subject: How To Please God, Part 1 [print this page] Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Faith is defined as a measurement of your confidence in God, both in what He has done (justification) and what He wants to do (sanctification). However, there are different measures of faith. Galatians 2:20 teaches us that faith is not simply what saves you, but it is what will change you too! I believe John 3:16 is the most important verse in the Bible to the unsaved. But I believe Galatians 2:20 is the most important verse in the Bible to the saved.
If Paul is telling us that the same thing that saves us (faith) is the same thing that changes us, then we must conclude that there are different measurements of faith. There must be different levels of confidence, among believers, in what God has promised to do for us.
In order to understand what these measurements might be, we should look to the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11), where we see three men mentioned. One is Abel. He expressed his faith as he worshiped God in sacrifice. We see Noah. He expressed his faith as he worked for God when he prepared an ark. But between the two we hear of a little known man named Enoch. He exercised his faith when he walked with God (Gen. 5:24).
But yet, he had a testimony that God did not attribute to any other member of the Hebrews Hall of Faith. Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God (verse 5). How did Enoch please God more than Abel and Noah and the others? Very simply, he exercised all four measures of faith by wrapping his worship and work around his dynamic walk with God. This pleased God so much that He then explains that we need Enochs measures of faith in order to please Him ourselves! God lists these four measures in the next verse, Hebrews ll:6.
I believe it takes all four measures of faith to please God. I also believe that it takes all four measures of faith to experience the crucified Christian life that is taught to us in Galatians 2:20. We will look at each of these measures as if they were inches on a ruler. Each measurement will be three inches in length. If we have a full measure of faith, it would metaphorically equal a foot of faith.
