Is God Pleased with You?

Lately my worlds have all been colliding in such a way that I have been struggling to hold it all together.  I wonder whether I am trying to do more than I should.  After all, I have a full time secular job, a bi-vocational ministry position, an active role in a blossoming non-profit missions organization, and I write blogs and books and such.  I do not say that so as to be braggadocios or to seek your awe and amazement.  Indeed, when people find out what all I have been doing recently, they invariably ask “How do you find the time for all of that?”  Truthfully, I am not sure, but honestly it is not really an issue – most of the time.  Most of the time I just do what I need to do and it all seems to work out. Sometimes, though, these worlds do collide and I find myself having difficulty keeping up and coping.

In times like these, I find myself asking a question of my own: “Why are you doing all this?”  Obviously, the reason I am doing it is to be obedient.  My Christ gave up everything and sacrificed everything including his own life so that I may be forgiven.  In return, I want nothing less than to be totally surrendered to him in delightful and unequivocal surrender.   I want him to be so pleased with me so that on the day of judgment he says “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21)

With so much struggle, though, I then start to wonder whether I really am being “faithful over little.”  Perhaps I am trying too hard to do too much and so am not being faithful at all?  So I begin to pray “Lord, do you want me to stop soandso?” and the answer comes back “no.”  “Lord, do you want me to quit whatnot?” and again the answer comes back “no.”  “Then surely, Lord, I ought not to be doing thusandsuch” but the answer comes back “of course you are, keep going.”  So it is then that I respond to God in prayer with “But Lord, I feel like such a failure; all I want is for you to be pleased with the work that I do.” 

No matter how many times I go through this with the Heavenly Father it always ends the same and there is always one final answer that I receive in return.  You would think that I would learn, but I am a slow learner.  In fact, the answer I receive from the Lord may just surprise you.  In response, he says…pause for effect… “I could never be pleased with the work that you do.”  Ouch.

Let’s get something straight from the beginning.  I know that my works cannot save me.  I know that my works cannot appease the wrath of God.  I know that I cannot please God enough by what I do to forgive my sins.  But didn’t Jesus say that we would be recognized by our fruit (Matt 7)?  Didn’t Paul say we were created in Jesus to do good works that God prepared for us in advance (Eph 2:10)?  I don’t want God to save me through my works, but since he has saved me shouldn’t I want him to be pleased with them?

The truth of the matter is that there is only one with whom God is pleased and that is Jesus Christ – “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).  It is only though Christ that God can be pleased with us. The problem with my prayers is that too often they contain too many personal pronouns.  “What can I do?”  “What do you want from me?” “How can I be obedient today?”  Paul said “I can do all things…” but he added “…through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).  Paul never boasted about his own works, but rather only boasted in the cross of Jesus Chris.  In fact, his pride in his work was always tempered by the fact that he only did things “in Christ.”  In Romans 15:17 he said “In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.”

There is only one way in which God can be pleased with us and that is through our faith in Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” This means that even our works must be done in faith, not in our own strength and not even with the goal in mind that God would be pleased with us.  Our obedience to God comes out of a gracious heart for the wonderous salvation he has given us, but that obedience still falls woefully short of God’s perfect standard.  He could never be pleased with our acts of obedience – even those done from a grateful heart.  God can only be pleased with our works when they are done by faith through Jesus Christ and not through our own efforts.  We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7) and that includes every act of loving obedience.

When God answers my prayers with “I could never be pleased with the work that you do” he always adds “but I am pleased with your faithfulness and only ask that you continue to be faithful.”  I never know from one day to the next whether God will ask me to keep doing the things I am doing or to stop everything altogether, but I will keep asking him.  I do want to be obedient, and I want to be doing His will at all times, but I know that he will only be pleased with me when I do these things by faith.

Never stop desiring to be obedient, but have faith that such obedience is pleasant to the master.  It is that faith – not the obedience itself – in which he is pleased.

Christianity and Moral Relativism

“One must sacrifice oneself utterly to God’s purposes, even to the point of possibly making moral mistakes” (Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, 447).

  

How would you respond to that statement made by the biographer of one of the most daring theologians of the 20^th Century?  Would you side with those of the more fundamentalist persuasion who would argue that moral absolutism – i.e., right and wrong are always black and white - is the only way to live?  Or would you side with those of the more liberal persuasion who would argue that moral relativism – i.e., sometimes the ends do justify the means – can have merit?

Most of us would probably move quickly to one of those two extreme views.  Although in most respects I consider myself more of an evangelical than a fundamentalist, I would have to say that on this issue my gut reaction would tend to lean more towards the fundamentalist view.  I tend to believe that right is right and wrong is wrong, regardless of circumstances; and I would be quick to argue that the ends never justify the means.  To be clear, I am not speaking here of war-time killing.  I understand the difference between murder and killing, particularly during a time of just war.  Scripture is full of circumstances where God directed his people to engage in war to accomplish his purposes.  What I am speaking to here is the idea that immoral methods are justifiable to accomplish moral ends. To what extent is this permissible in the life of a Christian who believes that he or she is acting on behalf of God?

  

With my conservative leanings, I am admittedly more apt to say that such questionable behaviors are not permissible for a child of God.  However, in my own personal reading this week, God led me to 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18. King Ahab of Israel was a man of pure evil, perhaps more evil than any other king of Israel.  In response to his evil, God determined to bring an end to his life by sending the King of Syria against him in battle.  The prophet Micaiah saw in a vision how he accomplished this.  With all the hosts of heaven standing before him, Yahweh asked who would entice Ahab to go up and fight against the king of Syria.  After considerable discussion in heaven, a “spirit” came forward and volunteered to entice Ahab by placing lies into the ears of the prophets so that they would believe Ahab would be victorious in his venture.  Of all the prophets, only Micaiah knew the truth – and he was arrested for speaking the truth.

  

I don’t mind saying that this particular scripture (which is recorded not one, but twice – 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18) gives me pause.  Scripture is very clear that deceit is the natural language of Satan not God (John 8:44).  Paul says in Titus 1:2 that God never lies.  The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 6:18 that it is impossible for God to lie.  Peter tells us there was no deceit in Jesus and twice tells Christians to put away deceit from our lips.  Paul clearly labels deceit as an act of the sinful nature.  Yet Yahweh (Jesus) allowed – even ordained perhaps – for a spirit to put lies into the mouths of those who believed they were speaking for him.   How is this possible?

  

To begin with, we do not know whether this “spirit” was an angel or a demon.  Scripture does not say.  However, one can say that God uses all things – even evil things - to accomplish his good purposes.  If you have ever studied about the philosophical concept known as The Problem of Evil, you would know that in God’s Sovereignty to create beings in his own image, God allows those beings to make their own moral choices.  Those choices include good ones as well as evil ones.  Ultimately, the evil ones must be punished, but in his sovereignty he is even able to use that evil to accomplish his good (Romans 8:28).  By no means, however, does that mean he promotes or even condones such actions.

  

Sin is sin and God must judge sin.  Fortunately for those who have received Christ, that judgment finds its ultimate home in the cross.  As Christians, we know that we have forgiveness for any sins which we commit.  However, as Peter says, we are obligated to live in holiness, putting away such sinfulness from our lives.

  

I honestly do not know how to respond to 1Kings 22.  There are many things in scripture I still do not understand, but I personally do not believe that God would intentionally direct his people to commit evil acts.  God may allow demonic forces and godless men to do things that, ultimately, he may use for good, but they would still be sinful acts.  Similarly, it is possible for well-meaning Christians to believe they are acting for God and yet be acting in sinful ways contrary to God’s directives.  The prophets believed they were speaking for God, but they were being deceived by (I believe) demonic forces.  This, too, can be used by God for his purposes.

  

That brings me back to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Eric Metaxas’ assessment of his decision to participate in the assassination attempt of Adolf Hitler.  Bonhoeffer believed he was being obedient to the will of God by participating in the conspiracy and openly admitted to being blatantly deceitful in the process.  Regarding his actions, he said that “it depends upon a God who demands responsible action in a bold venture of faith and who promises forgiveness and consolation to the man who becomes a sinner in that venture.”  In other words, as Christians we are to walk by faith – even when walking by faith seems to be walking in sin.  With respect to Bonhoeffer, one must ultimately look to the unsuccessful results of their actions and so question whether the conspiracy were truly from God or were the mistaken beliefs of well meaning but still sinful Christians.  God ultimately did bring down the Nazi regime in Germany, but it was not through the numerous deceitful conspiracies against them.  It was through a foreign army in much the same way that God used the Syrian army against King Ahab or the Babylonian army against Judah.

  

At the end of the day, I must remain firm in my own belief that the ends never justify the means.  Christianity must always remain faithfully about moral absolutism and never embrace moral relativism.   Sin must be called sin where it exists and Christians must pursue holiness in their lives by putting away sin wherever it may exist in their lives. That is not to say what I might do if I found myself in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s position.  I might just act precisely as he did if I firmly and confidently believed that God was directing me to do so. Like him, I would step out in faith to do what I believed was obedient.  I might, however, be wrong and I might, however, be acting sinfully.  Fortunately God can use all things to accomplish his purposes; and fortunately there is grace and forgiveness in the blood of Jesus.  Thank you, Jesus, for the grace.  Thank you, Jesus, for the blood.  Give us all wisdom.