When Being Good Isn't Good Enough: 21 Days of GraceSample

The Motivated Laugh

Laughter and motivation go together.

You may not believe this, but with all my heart I want to be a good and faithful servant of Christ. I’ll bet you do too. We want to be good and can’t. 

When I talk about freedom and grace and how God has destroyed the curse of the law, people tell me I’m treading on dangerous ground. I still maintain that most Christians, if they did whatever they wanted, would be faithful. I have never heard a single Christian say, “Now that I’m forgiven I can be as bad as I want.” (If you find him or her, let me know.)

When St. Augustine said, “Love God, and do as you please,” he was getting close to God’s secret of living the Christian life. At the risk of correcting Augustine (which is highly presumptuous) let me say he got it wrong. He should have said, “Let God love you deeply and completely, and then do as you please.” 

The problem is not “what we please.” Because He has loved us so deeply and completely, Christians really do please to please God. The problem is that we so often fail in our efforts to please Him. Isn’t that bad? No. That’s good! Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6). 

Let me give you a principle: Anticipating a promised reality is grounds for rejoicing in that reality. Jesus has promised that if you have a hunger and thirst for goodness, you will at some point be good. Because He promised, and because all His promises are fulfilled, you can rejoice as if you had already become good. If you know you’re going to get something, you can rejoice almost as much as if you had it. 

The way we are assured of salvation is to check and see if we desire to obey God. Scripture says, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

John is saying that the confirmation of your salvation is not in your being like Jesus now but in the hope you have of being like Jesus in heaven. When John gives us a future promise of being like Jesus (i.e., obedient) our desire for the fulfillment of that promise is not only the assurance of our salvation, it is the motivation (i.e., purifies himself) toward the fulfillment of the reality.