HOW CAN WE PLEASE GOD? Part 1

The wisdom of the fathers

HOW CAN WE PLEASE GOD? Part 1

How can we please God? Is it possible for sinful man ever to please God? Is it not true, that the best that man can do is "as filthy rags," and that the holiest men have ever laid themselves lowest in the dust, and thrown themselves wholly upon the mercy and the grace of God? Yes, it is all true, and yet it is also true, that we may receive from God that with which we can please and even satisfy Him, so that we shall stand before Him without fault or blame.

Ah, here is the mystery of godliness, of which Jesus is the wondrous solution. There is but one man who ever perfectly pleased God. It is He of whom the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And there is but one way by which we can perfectly please God, and that is by being so united to Him, and having Him so dwell in us, that He shall answer for us in everything, and we can present Him to God as our perfect offering and complete life. This is the secret of justification: we accept His blood and righteousness, and we are made “accepted in the Beloved.”

And this is the secret of sanctification; we received Him as our inner life and holiness, “made unto us of God sanctification,” and our holiness is no longer human but divine, no longer our filthy rags, but His seamless robe, and the Father is pleased with us even as He is with Him, and the wondrous prayer is fulfilled, “THAT THE LOVE WHEREWITH THOU HAST LOVED ME, MAY BE IN THEM, AND I IN THEM.” It is because He is in us now that we are loved with the very same love, for we are now a part of Him.

There is no other way of holiness that can ever reach God’s high standard or man’s low level of perfect helplessness. All else is human, this is divine. It is higher than the best that man can do, yet easier than the least of His own struggles. It is not an attainment, but an obtainment. It is not a task, but a gift. It is ” Not I, but Christ that lives in me.” It is not our best, but “God’s best.” ...This is the secret of the Christian life, “the mystery hid from ages and generations, but now made manifest unto the saints, CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.”

(from "Standing on Faith" by A.B. Simpson)