Pleasing God
Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him (2 Cor. 5:9).
What does it mean to please God? Well the first thing that springs to mind is that we might keep the commandments of God. But would keeping the commandments please God? In Mark 10 Jesus came across a rich young fellow. The man wanted to inherit eternal life and asked Jesus what he needed to do to be sure of it. Jesus mentioned that God required that people obey the law, to which the young man said, “I’ve kept the law from my youth.” Jesus said, in effect, that’s great! But you lack one thing, “sell all that you own…,take up your cross and follow me” (v. 21).
So, as good as keeping the commands of God is, it still isn’t good enough. What pleases God? Well, we know that being in the flesh doesn’t please God (Rom. 8:8). But what does please God?
The writer to the Hebrews, when talking about faith said, “…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” (Heb. 11:6).
Okay, I know that I’ve cleared up nothing by quoting these verses. If you don’t understand things in the verses, you aren’t going to understand what the verses mean. And if you don’t understand what the verses mean, you can’t please God. This is true.
Let me begin with what won’t please God. Being “in the flesh” doesn’t please God (Rom. 8:8). What is “in the flesh”? The first thing you probably thought was mostly right. The flesh is that part of us we can see and touch. Our bodies are made of flesh. But the word flesh, in the Bible, means more than that. Flesh includes all, in the world, that the flesh represents. The flesh is everything that is stuck in the world and is influenced by the world. It is especially linked to that which is worldly, opposed to the things of God, it is of Adam in his sinful state. The flesh wants what it wants and is opposed to everything that God wants except that which it wants for itself. A worldly Christian (which is an oxymoron) is someone who claims the name of Christ, but does it for what he thinks he is going to get out of it. He thinks he is making a deal with God. The worldly man thinks he can fool God and get something good out of it. In all of this, the flesh is opposed to what the Bible calls spiritual or spirit. An example of this antithesis is Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” This means that those who walk (live) according to the flesh (the way of rebellious mankind) are condemned, because they don’t please God, and those who walk (live) according the spirit will live.
In John 3, the passage where we get the phrase “born again,” Jesus said, “that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.” He went on to say that those who want to be born of spirit need to be born again. Or born from above. Further, he said that unless you are born again, you cannot be saved. That is, unless you are born of spirit, or remain flesh, you cannot have everlasting life. You are lost in your sins.
If we put these two things together, being of or in the flesh does not please God and being in the Spirit is antithetical to being in the flesh. On the other hand, being in the spirit, born of the spirit, is what is needed to please God.
There we go again with confusion. How are we born again or born of the spirit? Again, in John 3, Jesus explained that to be born again, or of the spirit, means that we believe in Jesus. Belief in Jesus defines those who have eternal life (v. 15). There are many ways we can understand the word belief. First, we can believe that Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. Second, we can believe that Charles Blondin could push a wheelbarrow across Niagra Falls on a wire. And third, we can believe that Blondin could push a wheelbarrow across the falls with one of us in the wheelbarrow. We use these various meanings of belief all the time. The first two consist of knowing that certain things in the universe are true and right. The third requires that we act on our beliefs in accord with what we believe. The third kind of belief is what Jesus is talking about.
Jesus said, if you want to be a Christian (cf. Acts 11:26), you’ve got to take up your cross and follow him (Mt. 16:34; Mk. 10:21; Lk. 9:20). I know what you’re thinking. One more term you don’t understand—take up your cross.
In the first century, the Romans used crucifixion as a means of torture and capital punishment. It wasn’t uncommon to see people hung on crosses all around the town. Rome wanted to use these public executions as a deterrent as well as a punishment. Condemned criminals were further humiliated by being forced to carry their own crosses to the death site. And so, when Jesus said, “take your cross,” he meant, “count yourself dead.”
The call to becoming a Christian, then, is to understand that God is God and you are not. This requires that you acknowledge that you have been living according to the flesh and it hasn’t been going well for you, and that you are excited to give up ruling your own life and lay it down at the thrown of God. You understand that Jesus offers a better way of living, a right way of living. And so, you lay down all claims to running your life according to your own “inner light,” and pledge yourself to living from now on according to what God tells you is right. This whole process requires that you make a huge intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual change in your thinking and behavior. This means that you need to die, give up your life, and follow Jesus. This change/transformation is what is meant by living according to the spirit, being a Christian, being born again, and for our ultimate purpose, pleasing God. When a man becomes a Christian, he is laying down his life, taking up his cross, living in accord with the Spirit, and making it his goal to please God. He cannot please God unless these things have taken place. To not do any of these things is to be living in the flesh.
Now what do you do? What do you do practically in order to please God? First, be resolved to lay down your life every day, all day, all the time, for the rest of your life. Believe that God is God and you are not. You are simply his slave. You commit your life to doing what he says all the time, with the attitude he commands, with the tone he requires, with great joy, exuberance, and delight. Second, be resolved to know that he loves you, wants to bless and glorify you, wants the best for you, will not ultimately harm you, and will never leave nor forsake you. Third, be resolved to study him, to imitate him, to understand him, to live like him, walk like him, think like him, and become like him. Finally, talk to him, talk about him, walk with him, run with him, ask him questions, argue with him, tell him your deepest thoughts, concerns, fears, thrills, and emotions. Overall, immerse yourself in him and the things of God. Hang out with him, and with others who know him. Strive to imitate them as they imitate God. Love him, love them.
What about the commands? When you were in the flesh, you may have done or tried to do the commands, but they looked a lot more like suggestions or you thought they were a little bit elastic. You thought you could sort of wave at them and do whatever you actually wanted. You may have thought that as long as you didn’t break any of the major ones, you were doing well. What you didn’t know, however, was that if you break one commandment you’ve broken them all (Jas. 2:10). Also, as Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, because the commandments are given to govern the heart, there are probably no commandments that you have actually kept. For example, Jesus said if you look at a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart (Mt. 5:21-26). And if you are angry with your friend and you fall him a fool, you have committed murder in your heart (Mt. 5:27-30).
Keeping the commands because you think you’ve made a deal with God, as the rich young ruler thought, does not please God, does not fool God, and leaves you in your sins. You are lost.
When you have been born from above, born again, and have taken up your cross daily, you will keep the commands because you love God—which is the first commandment. You will not try to earn anything from God. You will keep the commands because you love God and want to please him. You will make it your goal to please God and enjoy him forever. And we’re back where we began.