By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
Faith grounded his pleasing God; his pleasing God grounded his translation. That sudden removal to immortality without death prefigures the change that shall pass over the living at Christ's coming.
AI summary
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, because faith requires right principles and right ends, and those without Christ and His Spirit cannot have either. Whoever comes to God must believe He exists and know Him as the Trinity, Father, Son as Mediator, and Spirit as the applier of grace, approaching through Christ alone by the Spirit's aid.
AI summary
Abel is our first pattern of faith at work: he offered a sacrifice acceptable to God while his brother's was rejected. By faith he was commended as righteous, and though he died long ago, his faith still speaks.
AI summary
Commenting on Hebrews 11:4-31