There are two kinds of children who earn the Father’s displeasure. The one obeys and performs that he may boast, looking down on his siblings who are imperfect. The other cries many tears of imperfection before Him but is obstinate and wilful in secret. These two have one thing in common: they think they have figured out the Father, and that somehow by their performance, they can earn the Father’s pleasure. Well, alas! Neither have it. Therein you have a picture of the Legalist and the Antinomian, for one performs his duty to his death being still under the curse of the Law, while the other performs a charade all his life having treated grace as a license to sin. The child, then my friend, who has earned the Father’s pleasure, is the one who obeys the Father because he knows no better way, and seeing himself a great fool bound to folly, trusts in the love of his Father, clings to the perfection of Christ and casts himself on the resurrection power of the Spirit, to do what He wills. #notetoself #pronetowanderLordIfeelit
“Unless you live in the Gospel, you cannot live out the Gospel.”
— Sarmishta Venkatesh
What are you trying to say?
Hi Padma, we cannot earn God’s fatherly pleasure in our life through our performance, whether it be through obedience or through faking repentance. We earn it through trusting in Jesus alone.