The Bible implies that those endowed with the Holy Spirit can please God. (Romans 8:8). Paul says: “As we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
How do we please men? We please men by doing things for men. However, we do not please God by doing things for Him. Those who presume to do things for God provoke the wrath of God.
God killed Uzzah because he presumed to do something for God. The Ark of God was about to fall as it was being carried into Jerusalem. Out of the goodness of his heart, Uzzah reached out to steady the ark and God killed him on the spot. (2 Samuel 6:5-7).
A god that needs our help cannot be God. God must have been asleep when the ark was falling. Or he must have been distracted. If so, he cannot be the Lord God Almighty. But God Himself toppled the Ark because it was not being carried according to His instructions. (1 Chronicles 15:12-14).
Elijah derided the blind, deaf, and dumb gods of the Baal worshippers: “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” (1 Kings 18:27).
Therefore, we must not make the mistake of presuming how to please God: “Find out what pleases the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:10). Paul says: “Brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1).
Pleasing God
We do not please God by doing things for Him. We glorify God by needing Him to do things for us. God does not want us to do anything for Him. He is God. He wants to do everything for us.
Jesus says we should lay down our lives for Him: “He who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39). But then He seemingly contradicts this by maintaining that we cannot lay down our lives for His sake: “Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.’” (John 13:37-38).
The reason is simple: without Jesus, we can do nothing. (John 15:5).
Faith determines works
Works do not determine faith. Faith determines works. Jesus says we will know true believers by their fruits. (Matthew 7:20). John the Baptists says the same thing: “Every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:9).
But John the Baptist is stomped when they ask him what they should do. He offers ineffective prescriptions:
“So the people asked him, saying, ‘What shall we do then?’ He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.’ Then tax collectors also came to be baptised and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than what is appointed for you.’” (Luke 3:10-13).
All this is balderdash! It does not work. The works of man does not commend the righteousness of God. The works of men do not please God. “All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6).
Moses prays to God in the psalms: “Establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90:17).
God does not establish the work of men’s hands. He only establishes the work of His own hands. Indeed, man cannot please God. Only God pleases God.
Man is not good, and he cannot be good. Jesus says: “No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Matthew 19:17). “When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants.’” (Luke 17:10).
How can a perfect God be satisfied with the works of an imperfect man? God cannot be pleased with anybody outside of Himself because nobody but God is perfect. God cannot be pleased with the imperfect. To be pleased with a man is to give glory to a man. But all the glory must belong to God and to God alone.
God is only pleased with the works of Jesus. He says of Jesus: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17).
But even the works of Jesus are not the works of Jesus. They are the works of God the Father. Jesus says to His disciples: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:10).
The Bible says: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38).
Jesus only did good works because He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. The principle should be clear: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6). Jesus tells us: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:8).
Division of labour
What work then are we supposed to do that can be pleasing to God? The work God wants us to do is no work at all. The work God wants is for us to believe in Him.
“Then they said to (Jesus), ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’” (John 6:28-29).
God is only pleased with what God Himself has wrought in a man. God equips us not by giving us the tools to do the work, but by taking up residence in us to do the work.
“It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13). The work that pleases God is the work that He does in us. So, “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).
If a man does what God asks Him to do, it is still God that does the work, and it is only God that gets the glory. So, if God gives you an assignment, do not do it before receiving the power to do it from God.
“May the God of peace make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21).
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