Writing by: Prince A.O Adeyinka
TRANSCRIPT
Today’s question is from Jordan. “Good afternoon, Pastor. I was recently listening to episode 1322, “He Killed His Wife and Children — Can He Really Be Forgiven?” What you said about the older brother jumped out at me: ‘The problem with the older brother is that he lived like a slave, not a son. He related to his father as if his work would earn good things, instead of enjoying the fellowship of the father’s bounty.’
That’s a great principle pulled from Luke 15:17–24. I often struggle with knowing in my heart that no good work can ever be enough to please God. I think in my mind that God is surely not pleased enough with me. I fear I live like this older brother. How do you live as a son and not a slave? How would I know if I am living as a slave?”
Talk Like a Son
Okay, the first step in not living like a slave but like a son of God is to stop saying mistaken, slave-like things about our Father. Jesus said in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” You could say sons as well — both pictures are in the New Testament, and both are getting at the same reality. But here the point is this: “I have called you friends, for all that I heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
“The first step in not living like a slave but like a son of God is to stop saying mistaken, slave-like things about our Father.” Tweet Share on Facebook
One of the marks of a slave is that we act like we live way out on the edge of the plantation in the slave quarters, where nobody knows what the master’s plans are. When you don’t know what the master’s plans are — how he does his business — you can easily say false things about him. One of the first marks of a son, or a friend, is that we know him. We’re brought into his councils. We see how he works. We see how he makes his decisions. We see what he’s up to. We begin to understand his ways and how he goes about running the world. We stop saying things about him that are not true.
Jordan, I say this out of love, so please take this right. Here’s one step you can take away from a slave-like relation to God. Never say again what you said: “I often struggle with knowing in my heart that no good work can ever be enough to please God.” Don’t say that anymore. Now, I might be misunderstanding you. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but it sounds like you really believe this — like no good work can ever be enough to please God. That is slave talk; that’s not son talk. Step one is to not believe that. Don’t say that anymore.
Filthy Rags?
I’m lingering on this because you’re not the problem here. Thousands of people have been taught to say that by quoting Isaiah 64:6. We even sing it. In the King James, it says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” How many Christians have been taught to say that about every one of their good deeds as a Christian? That’s not what Isaiah is talking about. Let me emphasize — read it in context — he is not describing the good deeds of the genuine believer, good deeds done in the power of the Holy Spirit. Those were the hypocritical religious acts that made God hold his nose.
When Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works” (Matthew 5:16), he did not mean “that they may see your filthy rags.” He didn’t. When Paul said that Christians bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit — the Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit — he did not mean that the Spirit produces filthy rags. When Paul said, “[Christ] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14), he didn’t mean Christ died to create filthy rags.
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