What Does God Want From Us?

I do not know that it was actually taught, but the impression I got in Sunday school as a child was that in the Old Testament people were saved by keeping the law, and in the New Testament they were saved by faith in Christ, and that faith in Christ is still the way. This thought was never prominent in my mind, and it was only many years later that I thought about it and realized that anyone in the Old Testament who was saved was saved by grace through faith, just as Christians are. Abraham had faith in the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. This act of faith by Abraham occurred before the law was given, but it would not have mattered if it had been after. Those saved after the law were saved by grace through faith. Paul says it plainly in Rom. 3.20 and elsewhere: “For by works of the law will no flesh be justified before him, for through the law is the knowledge of sin.” “No flesh” includes Old Testament saints as well as New.

I came to understand that the law was not given as a means of salvation, but to show people that they could not keep the law perfectly and thus could not be saved by doing so. It told one what to do, but gave no power to do it. But the good news tells us that when we trust Christ, the law is internalized (Jer. 31.31-34, Heb. 8.7-13), and the Holy Spirit indwells us to give us the power to overcome sin and to please God. So far so good. But over the years as I thought about these facts, I had an awareness that even though a Christian has this indwelling power, he does not keep the law any more than the Old Testament Jew did. Many Jews kept the law rather well, but none perfectly. It is the same with Christians with regard to relevant portions of the Old Testament law. That awareness that Christians did not do what the Holy Spirit presumably empowered them to do always nagged a little, though not strongly. It was never a big issue. Not being really bothered by it, I made no effort to find an answer.

There is also a complicating issue with Christians. In a way we could say that the Sermon on the Mount, Mt. 5-7, is the Christian law, especially chapter 5, where the Lord Jesus refers to Old Testament requirements, then says, “But I say to you….” The problem for us is that the Christian law is more difficult than the Jewish law. The Jewish law said, Do not do it. The Christian law says, Do not even think about it. It is not terribly difficult to be a rather good Jew if one has self-control. Many of us have done it: we have thought about murder or adultery or stealing, but we have not done those deeds. But we have no hope as Christians. As I just wrote, we have thought about it, and that is just what the Lord Jesus said not to do. It is harder to be a good Christian than it is to be a good Jew. What’s a poor Christian to do?

I mentioned above that I had not been really bothered by this nagging little thought, so I had not tried to come up with an answer for it. Not long ago, though, an answer came anyway, the work of the Lord, I am sure. The answer is simple, and one that many readers will already have, no doubt. It is that perfection was never the issue to begin with. We are not required to be perfect to be acceptable to God. God knew that his Old Testament people could not be perfect and he gave them the law to prove it to them. Unfortunately, some of them thought they did keep it and became self-righteous and judgmental. Others knew they could not and either gave up in despair or became apathetic.

God knew that his New Testament people could not be perfect either, and he gave us the Sermon on the Mount to prove it. There still seem to be a few who think they have kept it all, but most of us know better. Those Christians who still think perfection is what God requires, or who think that the Christian life consists of trying one’s best to be as good as one can, are fighting a losing battle and they are very tired and discouraged with trying. Many have given up in either despair or apathy. The good news is that perfection is not the requirement. God never intended for the Old Testament Jews, or any other Jews, to live by the law, and he does not intend that for Christians. Self-effort is out. What is in?

What God wants most is for us to know him and have a living relationship with him. He will take us in our imperfection and work with us all through this life, not to make us perfect, because that is unattainable for us unless God does a miracle that I am sure he will not do, but to bring us into an ever closer relationship with him (Phil. 3.10), to bring us more and more into conformity to the image of his Son (Rom. 8.29), and to form Christ in us more and more fully (Gal. 4.19).

The requirements are our surrender and faith and his indwelling power. It is up to him to do it. It is up to us to let him do it. Yes, we must do what we can do, studying his word, fellowshipping with him and his people, avoiding sin, doing what is right, but we do these things not in self-effort, but having no confidence in the flesh and instead trusting in God to come into our otherwise futile efforts with his power.

Perhaps the Bible’s clearest picture of the relationship God wants to have with his people is marriage. Several times in the Old Testament God is seen as the husband of Israel (Is. 62.4-5, Jer. 2.2, 31.32, Hos. 2.19-20). The book of Hosea is about the unfaithfulness of God’s wife Israel and the relentless love of Israel’s Husband that will prevail in the end. Paul says in 2 Cor. 11.2 that he betrothed the church to Christ that he might present her a pure virgin to himself. No, we are not pure now, but we will be made pure, and that is a miracle! When we are presented to Christ as his bride on that wonderful day, we will not have any spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Eph. 5.27).

What is going on now is that we as the bride-to-be are weaving our wedding garments by our righteous deeds. In Rev. 19.7-8 we read that when the marriage supper of the Lamb comes, the bride will have made herself ready, and it will be given to her to be clothed in fine linen, shining, pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Yes, we weave our own wedding garments throughout life so as to have a wedding garment to wear at the marriage supper (Mt. 22.11-14). But we do these righteous deeds not in self-effort, but in dependence on the Spirit within (Phil. 2.13). After the bride’s millennial reign with her Lord, she will be seen coming down out of Heaven, again as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21.2), and so will she always be the wife of the Lamb.

What more intimate picture could there be of what the Lord wants for his people? We are already one with him (1 Cor. 6.17). He is in us (Gal. 2.20) and we are in him (1 Cor. 1.30). He wants us to live with him as his wife. He is not ultimately the Judge waiting for us to make a mistake or the boring old Schoolmaster drilling lessons into our heads, making us read and memorize his word because he knows it is a bore for us. He is not the Ritualist, making us sit through a never-ending series of meaningless church services just because we think he delights in his people sitting through meaningless church services. God is none of these. What we do is not the issue. Perfection is not the issue. What we are is the issue. Our being his is the issue. What does he want from us? He wants us. Ultimately, he is our Lover.

And guess what: in the end he will have perfected us (Phil. 1.6)!

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