can measure ourselves and others by how right we are about God. Those who do so have contempt for those who are wrong, just as the Pharisees had disdain for those who misbehaved. When who we are, what we do, or what we know defines us, we have not grasped the meaning of “God is.”
As we seek the Lord, our faith grows beyond correct facts. It becomes relational; we meet the God who does. After the Lord shared His name with Moses, Moses and his people met the God of signs and wonders. The Lord sent ten plagues upon Egypt, parted the Red Sea, using great power to deliver His people from a terrible life of slavery.
God’s people first knew the Lord as the one who could turn a bad life into a good life. Later, at Mt. Sinai, God came down and promised if His people obeyed the commandments, He would do just that. The books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus list God’s promises for those who obey and His curses for those who don’t.
If you do good, you will have a good life. Do bad and life will be bad. This is how they related to God and how many do today. As a pastor, I get letters from strangers, and they invariably follow this framework. During Covid I got many saying the virus came because of someone’s sins (Never their own!). If sinners would repent, God would turn our bad lives back to good lives. This is a paradigm, a way of relating to God. It must die for our journey of faith to continue.
Some say the Old Covenant promises remain, but the means of obtaining them changes in the New Covenant. They combine the Old Covenant promise of a good life with the New Covenant imperative of faith. Believe and we shall receive. Doubt and we will do without. God is still the one who turns bad lives into good lives. Yet, He blesses those who have faith. Everyone loves the God who answers prayer, turning curses into blessings. Preach God is = God does, and you will fill churches and draw an adoring crowd.
Relating to God in this manner is an important part of our faith journey, and the Lord loves every step of our quest. The Lord loves us when we realize He exists. He loves us as we seek His blessings and answers to prayers. He is the God who does, turning bad to good, not having to having, and barrenness to fruitfulness. Yet, the miracles of the New Testament were finite blessings. They were visible signs that the unseen kingdom of God was present.
Although those in the great roll call of faith in Hebrews 11 saw the God who does, they did not inherit the promise. There remained a heavenly country, one unseen by the eyes (Hebrews 11:16,39). This was faith’s destination and ultimate home. It was the journey from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Though we live in a day when the Old Covenant has passed away, our journey is not dissimilar.
When God came down at Sinai, He told His people if they obeyed the Law, He would give them health, wealth, and safety. He promised them happiness! The word “happiness” is related to the word happen. Happiness occurs when good things happen. It comes from external things. Happiness visits when life is good, and it leaves when life is bad.
In Jesus’s day, men like the Pharisees went beyond the Law’s demands, becoming super Torah keepers. They hoped God would bring back the Old Covenant's good life. In their day, life was terrible for most, and their unhappiness had a name…Rome. Amazingly, those who opposed Christ were not the bad people, but those who held onto the Old Covenant. This was the warning of the book of Hebrews. The Old Covenant world was passing away, and it was time to leave it behind. This was the essence of their journey of faith.
Sadly, many Christians have the same expectations as the Pharisees. If we do what God wants, the Lord will get rid of the Romans in our lives, our source of unhappiness. He will take away our curses and fill our lives with blessings. Our dreams will come true. This misunderstanding of relationship with God leads many to ruin.
The New Covenant promise is not a good life but eternal life, and its emphasis is not external finite blessings but the infinite and the internal. We get to experience those to little words…God is. That’s the promise, and its glory far exceeds anything the eyes can see.
Some faith teachers tell us unbelief is doubting that God will give us happiness. It is not. Unbelief is doubting that God has given the infinite. We define life through good and bad. This is a paradigm, a way of thinking. When life is going our way and we have what we want, we proclaim life is good, and we praise God. Yet, when life is not going our way and we don’t have what we want, we proclaim that life is bad. It is then we try to pull God into our paradigm, hoping He will make life good again.
The New Covenant signals the end of the good and bad paradigm. In fact, this mind is unbelief. Faith is realizing who God is defines the moments of our lives. We do not measure life through the finite, but through the infinite. God’s gift is Himself, and His gift defines everything. Through faith, we experience who God is when life is good and especially when life is bad. We know peace in the storm, joy when life is unhappy, fulness with life is empty, and love even when the Romans are in town. In the New Covenant, even the curses are redefined as places we meet with God. Faith is knowing two words define reality itself… God is.
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (Johnn 7:37–38)
Where does faith take us? It is a grave error to conclude its primary emphasis is external circumstances. In the Old Covenant, they looked for external blessings. In the New Covenant, our greatest blessing comes from within. Peace, joy, love, and contentment come from the heart independent of the external. Why? It is because it is there that God dwells.
In the Old Covenant, God was the God behind the veil in the Temple. When Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn, proclaiming we can approach God without fear. Yet, it was also signifying that the glory in us would not be veiled, but would come out. In Christ, life is not just an experience of good and bad but an experience of who God is.
Understanding this simple matter is a breakthrough in a relationship with God. If we assume God is working to give us the life we want or make our dreams come true, we are going to have problems with God. This is a colossal misunderstanding. It leads to disappointment with God and jealousy toward others who have more than we do. God is working to bring us to the end of the good and bad paradigm, and that end often comes when life is bad. (Read 2 Corinthians 11 and 12 and watch Paul reach this conclusion!) This is why tribulation is often the backdrop against which the glory of God is revealed. We realize we are complete in Him and this internal reality bursts forth in our lives like rivers of living waters. We understand that we don’t need the Romans to leave town to be filled to overflowing. Our lives that we once judged as imperfect are suddenly seen as perfect.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. (1 Peter 1:6–8)
God tests our faith to help it grow. His tests are not exams, as the world defines them, but opportunities. Great progress happens when we comprehend God’s favor in our tribulations. Unfortunately, we view God’s tests in terms of good and evil. We have all seen movies where a little devil and a little angel sit on either side of a character’s ears. One says, “Do good!” The other says, “Do evil!” If we do good, we feel worthy. If we chose evil, we feel shame. We reckon God is all about behavior, and good deeds are His goal.
While God wants good deeds, in such circumstances there is far more going on than a battle between good and evil. This is a test of faith. What defines you? Is it who you are and what you do, or is it who God is? The temptation is to fall back into self-definition either in shame or in pride. The overcomer is not the one who has the will power to do only good, but the one who knows their union with Christ defines them. Who God is defines them no matter what.
Our failures and weaknesses are important opportunities. Their purpose is never shame. They are facilitators of union with Christ. Our shortcomings are opportunities to see who we really are. When we fall back into self-definition and shame, we fail the test. Does that mean doing good or bad does not matter? Of course not. Those who bear fruit for God grasp who they are and who defines them. This comes by faith and works follow relationship. The overcomer is the one who has no boast but Christ, and that boast is the victory. One of life’s great ironies is that boast is often realized not on our best day but our worst. It is there we can most easily comprehend grace and perceive the face of the one who defines us.
The bad things that happen to us are equally a test of faith. They are opportunities to realize what defines the moments of our lives. When bad things happen, we are tempted to fall back into the good and bad mindset. Many of the first century Jews missed their Messiah because of this paradigm. They wanted a Messiah who would turn bad to good. Those who held stubbornly to the Old Covenant wanted an external kingdom seen with the eyes, not one that comes from within. They wanted finite blessings and not the infinite.
When times are hard, we can slide back into the mindset where bad and good define life. Or we can leap forward by faith knowing who God is defines the moments. When life below is lacking, it is an opportunity to plant our feet in the heavenly country and dwell above together with Him. We cannot escape life’s storms. The unbelieving only see the storm and assume it defines the moment. Those of faith see God amid the storm coming to give Himself to us. When we know God is, even suffering is redefined as a place of glory.
Some say life is a mystery, but it is the good/evil and bad/good paradigms that keep it a mystery. Yet, when we live in the “God is” paradigm, who Christ is becomes the reason and possibility of every moment. Life is an unfolding revelation of who God is. Its measure is not what we do or what we have, but what we see.
