Faith to please God
By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 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 11:5-6).
Enoch had the faith to please God. He was remarkable for two reasons: firstly, he walked with (pleased) God (Genesis 5:24), and secondly, he did not die.
When Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove, and the Father’s voice was heard from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). At a conference some years ago, I raised the question, “If heaven opened over my head, what would God say?” I think I would be concerned about all my failures and how little I have pleased God. But God does not want us to become self-occupied. His grace deals with our failings. What is amazing is that we have the potential to please God. Our Heavenly Father is not only expecting us to “bear fruit”, “more fruit” and “much fruit” (John 15), He is actively involved in this process in our lives: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (15:1-2). By describing His Father as “the vinedresser”, the Lord Jesus brings home to us how closely the Father works in our lives to make us into the people He wants us, His children, to be.
The apostle writes, “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.” So what does a life well-pleasing to God look like? Interestingly the detail of Enoch’s life is not given to us. But the details of the life of Christ and of so many of the lives of Old and New Testament saints are given to us. We learn from the Person of Christ and the faith of His people. The characteristics and the development of the fruit of the Spirit are also explained to us. What we need is the faith to cultivate the practice of walking humbly with our God (Micah 6:8) in our circumstances and generation.
It has been said that Enoch enjoyed such a close relationship with God that one day God said to Enoch, “Instead of going home, come to My house”, and He took him home to heaven. It is an excellent way to think of how Enoch, the first man to be raptured, entered heaven without dying. There is a day coming when the whole Church of Christ will be raptured and taken into the Father’s house (1 Thessalonians 4). Until then, we are to live in daily communion with God the Father and God the Son by the power and liberty of God the Holy Spirit, and be guided by the Word of God. In these ways, the love of God empowers us to live by faith. The hope we have in Christ has a purifying effect on our lives. Enoch lived in daily communion with God. He helps to illustrate how the power to please God comes from abiding in Christ day by day, and the God of peace makes us “complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).
