Being Pleasing to God

Then Haggai answered and said, ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.

Haggai 2:14 (NKJV)

The Law was not a conditional means God established to make the people holier or purer if they observed it. Quite the contrary: it was a means to reveal to them the depth of their sinful state. As Paul affirms, the Law revealed our sins. By enacting commandments—by telling us what to do and what not to do—God intended to demonstrate to humanity its innate propensity toward sin. And yet, although He gave us the Law to help us understand our condition and to take the necessary steps to be delivered from it, we, instead, found pleasure in our sin.

Even today—despite the fact that Jesus Himself declared He had abolished the Law—many still believe that the only way to please God is to obey the Law. Wishing to reveal to the religious leaders of Haggai’s time just how displeasing their way of life was to Him, God charged the prophet to invite them to declare for themselves what the Law says regarding things that are ritually unclean, as opposed to those that are not. After they had answered in accordance with the Law, God did not condemn them on the basis of the Law itself; rather, He made them understand that their attitude went far beyond the specific transgressions the Law condemns. Everything they did—everything they offered to God—was unclean in His eyes.

Just as with those religious leaders—although their disobedience to the Law was manifestly evident to God—He did not use the Law to punish them; instead, He demonstrated that it was their way of life, and the manner in which they presented their offerings, that deeply displeased Him. Today, in Jesus Christ, the Law can no longer condemn you in the eyes of God—but your attitude most certainly can. What are you doing that goes against the will of God? You are no longer required to offer animal sacrifices; and yet, your service to God may still fail to be pleasing to Him—and your offering, if presented with a wrong intention, could well displease Him. Do not seek to do what you believe to be good for the sake of pleasing God; instead, let the Holy Spirit guide you and renew your thoughts through His Word. This is how you will be pleasing to God.

May the grace and peace of God be with you.