Living in His Pleasure

 Living in His Pleasure

Sunday, August 29, 2021

I’ve been reading and thinking in Galatians, and was wondering about Paul’s questions: “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men?” (Galatians 1:10 NAS95). It’s as if this is an either/or. Either I can seek the favor of men, or I can seek the favor of God. But what if the answer to these questions is all “No”? I am not striving to please men, or God. I’m simply living in God’s pleasure. A later verse in this chapter says, “God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me”.. (15-16). It may be that Paul is more focused on living in God’s pleasure than worrying about whether he is pleasing God or not.

Now certainly the Bible says quite a bit about pleasing God: “One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.” (Ecclesiastes 7:26 NAS95); and “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”(Romans 8:8 NAS95); and “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects,”(Colossians 1:10 NAS95). But I wonder if we haven’t emphasized our role in pleasing God above the privilege of living in His pleasure. It may be that living in His pleasure is the best path to living and doing things that are pleasing to Him.

Certainly the Gospel emphasis of the New Testament emphasizes the grace of God over against the works of men. Now people who are saved by grace through faith see their lives producing fruit that is pleasing to God, but the foundation, the root of the fruit is not our efforts and designs, but rather God’s design and mission in Christ. 

If you are a child of God through faith in Christ, then when you woke up this morning, you were already living in His pleasure, waking up in His pleasure, swinging your feet out of bed in His pleasure. He is pleased with you in Christ. And that is no blind pleasure. He is not just pleased with Christ and then you in the aggregate. No, He is pleased with you particularly and personally, and His pleasure in You will shape all that happens to you today and forever. 

Now, in light of that, should we live for His pleasure? Sure. But “in His pleasure” precedes “for His pleasure.” There is no weight on your shoulders. Rather, there is a joyful energy in your heart, there by the Holy Spirit who pours out the love of God on us and in us.