"Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists (Gk He is) and that he rewards those who draw near to him" - Hebrews 11:6
What is saving faith? I've done a lot of thinking, preaching, teaching, writing etc. on the nature of saving faith over the courses of my pastoral ministry and student life, and I still do not think that I've plunged the depths of the topic. In Scripture, faith is enjoined as the way in which humans connect with God as early as Abraham (Gen. 15:6), and it is so throughout the Old Testament narrative. When the New Testament era comes, consistent with prophetic promises (Is. 28:16, Habak. 2:4), faith is central. All through Jesus' earthly life and ministry, he calls on people to believe in him (Mk. 5:34; Jn. 3:15-16), and the Evangelists are sure to remind their readers that these invitations from the Lord extend to them, too (Jn. 3:36; 20:31). After Jesus leaves and He sends his Spirit, the Apostles go throughout the world preaching eternal life through faith in Christ (10:42-43, 13:34-35, 16:31, cf. 15:9), and Paul emphasizes throughout his letters that the gospel of Jesus can only be appropriated by faith (Rom. 3-5, Gal. 3, Eph. 2:4-9, etc.) The merits of Jesus can only be received by faith as a gift, or else they can't be received. To add anything to His merits is to strip them of their value, and therefore, to not truly believe that He has done enough to redeem us. So faith is central.
But there are a few central elements that often get passed over, which the Hebrews passage quoted above helps to clarify.
1. First, faith is oriented to pleasing God. That is, the believer is interested in, before anything else, seeking God's happiness. "Without faith it is impossible to please him," means that the one with faith wants to please Him. To some degree (and the degree varies depending on the degree of spiritual maturity a person has), the believer has learned that reality revolves around and depends on God, not themselves. Therefore, they have learned that they exist for God's glory (Is. 43:7), and, therefore, want to please him.*
2. Second, faith is relational. That is, the believer wants to "draw near to God," to get close to him and enjoy His presence. They are not afraid of God's closeness. They can't get enough of Him, His presence, and His Word, so they pursue Him for His own sake (ie, Mk. 1:37). They would "rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness" (Ps. 84:10).
3. Third, faith consists of belief in the foundational nature of His existence. In other words, the believer believes that before everything else, and undergirding everything else, God is. The greek of the middle part of the Hebrews passage is more simple than "He exists;" it is more like, "He is," which might remind a Jewish person (the original reader of Hebrews) of God's famous self-identification at the burning bush, telling Moses, "I Am" (Ex. 3:14). When God said, "I Am," he was saying he is pure act, outside of time, not subject to influence, change, or progress.** Before all else, God is; and the rest of existence flows from His being. Faith has some degree of clarity about God's transcendent being; while sound theology might not be as clear as it will be years into the believer's discipleship, every believer must be clear that God is transcendent and other. But God is patient as people continue to grow in their theology.
4. Fourth, and finally, faith means to be sure that He receives seekers. "He rewards those who seek him." Let's be honest: Since Eden, we've been prone to default to snake-talk that convinces us that God has more He could give us, but since He isn't good, and therefore isn't trustworthy, the only way we'll find what we're looking for is if we go and take it ourselves. The notion of waiting on the Lord (Is. 40:31) sounds good for worship songs, but is the opposite of what we assume in real life. Nevertheless, to believe, according to our text, is to believe that God is open to us when we seek him; that He wants to establish fellowship with us; that He is ready to open his heart for us if we draw near to him. "Whoever comes to me I will never cast out," Jesus said (Jn. 6:37).
Unbelief, then, assumes the worst about God's intentions: He doesn't tell the truth, He is powerless and even exacting when it comes to your own personal sin, and He has limits to what He can do for you. Belief, then, assumes the best about His intentions: He tells the truth, He can not only forgive but heal your fallen propensities, and He has no limits whatsoever.*^ Belief, then, is to assume that, contrary to what is our theological default, God is receptive to us, regardless of what our past or present looks like. How glorious is it that even after all of the disciples' failures and before their most embarrassing failure of leaving Jesus the night he was betrayed, that, nevertheless, "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (Jn. 13:1)? He knew their hearts, and what they'd do moving forward. But He loved them still. And Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), always receptive and ready to receive us when we return.
So let's remember when we read the Scriptures concerning faith, and when we examine our faith to make sure it is real--because it might be counterfeit (Lk. 6:46)--that we remember that God looks for the type of faith that assumes that He is both good and warm to us. That is his nature. Whereas He must be provoked to wrath, when his holiness is offended, love and kindness is His default (1 Jn. 4:8, cf. Ex. 34:6). How can we be sure? Because the triunity of the Father and the Son consists in eternal love (Jn. 17:24) which overflowed into eternal decrees that include the loving choice of sinners to salvation (Eph. 1:3-4) and into a creation that puts his goodness on display every moment of every day (Ps. 19:1-2, Mt. 5:44ff). And since He never changes, we can be sure that the relational love that comes from all eternity comes, indeed, to us, establishing relationship with Him, and maintaining it by faith. In short, to truly believe in God is to love Him; and this love is the gift of His Spirit as we feast on His Word and goodness (Rom. 5:5).
*Piper's Desiring God was written to make clear that seeking God's happiness is not contradictory to seeking our happiness, if it is understood that our happiness is meant to consist in our enjoyment of God's happiness. See that book, if you haven't.
**See Matthew Barrett's None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God, if you haven't, especially pp. 41-69, which comprise his chapters on God's limitlessness and aseity.
*^I'm reminded of an old AW Tozer quote: "How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none" (in Knowledge of the Holy, 47).
