What Does God Want From Us?

Jesus taught that only those that do the will of the Father are welcomed into Heaven. So what is his will? That we become a certain type of person.

Work and Works, Revisited

I wrote in the previous post that we have to work to get to the Promised Land. However, I also mentioned that we must be careful not to do works. It can be hard to distinguish between work and works because the actions performed are sometimes the same. For example, earlier we talked about how the Israelites complained about being thirsty and Moses struck the rock to bring them water. That is a good example of the type of righteous work we have been discussing. Moses swung the staff, and God got all the glory.

Later, a similar episode took place. Again the Israelites complained about water, and Moses went before God:

The LORD said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” (Num. 20:7-12)

In both instances of bringing water from the rock, Moses performed the same action: he struck the rock with the staff. However, the second time he did it, God was so angry with him that Moses was not allowed to enter the Land. What was the difference? It was the difference between doing work and works.

Notice what Moses said before he hit the rock: “Must we bring water out of this
rock?” (Deut. 20:10, emphasis mine). Moses did not appeal to God’s ability to bring water out of the rock, but his own. Rather than walk in humble obedience to God and follow his command to just speak to the rock, Moses took matters into his own hands. Instead of God getting the glory, Moses took it for himself. So the act Moses performed was the same, but it was judged very differently in God’s eyes.

In the same way , when the Israelites defeated the Amalekites in Exodus 17, they were working, but later they went to war against the Canaanites and Amalekites after God had warned them not to and were soundly defeated (Num. 14:41-45). In both battles the Israelites were swinging their swords, but the first one was work, the second was works.

So what does that mean to us? It is unlikely that we will be asked by God to get water from a rock or take up arms, but there are certain activities that God intends for all of us to do, and which can be done properly or improperly. For example, all Christians should:

• keep the commandments

• attend church services, Bible Studies and other religious functions

• do acts of service within the church and broader community

• do outreach and missions work

• practice spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading, prayer, study, and fasting

• give money to the Church and other worthwhile projects

All of these actions essential parts of walking the narrow road to the Promised Land, and faithful Christians will practice all of them as part of the righteous work that must be done. However, the problem is that each of these activities can also be practiced as useless works. Instead of being done out of obedience to God and for his honor and glory, they are performed for selfish reasons. Therefore, these activities must be continually evaluated so that we can understand whether they are being performed as work or works. As Jesus warns, even the most apparently successful acts of ministry can be worthless in God’s eyes:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:21-23)

Jesus is very harsh to these people, even though they had an apparently successful ministry. On the other hand, look at how Jesus responds when his disciples returned from performing exactly the same acts of ministry. After healing people, driving out demons and proclaiming the Kingdom of God (Luke 10:1-16), they were amazed at the power of God.

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17-20)

What was the difference between the miracle workers who got into Heaven and those who didn’t? It was not the acts of ministry. There is no indication that the miracles performed in the Matthew 7 passage were counterfeit. Neither was there any problem with the doctrinal beliefs of those doing the ministry. “Lord, Lord” is the proper confession. The people that got cast out were not heretics or hoaxes. The difference between the two groups of people is that, even in the midst of identical outward activities and intellectual assent to the same theological propositions, one was doing the will of God and one was not. Jesus says, “Only he who does the will of my Father who is on Heaven” gets to enter the kingdom.

So, then, what is the will of God? What does God want from us? If you look at the rest of Jesus’ sermon (and in particular Matthew 7:15-20, which directly precedes the section we quoted), you will see that God’s will in this context is “bearing fruit.” So, then, “What is bearing fruit?”

Becoming a Certain Type of Person

Let me start by stating what it is not: bearing fruit is not performing good deeds. It is not taking part in certain activities. Rather, bearing fruit is possessing and exhibiting certain character qualities.

Paul offered a list of these character qualities to the Galatians: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). God is interested in making us loving, joyous and peaceful. He wants us to be faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. God’s will is that we develop holiness, that we be righteous like him.

This righteousness is a heart condition; it is not performing certain actions. To use our contrasting terms, works are performed so that people might be considered righteous, while work is performed by righteous people. God doesn’t want us to do righteous deeds; he wants us to be righteous people.

In emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between a particular act and the type of person performing the act, C.S. Lewis pointed out two dangers:

[If we do not make the distinction] (1) We might think that, provided you did the right thing, it did not matter how or why you did it – whether you did it willingly or unwillingly, sulkily or cheerfully, through fear of public opinion or for its own sake. But the truth is that right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue’, and it is this quality or character that really matters. (If a bad tennis player hits very hard, not because he sees that a very hard stroke is required, but because he has lost his temper, his stroke might possibly, by luck, help him to win that particular game; but it will not be helping him become a reliable player.)

(2) We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.¹

God’s will is that acts of ministry be done, but done from the proper heart. How, then, can we pursue true righteousness and avoid doing useless works? I want to answer that by examining how people came up with the idea that righteousness is achieved through works in the first place. For that we will return to the Exodus story.

The Purpose of the Law

After leaving Rephidim, where they had defeated the Amalekites, the Israelites entered the Desert of Sinai and camped in front of the mountain of the same name (Exo. 19:2). There God gave the people the rules, otherwise known as the Law of Moses. The law consists of 613 distinct directives, summarized by the Ten Commandments:

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:2-17)

There are obviously many things we could say about the commandments, but for the purpose of our discussion I want to focus on one question: is this list of dos and don’ts primarily an end in itself or is it primarily a means to another end? By that I mean, are the rules ultimately intended as quantifiable expressions of righteousness, or are they meant to help us toward righteousness? Is keeping a commandment inherently righteous, or can a commandment be kept in an unrighteous manner? I am going to argue for the latter in all cases. While the rules certainly have inherent goodness, their primary function is character formation.

The temptation when dealing with the commandments is to use them as a checklist for measuring holiness. For example, I could put the Ten Commandments up on my wall and read it every night to evaluate how I’ve done that day. Did I murder anyone today? Nope. Check. Did I steal anything? No. Check. Did I have sex with anyone who wasn’t my wife? Negative. Check. Did I make or worship any statues? Not that I can remember. Check. And on down the line. As long as I can check off everything (or at least most things) on the list of commands, I must be fairly righteous, right?

This is a mistake. The law is not an end in and of itself. It cannot be used as a checklist for measuring holiness. Rather, the law is a means to a different end: inner righteousness; godly character. The rules are not intended to be an indicator of true holiness; they are designed to lead us to true holiness. To be truly righteous is to be a particular type of person. It is to exhibit certain inner character qualities. It is not just about keeping the rules.

Adding Rules upon Rules

Unfortunately, using commandments as a checklist for righteousness is very common. One reason for this is that it offers a straightforward and easy way of not only gauging one’s righteousness, but of making oneself appear and feel more and more righteous. This is done by adding and keeping more commandments than are even commanded by God!

For instance, every church sub-culture seems to have many extra-biblical rules (written or unwritten) that people follow. “Come to church a certain number of times per week;” “Serve in some capacity such as teaching Sunday School;” “Wear a certain type of clothing;” “Listen to a particular style of music;” “Don’t drink or smoke,” etc. I once visited a church that had every congregant’s name on a list in the foyer. Beside each name was a row of boxes to check, each representing an activity that the people were to have taken part in the previous week. Did you read your Bible twice a day? Check. Did you evangelize at least five people this week? Check. These things were seen as a sign of being righteousness, and they provided an easy way to quantify whether or not you a good person. “Why, I am on the church board and told twenty people about God last week, for goodness sake. How much more holy can I get?”

Redefining the Rules

Treating the rules as a yardstick for holiness is also popular because it makes it easy to interpret the law in such a way as to allow for stuff that we want to do. So if the law says I am not to gossip or lie about my neighbor, I can say, “Well, I didn’t lie and gossip about my neighbor – the person I was talking about was two doors down.” A lot of teenagers I know have very explicit sexual relationships with their boyfriends and girlfriends yet believe that they are doing nothing wrong because they didn’t actually have intercourse. They define fornication in such a way that they can have sex without actually having sex. Convenient isn’t it?

Being, not Doing

These two approaches to the rules may be popular, but they are simply wrong. While the rules are good in and of themselves - keeping them is better than not keeping them for many practical reasons (the law against murder keeps people safe, for example, and it is certainly it is good to go to church and teach Sunday School and evangelize) - their primary function is to lead. One is not righteous simply by keeping those rules or any of the other regulations we come up with. Rather, we become righteous as we mature and develop the character qualities that God possesses.

Instead of a standard for righteousness, God’s law should be seen as means to that end. It is a tool with a three fold purpose: It is pedagogical, protective, and punitive. In other words, it teaches, it shields from harm, and it acts as a punishment for doing evil. In all of these roles the rules are intended to guide a person towards true righteousness. True righteousness is about possessing the character qualities of God. One is not righteous simply by keeping those rules or any of the other regulations we come up with. Rather, we become righteous as we mature and develop godly virtues. Holiness is not about doing certain things; it is about being – being like Christ.

A Parental Approach to the Rules

My wife and I have a list of rules for our children. For example, they are not allowed to hit each other, they have to wash their hands before meals, and they must say “please” and “thank you” at the appropriate times. We have several reasons for these rules, including our desire to keep them safe from harm and diseases and to be relationally skilled. However, we are not at all interested in having the children grow up to be self-aware of how polite, clean, or socially adept they are. In other words, these rules are not to be used as an end in themselves. They are a means to a different end. My wife and I don’t want the kids to keep the rules for the sake of keeping the rules. They are to help lead them to develop certain good character and personality qualities; they are not indicators of those good qualities. If you have ever seen a child say “please” or “thank you” begrudgingly, you know how this truth plays out. The kid might say the right words, but that doesn’t mean he is actually polite or thankful.

If our daughter didn’t use the rules properly, she might grow up and think to herself, “I am such a cultured person. Look at how well-mannered and groomed I am. I am so thankful I had the proper upbringing.” That is just the opposite of what we want. These rules are in place to keep the kids humble, not to make them proud. We want them to say “please” as a sign of gratitude and “thank you” as a sign of respect. The rule is designed to point their attention away from themselves and towards the person they are addressing. To use the rule to pat themselves on the back is exactly the opposite of its intended use.

To give another example, we have a rule about praying before meals. Its purpose is to generate and keep an attitude of thankfulness to God as we acknowledge our dependence on him. If the prayers turn into displays of self-aggrandizement (“Look at how many flowery words I can say in my prayer,” etc), the rule is being misused.

While we strictly enforce the rule about not hitting, it is not a license for the kids to pinch (“But I didn’t hit her!”). It is also not an indication that we want the children to cease touching each other at all (“You said I can’t hit so I am never going to hug her again either!”) We want the interpersonal relationship rules to guide the children toward actually caring about the well-being of their siblings. In the same way, personal hygiene rules are intended to engender a respect for one’s body and a desire for healthy living. The heart condition is what is ultimately important; the rules are primarily a means to that end.

The Fulfillment of the Law

This is God’s approach to the rules as well, as Jesus explained in his most famous discourse, the Sermon on the Mount. Just as God gave the people the rules from a mountain, Jesus climbed up on one to explain those rules more clearly (Matt. 5:1, 17-20). He started with the sixth commandment:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother or sister, “Raca,” is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matt. 5:21-22)

Not only are we not to kill one another, Jesus says, but we are not even supposed to get angry with each other. We can’t go to the rule list at the end of the day and check off number six and think we are doing all right. Instead of asking, “Did I kill anyone today?” we have to ask, “What was my attitude toward other people today?” This gets to the heart of the issue. God doesn’t just want to keep you from murdering someone; he wants you to be a forgiving, loving person. God desires a heart condition that is not quantifiable. The rule about murder is to be followed, yes, but it is not the end of the issue. Rather, it is a means to a further end. That end is a pure heart.

Jesus continued: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). Jesus says that it is not enough just to not have sex with someone who is not your spouse. You are not even to lust. You are to be a faithful person in your heart. You are to use the law to develop a character quality, not treat it as a task to be check marked.

Jesus goes on to address the character qualities of honesty and trustworthiness.

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.” But I tell you, Do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply “Yes” or “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37)

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time had developed a system of rules to elaborate on the injunction to “keep your oaths.” The list explained when a person had to keep their word and when it was OK not to. If one swore “by the earth” it meant one thing, and if the same person swore “by Jerusalem” it meant another, for example. It was a bit like the rules that grade school students use to test credibility: to “pinky swear” means a vow must be kept, but if fingers were crossed at the time of the promise, it can be broken.

Jesus cuts through that nonsense by saying that we are simply to be trustworthy people. Keeping our word is not a matter of doing what the law says; it is about being a certain type of person. Jesus implies that if we have to use an oath to back up our promise, there is a problem already. If we tell someone we are going to do something and then have to follow that up with “I swear,” it is probably an indication that we have let that person down in the past and are not entirely trustworthy.

The Old Testament law was given to the world for the same reason that rules are given to children: to lead them toward righteousness of the heart. The rules are to be kept, but are not the end-all and be-all of righteousness. Character is. The rules are for children. When a child grows up he or she should no longer need the rules to tell them what to do. Rather, they should be the kind of people that the rules meant for them to be. For example, if a child continues to say her prayers and say “please” and “thank you” only out of obedience to me when she is 25, there is a problem. By that time she should be mature enough, humble enough, and thankful enough to do those things because they flow naturally from who she is. I don’t expect my son to have to call me up when he is thirty to ask me how he should treat a co-worker who won’t share. He should be well beyond that. That is the point: rules are necessary for the immature, but as a person grows, they shouldn’t need the rules anymore. The rules should have served their purpose and become superfluous. That is how God uses the rules as well. They are meant to lead us to being people of character.

Paul sums up this principle well and provides us a nice list of qualities in Galatians 5: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). Notice that fruit of the Spirit consists entirely of character qualities. Also, look how Paul ends the list: against such things there is no law! Why is there no law? Because the law is for those who have not developed character qualities yet. The rules are for children, for the immature. When one grows up, the law is no longer needed.

That was largely Jesus’ point to the Pharisees and other religious leaders of his day. They were the experts on the law and as such, should have realized that it was provisional. Instead, they treated it as the very embodiment of righteousness. Again and again Jesus scolded them, with this passage providing a good summary of his points:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matt. 23:23-28)

It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Righteousness is not keeping the letter of the law in an outward show of obedience; it is a heart condition. Righteousness is qualitative, not quantitative. The Pharisees were very good at checking items off their daily list of rules and duties, but they missed the point. Notice that Jesus tells them they have “neglected the more important matter of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.” This is just what we have been saying. God wants us to be a certain type of person: one that is just and merciful and faithful. As God explains in Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy not sacrifice, acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” God does not need a percentage of our possessions as if that offering was good in and of itself. He desires that we be righteous on the inside. God does not hand down rules just for the sake of watching us jump through hoops. Rather, he gives us the rules because he is interested in making us into the type of people that can live forever in familial communion with him. His goal is to make us mature adults.

That is because only those kinds of people can live in Heaven with him. Those that do not become mature, that do not exhibit these character qualities in greater and greater measure, should be very concerned that they are not becoming the kind of people that will be welcomed there.

Acts of Service

The principle that God is concerned with the heart condition more than the act itself applies not only to the keeping of the law and to spiritual disciplines, but to all of our acts of service. This is where we started at the beginning of the article. Why does God approve of some people’s ministry and not others? Because some acts flow from a righteous heart, while others do not. The miracle workers who show up on judgment day and are condemned (Matthew 7:21-23) have obviously been viewing the religious acts as righteous in and of themselves. This is a great example of the works that Paul tells us are useless at procuring salvation (Eph. 2:8-9). God does not want us to do ministry simply for the sake of doing ministry. It must flow from an inner righteousness.

Paul explains that even the greatest acts of ministry in the world are pointless if they are not done by a loving person:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13:1-7)

It is easy to get into the habit of quantifying our spiritual life. We judge our righteousness by how many activities we can cram into our busy schedule. Look back at the list of actions we made at the beginning of this post. If you practice them, do you see them as duties to be checked off a list each week or do they flow from your heart? May we always remember that the Christian enterprise is about making people holy, not keeping them busy.

I once visited a church with a traveling ministry team. We pulled up in front of the building and jumped out of our van to unload equipment and ask for specific directions. Before we could do any of that, though, the senior pastor came out and screamed at us for parking in the wrong spot. I couldn’t believe what a jerk the guy was. That pastor had the biggest church in town, with programs that ran like well-oiled machines. He had all the outward trappings of successful religion but (at least on that day) he neglected the more important matter of inner righteousness displayed in mercy and patience. He did not love us.

Judgment Day

We don’t want to show up on judgment day saying, “Look at all we did” like the people in the “Lord, Lord” passage of Matthew 7. Instead we should hope to stand before God like the people Jesus talks about in Matthew 25.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”

The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt 25:31-40)

Notice that the people who make it into Heaven in this passage had also been busy working. However, the difference between these folks and the “evildoers” of Matthew 7 is the servants in Matthew 25 didn’t focus on the deeds as an end in themselves. Indeed, they didn’t focus on them at all – they couldn’t even remember doing them. This shows that they were just the type of people who helped others in need. They were loving, kind, generous and humble. They weren’t looking at their works with pride or as an indicator of their righteousness. These are the kind of people Jesus welcomes into the Promised Land. These people have the character traits he is looking for. On the other hand, if they had shown up and said, “Look at how we worked in the homeless shelter, Lord,” they would have been rejected for having the wrong approach to service.

Conclusion

If we want to get to Heaven, we are not to obey the rules as an end in themselves but because they are a means toward helping us become righteous people. God handed down the commandments to help develop character, not as the benchmark of character. The mark of a disciple is not busyness, but holiness. True righteousness is the goal of redemption. Developing character is an absolutely essential part of our journey. As Peter argues, we must continue to possess character qualities in ever increasing measure, always becoming more and more like Jesus.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. (2 Pet. 1:3-9)

1. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Collier Books, 1960), 80