God's Approval
Crucifixion was not only intended to be a brutally painful form of capital punishment, it was also meant to humiliate people and scare others into good behavior. As Jesus hung naked, mangled, and deformed on the cross, he demonstrated his incredible power. He did this not with physical strength, but through grace and perseverance. It is that strength that impressed one of the criminals hanging next to Jesus on a cross.
One of the criminals hanging beside [Jesus] scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
No one admired the criminals hanging on the crosses beside Jesus. They had absolutely nothing to offer, and their time to reverse that painful reality had passed. Yet, when one criminal acknowledged Christ’s lordship, Jesus saved him.
Do you know anyone who tries too hard to impress people? Have you ever seen a teenage girl taking selfies? She’ll take countless selfies until she finds one she likes, then upload it to Instagram and think, “All in a day’s work.” Our world takes too many pictures. It’s crazy. We have a terabyte of storage on our phones, and it’s still not enough.
Young people take a lot of pictures because they care about their appearance. Older people take a lot because they can’t believe it’s free. When I was younger, we had to be selective with our pictures. We’d take thirty-six pictures, wait for them to be developed, and discover that most were unusable. Today, pictures are free and instant, allowing us to take multiple shots of our food at a restaurant. We try every angle to make sure we impress as many people as possible.
Imagine pleasing everyone. Think about the people upset with you suddenly being pleased. Imagine that no matter what you do, everyone thinks you’re awesome. It sounds ridiculous because it is. It’s impossible. On the other hand, imagine pleasing God. That seems like a more difficult task, but it’s not. How could a perfect God be pleased with flawed humans? God can be pleased with us the same way parents are pleased with their children. And if God is pleased with me, why do I try so hard to please people?
This is the problem with most religion. Almost all religions are works-based, including a lot of Christian teaching. We naturally believe we must be good enough to earn God’s approval, but Christianity is not that kind of religion. Works-based religion is called legalism, and legalism does not impress God because it leads to pride.
Jesus was good for us because we couldn’t be good. The Israelites tried for millennia, and now we’re trying. Our efforts will fail. The gospel is called good news because God is good, not because we are good, and he has offered to give us his goodness.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
If I could earn my salvation or be good enough to keep it, I would have something to be prideful about. But I can’t. The thief on the cross did nothing good, but he’s in Heaven. If you add up all your good and bad behavior, you will always get a negative number. We deserve hell. That’s why the prophet Isaiah says all our good deeds are like filthy rags compared to the goodness God requires (Isaiah 64:5-6).
We want to be able to earn our salvation because then we would have something to boast about. We think, “I don’t drink, smoke, chew, or go with girls who do. Look how great I am.” We need a savior. We can’t save ourselves. We are drowning and can’t swim. We’re in prison without a key or even a spoon with which to dig. We’re stranded on an island with no boat or trees. The good news is our savior came.
The fastest way to forget what God thinks about you is to be consumed with what people think about you. Your Heavenly Father knows your flaws and loves you unconditionally, but we spend so much time trying to impress people who don’t love us. We’re all comparing, trying to impress people and be better than others, but comparison kills community. If you want to see a miserable group, find people trying to one-up each other. That’s what the Pharisees did.
Pharisees were known as the “Separated Ones.” They judged the world and separated themselves by doing a little better. They made up rules about how to act, eat, and dress. Initially, their goal was to worship God, but they ended up worshiping themselves. They felt holy by obeying their made-up rules, but they weren’t holy because they should have compared themselves to God, who is perfect.
Paul, an ex-Pharisee, said in Galatians 1:10 that he was not trying to win the approval of people but of God. If pleasing people was Paul’s goal, he would not have been a Christian. Today, it might be popular to call yourself a Christian, but not back then. To follow Christ, Paul had to become an outcast. His old friends hated him.
Human reasoning says, “I’m better than most, so I deserve more than most.” Human reasoning tries to be fair, but God’s grace isn’t fair. It’s all about Jesus, not us. Peter, speaking to religious leaders, declared that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus. This bold proclamation amazed the leaders, who then commanded the apostles never to speak or teach in the name of Jesus again, but Peter and John couldn’t stop.
We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.
We obey God rather than men, not to earn his approval but because he gives approval even when we don’t deserve it. That’s why Peter and John couldn’t stop talking about it. It was that good.
Did you grow up in a church that said it believed in grace but convinced you that you weren’t good enough to earn or keep it? Do you still think you can be good enough? You can’t, but Jesus can. And he did. The only way to be good enough is by letting him be good enough for you.
Jesus was perfect, and that intimidated the Pharisees. So rather than follow Jesus, they rejected Jesus. They wanted people admiring them, not admiring Jesus. They could compare themselves to everyone else and feel like they won, but not to Jesus. If anyone could have earned salvation, it would have been the Pharisees. But Paul left the Pharisees to follow Jesus, recognizing that the best of Pharisaical obedience is filthy rags.
As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.
Don’t seek the approval of people. Seek the approval of God. Declare he is your Lord and follow him.
