"But we should not think that every kind of 'righteous deed' is like a filthy rag before God. In fact the previous verse, Isaiah 64:5, says 'you [God] meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.' It is not impossible for God’s people to commit righteous acts that please God...
"Why do we imagine God to be so unmoved by our heart-felt attempts at obedience? He is, after all, our heavenly Father. What sort of father looks at his daughter’s homemade birthday card and complains that the color scheme is all wrong? What kind of mother says to her son, after he gladly cleaned the garage but put the paint cans on the wrong shelf, “This is worthless in my sight”? What sort of parent rolls his eyes when his child falls off the bike on the first try? There is no righteousness that makes us right with God except for the righteousness of Christ. But for those who have been made right with God by grace alone through faith alone and therefore have been adopted into God’s family, many of our righteous deeds are not only not filthy in God’s eyes, they are exceedingly sweet, precious, and pleasing to him."
Kevin DeYoung
The Hole in our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness
1 comment:
God is pleased when 'we do' without any pretense of doing whatever it is to gain something from Him.
"When did we do those things?" they asked Jesus.
it wasn't on their minds. There was no self-interest there. They saw a need and just did it.
When we preach and teach 'doing' to please God, we take away the selfless aspect of the doing and our motives become tainted (filthy rags).
"Sanctification, (as Gerhard Forde put it) is forgetting about yourself."
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