God makes sure you do His good pleasure, not you
I used to think that good works aimed at pleasing God and my efforts at keeping myself from sin were prerequisites to maintaining my salvation in Christ Jesus.
Even as a believer enjoying God's unmerited favour, I would recall Philippians 2:12 - Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;” and think that I still had to do good works to be justified. And then I would get really confused when I remember that Paul said in Romans 3:20 that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God - Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
How confusing this was for me! But thank God for grace to take everything to Him in prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thank God that He hears us always! Verse 13 of Philippians 2 tells me that my doing our Heavenly Father’s pleasure is not a product of my effort; He makes me want to!
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
In essence, God gives you the desire, the willingness, the ability and the grace to do His good pleasure. Plus, since He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him, He rewards you for doing all He made you able to love doing! This is true, unmerited favour. This is good news!
Concerning "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," you can’t work out what you don’t have in you. This would be like sitting for a Greek exam when you’ve never even heard the language spoken before! God works the desire and ability to do His will in you, makes you able (and greatly desire) to express it in your everyday life and blesses you for doing it too! The great awe you feel when you experience the manifestation of His goodness is your “fear and tremble” – like the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5, when she knew she had been healed -
29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
My older son is a very picky eater – he hates beans, milk, fish, vegetables, all fruits, even chocolate. He would rather live on a diet of Indomie noodles (so picky that no other brand will suffice) and boiled eggs. He knows it’s important for him to eat other foods but he doesn’t. A while ago, I got really frustrated and told him that the reason his younger brother (by almost three years) is as tall as he is and weighs more than he does is because he eats beans, just to get him to eat healthier (please don’t ever do this!!! It is so wrong). He begged me to give him beans that night and on the following day. By the third day, he was back to hating beans – because he never really wanted it.
Not even the thought of his greatest fear then (his brother surpassing him in height) coming to pass could get him to eat beans! (A point to note here is that telling people that bad things will happen to them if they don’t stop sinning is pointless. Results will be temporal). Now, imagine if I could zap him with a laser that can make him REALLY, REALLY WANT to eat beans! He will LOVE eating beans, of course!!
Beloved, the change might not be as immediate as me zapping my kidJ, but this is what happens when you rely on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and stop trying to please God by utilizing your efforts; your efforts being ANYTHING YOU DO WITH THE AIM OF AVOIDING GOD’S PUNISHMENT OR MAKING HIM HAPPY WITH YOU – not wearing jewellery/trousers because it is sinful; going from door to door preaching to assuage a guilty conscience arising from not fulfilling ‘the great commission;” paying your tithe because you think this will make your resources “agbana-free,” - it all depends on your motive.
Jesus’ sacrifice made sure that God is always pleased with you, no matter what. When you stop trying and rest in Jesus, you find that don’t give to get, you get to give.
Beloved, doing God’s pleasure comes naturally to you because He makes it possible and VERY EASY to do. You DESIRE IT! IT IS NOT FORCED. HE LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER SO HE MAKES YOU A CHEERFUL GIVER.
Almost every church I’ve been to upholds law-keeping as a standard of righteousness before God. I was also a huge promoter of this doctrineJ. Imagine listening to a whole sermon on the Ten Commandments! You must not steal! You must not covet! Meanwhile, everyone in the congregation, including the preacher, falls short of the law!
John 3:16, one of the most popular verses of the bible says: 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. But we often forget the next verse: 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Jesus did not come to condemn the world. He came because the world was already condemned. He came to save. In churches today, we hear things like “you are still fornicating so how can God answer your prayers?” or “You can’t even read your bible for 10 minutes everyday.” Telling people to stop sinning or else they will get punished – ministry of condemnation - won’t help them. They already know they will be punished anyway. If they could stop sinning, they would. If we could keep all of the commandments on our own, there would have been no need for Jesus to come and save us. And it is precisely the fornicators, liars, the sinners that He came to save, not those who do not need saving.
The bible tells us that it is the obedience of Christ that makes us righteous. Romans 7:19 - For as by one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s (Jesus’) obedience many will be made righteous.
Pastors and leaders should point believers to Jesus as the only One who can make us righteous and not point the sheep to self-effort. The Shepherd does everything for the sheep and we have a Shepherd - sheep relationship with our Lord, with Him being the Shepherd. Only then will we see permanent results – permanent because none can undo what the Lord has done!
Bear in mind that if you break one commandment, you break all, so even those advocating self-effort also fall short. Believers, understand that God loves you so much that in in your weakness, He gave His only Son to die for your sins in order to make you His righteousness.
In Christ’s death and resurrection, we have a new covenant with our Father, one that is not based on ‘what you sow you shall reap;” one where He enables us to 'sow' His good pleasure. One where you automatically keep His laws because He has written them on your heart! One where generational curses no longer affect you because your sins and lawless deeds He remembers no more! Hebrews 8: 7-12
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbour, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Beloved, don’t lean on your own understanding. Just as you received the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the law, trust our Heavenly Father, who will never leave you nor forsake you, to work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. I pray that the good news - the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ - will find its way to you in abundance in Jesus' name. Amen.
P.S. You can google/youtube Joseph Prince for videos on God's abundant grace for us in Christ. Shalom!
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