What Does God Want—Part 2
What Does God Want From Us? —Part Two
In Part One we saw that no one is justified by what they do. We saw that Jesus showed that the Law presented the standard of perfection, which is impossible for us to meet.
Interestingly, there is another thought about what God wants running through Scripture. Here are a couple of examples to set the stage.
Isaiah 1:11-14 (KJV)
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
To us today here in the “civilized” western world, this is not something we really connect with. None of us were raised under a religious system of animal sacrifice. The whole idea seems somehow primitive and misguided. But that was not the case for the Israelites. The Torah is very specific about these things and they are an important part of those 613 laws of the Mitzvah (THE Law) given by Moses.
Here is God Himself, right in the middle of the writings He inspired one of His greatest prophets to pen, saying that the sacrifices He commanded are meaningless, detestable, and evil! Why!? Because our default state (before salvation) is that we are imperfect and unrighteous and cannot, therefore, atone for our sin and unrighteousness. We miss the mark. We fall short. We are measured and found lacking.
In addition to telling us what He does not want, God graciously sheds some light on what He actually does want.
Micah 6:6-8 (KJV)
6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Doing justly and loving mercy is another way of saying, “love one another”. Walking humbly with your God means that you do not try to rely on your own effort, morality, or goodness and instead you humbly believe what He says and you trust Him alone for your righteousness.
So we have seen how Jesus taught those who were trying religiously to make themselves acceptable and pleasing to God. He told them to rid themselves of everything that was keeping them from unrighteousness—like arms and eyes—and to be perfect.
When Jesus encountered people who knew they could not live up to demands like “be perfect,” He taught something else. Let us look at this part of Jesus’ teaching.
Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
None of the things we have so far read that Jesus said could be characterized as easy, or light. This restful concept of “easy and light” is part of a shift in thinking, a change of mind—repentance if you will—with regard to how we view God and what He wants from us. Fortunately for us, Jesus was very clear about this as we will see.
John 6:28-29 (KJV)
28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
The work of God, the thing God wants, is belief.
John 13:34 (KJV)
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
The command of God, the thing God wants, is love.
1 John 3:23 (KJV)
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
In this segment, we have seen that what Father wants from us is belief and that we love one another. By believing Him, we show Him respect, we humbly acknowledge that we are hopeless sin addicts without Him. When we believe Him we declare that He is the source and we are dependent upon Him for life. That dependence includes the changes in us that are required for us to obey His commandment to love one another.
In the next installment, we will see how this is borne out in scripture and what it all means for our lives here and now.
