RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-08-05	Do Unbelievers Ever Please God? (He.11:6)
		Heb 11:6  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. Rom 14:23  But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. There is a sense in which everything coming out of an unbelieving heart displeases the Lord. Nothing that comes out of the heart of unbelief pleases the Lord. Now this does not mean that unbelievers cannot perform acts which outwardly conforms to God's law. They do not kill. They do not steal. They conform outwardly to some of God's will. What this means is that  it is not simply external conformity to prescribed deeds that pleases God. Even we know that. We do not want external compliance from our kids while their hearts are far from us. What pleases the Lord is a heart of trust and love. What comes out the heart pleases the Lord. So in this sense even the so-called right things that an unbeliever does are not pleasing to the Lord. This is because they are not deeds of faith. Faith toward God, and love toward Jesus (Ac.20:21). This raises the question of how God looks at the steps that a person takes toward Christ before they believe on Christ. It appears that each of these steps is a free gift of unmerited grace as God moves a person toward salvation through faith. And as God looks upon the person, He sees them as unworthy of that gift of grace. This is why we call it grace. When we finally believe on the Lord we all say, “Grace brought me here”. God looks upon His own work as a good thing that he is doing, to bring someone to faith in Christ. Someone may ask about Acts 10 concerning Cornelius. He was a Roman centurion. He is said to “fear God”, and “gave alms generously”, and prayed to God (Ac.10:2). An angel shows up in a vision and tells him that his prayers have been heard by God, and that he should send for Peter (Ac.10:3-4). The angel did not tell him he was a good man. The message said to go get a Gospel messenger. In this case Peter. There is some news you need to know in order to be saved. So God is at work in pre-salvation grace to bring Cornelius to the point where he can hear the Gospel and be saved. In the meanwhile Peter is receiving a vision to get him ready to go meet Cornelius. Peter sees all these unclean animals and God says not to call anything unclean that He calls clean. God was getting Peter ready to associate with “unclean” Gentiles. God is teaching Peter that they are just as acceptable into God's family as any Jewish unbeliever would be. Peter appears to understand there was to be no distinction between Jew and Gentile (Ac.11:12). In Acts 11:14 the angel said to Cornelius that Peter would declare to him a message by which he will be saved. So in all Cornelius' praying and almsgiving, and fearing God, he is not saved. If anyone uses this story to say there are saved people out there among the nations that do not need to hear the Gospel, understand this story completely backwards. The point of the story is that there are people who need to hear the Gospel and be saved. So Peter is to go to the Gentiles. God has granted to Cornelius repentance that leads to life (Ac.11:18). God in His mercy may move circumstances to bring the Gospel to another undeserving sinner. All who are saved know that we do not deserve God's grace. So the prayers, alms, good deeds of Cornelius did not bring him to salvation. Salvation came to Cornelius because he heard the Gospel and believed that message. Ultimately the wonderful acts of God led him to salvation through hearing the Gospel. So without faith it is impossible to please God. But God in His mercy draws unbelieving sinners to Himself. And in the process God grants them desires and actions that lead to an encounter with the Gospel so they may believe. When that happens it leads to a life of faith that is well pleasing to the Lord. So unbelievers do not please God as unbelievers. When they come to faith in Christ they become pleasing to the Lord. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

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