Our Excellence Is Of God

The awesome challenge that confronts us is how can we please God - to please one being to satisfy one's expectation standard.

God's standard is without dispute excellence in all dimensions. And to us on the other hand belong infirmities, weaknesses, and failures. But the Holy Spirit has constantly helped me to realize that in the face of this challenge and in the light of our frail humanity, we need not despair. Hallelujah! God who wants us to please Him - yes, to meet His standard of excellence - did not leave us in despair and frustration.

One of the Scripture passages that have brought great hope, faith, and comfort to me in this is Philippians 2:13: "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." Another is Hebrews 13:20-21: "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

These Scripture passages tell us if only we can allow God to work in us, if only we can depend absolutely upon God, then God Himself will produce in us and through us what meets His good pleasure in His standard of excellence. This is amazing but it is true.

The philosophy of living and achieving of the world is one of self-reliance. It is ego-centric - self esteem, self actualization, self help, and so forth. It is good for the world which ignores and rejects the supernatural resources of God. And so, they turn to themselves. Unfortunately, much of that philosophy is laced into our presentation of the Gospel and into our Christian life-style. This makes it hard for many Christians to truly and actually live by faith, which is living in absolute dependence on God.

Many professing Christians do not seem to appeciate that Christianity is a "non-me" life. Christianity is the life of Christ being lived in "me" (Galatians 2:20). This is contrary to the ego-centric philosophy of living. And so the extent to which the worldly philosophy of living directs our life-style we find that the "Christian" life we live is filled with apologies for our failures in terms of our human weaknesses or sometimes boastings for our successes in terms of our self efforts and cleverness, or even adulations of human heroes and despising of failed humans.

Paul overcame this worldly philosophy when he sought God with agonising apologies for his own human infirmities and asking God to take away these infirmities or the challenges he confronted. Instead God brought the human-centred Paul to the startling realization that it is not his human infirmities being taken way that will cause him to produce God's excellence but by Christ living in Him. Here is Paul's inspiring testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10: "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

To know and do the good, acceptable and perfect will of God we will have to stop conforming to this world, especially in our mindset or philosophy of living, and let the Spirit renew our minds. Too many professing Christians accept and promote a humanist life-style of mediocrity and constant failing because their minds are hooked to the world's self-centred philosophy of achievement - I and Me and being just human. Salvation was designed by God as the answer to the cries and frustration of human failures and the solution to the sin or coming short characteristic of humanity. It was designed and presented by God in Christ to work effectively and it does if we will accept the mindset that God wants us to have of we being humbly and absolutely dependent upon the Christ who lives in us as Christians.

I love Paul's admonition along this line in Colossians 2:8-10: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

God wants us to please Him without Him compromising His standard of excellence. And He has given us the principle and power to do so. The divine working principle is faith in God practised as absolute dependence upon God. "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us" (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).

If we will live and function according to God's principle of absolute dependence on the Christ who lives in us, then we cannot but genuinely meet God's standard of excellence and give God the glory in everything we do. Our Christian life will not be characterized by dismal self-efforts but the triumph life of Christ who lives in us. May God help us all to actually please Him in the standard of His excellence and glorify Him as the norm of our Christian walk inspite of our human infirmities.