GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 29 ~ ~Isaiah 64:6 ~ ~ “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”
More excerpts from “The Pleasures of God” by John Piper
(Speaking of our obedience to God coming from our faith in Him)
But what about unbelievers? Does God delight in their just dealings, even though this does not come from faith? There are unbelievers who order their business lives in honest and just ways. Is this a delight to God?
The answer is no and yes, because God looks at the honesty of unbelievers in two different ways. When God looks at their honesty and justice as an outworking of their inner life of unbelief he does not delight in it, because it is sinful.
Romans 14:23 says:
“Whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Honest unbelievers are like a rebellious teenage son who rejects his parents and everything they stand for, and goes to another city. But to make it in the real world, he decides to play by some of their rules. So he gets a job as a cook in a restaurant. Months later his parents happen to visit that city and go to that restaurant. Without knowing he is there, they order one of their favorite delights (call it “just balances”, or “honest scales” And without knowing it, their own son makes the meal they enjoy. But back there in the kitchen he is as rebellious as ever. He is not doing it for their sake at all. So even this act of fixing what they have ordered is an expression of rebellion. If his parents could be told the truth, they would not rejoice and say, “Oh, how wonderful, our son is now a delight to us, because he made our favorite meal!”
So God does not delight in the honesty and justice of unbelievers when he sees it as an expression of their rebellious and unbelieving hearts. Acts done without any trust in God’s grace or any love for his glory are not a delight to God.