What Pleases Our Father? Part 4 - Good Works Done In Faith
by Greg Wood
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:6–10 ESV)
Say what Paul? “We make it our aim to please” God? Are you a legalistic preacher requiring self-righteousness from God’s people? Is there something for us to earn from our own works, or is God pleased in Christ? These are good questions that we ought to ask! Grasping the basic relationship between what Christ has already done, the grace given to us through Him, what the Spirit is doing in us now, and what to make of our good works can greatly impact our lives. A biblical understanding of these keeps us from so many errors which threaten to rob God of the glory of His grace to us while also making our lives fruitless.
With this post, we are wrapping up our final installment of a four-part series looking at what pleases the Lord. The intent of this series has been to supplement our gospel fluency, viewing it from another angle. This angle examines what the Scripture says about what delights the heart of God.
In Part 1 we saw that God is first pleased with Himself – with his own perfections. That meditation tried to help build a basis for both our deepest pleasure and our identity in Christ.
In Part 2 we pondered the Father’s pleasure in His Son and how that pleasure spills over into blessing for those of us in union with Christ by grace through faith. We saw how close to the heart of the gospel this pleasure is, considering the Father’s satisfaction with the perfect sacrifice for sins, and the gracious imputation of his perfect righteousness to His elect who exhibit faith. This grew our understanding of what Christ has done for us.
In Part 3 we moved further into the good news of what God has done as we meditated upon His pleasure in the church’s trust and delight in the Son. We found that such faith and delight in the Son leads to what we will now explore here in Part 4: God delights in the His image being renewed in us through the Holy Spirit, and the fruit produced by the Spirit’s work in us. Another way to say this is that God is pleased with our good works, which are Spirit-wrought acts that we really do by faith!
To begin, look again at the passage quoted above, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10. While we eagerly wait in our bodily tents for the day the Lord will bring us into His presence, we (already-justified believers to whom Paul is speaking) live and act by faith. Our preference would be for our faith and all of God’s promises to be realized by being face-to-face with the Lord. But, regardless of whether we are with Him or away from His presence, we have the same aim: to please the Lord. The reason for this aim? There is a judgment coming when our works will be judged. So, while not stated explicitly, the implication is that we ought to aim at doing works Christ will judge to be good.
Now, remember what we’ve already covered in parts 1-3 - when Paul talks about this judgment of our works, he isn’t referring to whether or not we are secure in Christ, approved of and justified by His work. The judgment for our sins is paid for by the sacrifice of Christ. However, he is talking about the fact that what we do in our lives matters, and that we desire and aim for those things to be good.
By the way, even in the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21) our aim will be to do things that are pleasing God (“whether at home or away, we make it our aim”), so why would we not be doing those now?
Consider another text:
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (Colossians 1:9–12 ESV)
If we were to list the events chronologically, they would include:
(v.12) Justification - the Father qualified us, removing our guilt and imputing the righteousness of Christ
(v.12) Adoption – the Father made us heirs
(v.11) Sanctification – we are strengthened with power for a new life of endurance, patience, joy
(v.9) Sanctification – we grow in knowledge of God’s will with Spirit-enabled wisdom and understanding
(v.10) Sanctification – we live differently in that power and knowledge, even living worthily, such that the Lord is pleased. Our lives become fruitful with good works, and our knowledge of God continues increasing.
So, justification satisfies (or pleases) God, and yet so does the resulting work of His Spirit in us. God is already pleased with Christ’s work on our behalf. But there is still pleasure for God to have when we walk in step with the Spirit, when we live in accordance with the new man, His renewed image. Our new being precedes (comes before) our newly-empowered doing.
What has the church taught on these matters?
Church history gives us helpful insight into how God’s people, led by His Spirit, have interpreted and applied the same Scriptures we study today, and they can serve as guides in our own interpretation. The 1689 London Baptist Confession (which copied the Westminster Confession of Faith here) speaks of what good works cannot do, how they are not perfect, and yet also of how it is that God accepts and is pleased by them. I underlined a few significant statements.
5. Our Good Works Cannot Merit Forgiveness or Eternal Life
Even by our best works, we cannot merit forgiveness of sin or eternal life before God because of the great disproportion between our works and the glory to come and the infinite distance between us and God. By our good works, we can neither contribute to nor satisfy God for the debt of our former sins. [Romans 3:20, 4:6; Ephesians 2:8-9] When we have done all that we can, we have merely done our duty and are unprofitable servants. Because our good works are good, they come from his Spirit. [Galatians 5:22-23] At the same time, since they are done by us, they are defined and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of God's punishment. [Isaiah 64:6; Psalms 43:2]
6. God Accepts Our Good Works
Nevertheless, believers are accepted through Christ, so their good works are accepted in him. [Ephesians 1:5; 1 Peter 1:5] Their good works are not accepted as completely blameless and irreproachable in God's sight. Rather, because God looks upon them in his Son, he is pleased to accept and reward good works that are sincere, even though they are accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections. [Matthew 25:21, 23; Hebrews 6:10]
Isn’t that insightful? God can accept our imperfect-but-good works in Christ and take pleasure in them!
There is a story of a child who wanted to give her father a gift when he returned home from a long trip, and he loved flowers. So she gathered all sorts of flowers for him from the yard and brought them inside the night before her father’s return. After the girl went to sleep, her mother took the messy bouquet, removed the weeds and wilted flowers, and arranged them to be very beautiful. Of course, her father loved what he received. That’s a lot like the way Jesus handles the works of Christians, cleaning them up and bringing them to the Father, and He is pleased. Ultimately it is not because of anything we did to make them perfect, but He does truly delight in something we do.
Application
I have struggled so much during my walk with Christ with this paradoxical situation: On the one hand, I read that Christ has done all, and on the other hand hearing a clear call to follow Christ in obedience. What’s more, what does the Bible mean when it says that all our works are filthy rags? Does God really just hate my attempts at following Him?
All along I could have looked back upon the Confession and seen the answer. My works were filthy rags when it comes to justification. I can do nothing to merit forgiveness or create the righteousness required by God to be right in His eyes. Justification is a work of God alone.
But sanctification has action on God’s part AND ours. Christ’s death and righteousness not only forgives and justifies me so that I have perfect legal standing before God, but it also washes all my imperfect fruits so that God is pleased with them. I won’t be perfect in my actions, and I don’t have to be. Because of the gospel, I am free to pursue pleasing God! I can make it my aim to please Him in all that I do, and have confidence in Christ’s perfect work not only for legal standing with God but also to wash that fruit clean!
In other words, I can rest from all works as an attempt to justify myself, because the grace of God in Christ (which I am counting on 100%) has already done that. At the same time, I can approach life like Paul, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:29). I can do good works which Christ will perfect for me as an offering, a pleasing aroma to His Father (see Ephesians 5:25-27, Romans 15:16). Like a dearly loved child, I can do things that I know please my Father - not in order to be a son, but because I already am one.
So what? Take courage as you walk out this Christian life in light of the gospel! Christ not only justifies you, but He is sanctifying you, growing you in His likeness, and washing all the fruit of your life so that it is pleasing to the Father. Encourage other believers who are downtrodden over their failures. There is joy to be experienced in the work of Christ on our behalf. We really can do things in this life that, though not at all perfect, can bring our Father joy!
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1, ESV)