‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’
This is the third-to-last post in a series about holy desires, in the examination of which I am following the course of discussion in C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory. In the first post of this series I listed out headings for the seven parts I discerned in that essay – if you need a reminder, you can go back to it and scroll down to the text in bold letters. Today the subject is the one under number five: glory as ‘being approved by God’.
The way I have used the seven headings is as prompts and road marks for thinking about Desire as a moving force in our Christian life. A lot of the time Christian communities, just as society at large, tend to focus on meeting expectations as a mechanism for top-down or peer control, and even for inducing believers to advance in their walk with God. However, that focus is not only irritating and counterproductive for many Christians, it also does not match the focus of the Bible.
When we read Scripture, we are quickly disabused of any and all ideas of ever being able to ‘meet God’s expectations’ or ‘pass muster’ with Him. None of us, no matter the effort and determination we might put in, would ever be able to undergo inspection by God and be rewarded with a stamp of approval. The only course of action that is open to us – that was provided to us, in fact, by God Himself – is to accept the free gift of Christ’s righteousness which is put to our account when we trust in Him for salvation.
Our efforts and determination to ‘please the Lord’ cannot have His acceptance of us as an end – only as a beginning. Only once we know ourselves to be wholly accepted, because of what He, not we, did, can we begin to think about what we can do to bring Him good pleasure – and even that, as Lewis emphasizes in this part of his essay, is an incredible gift:
[…] nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” […] The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness… to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.
In the parable quoted by Lewis (Matthew 25:14-30 or Luke 19:11-27), two out of three servants of the master receive the accolade. The third one, however, does not. On the contrary, he is harshly reproved as wicked and slothful. Where did he go wrong? He misread the character of his master, and allowed the fear of not measuring up to the master’s expectations to paralyze him into inaction.
But in the other two servants, the master’s generous investment activates a sense of eager responsibility. And why? Because they have no doubts about his fairness and goodness. They look forward to increasing what they’ve been given. They get down to work with what they’ve been entrusted, and at his return joyfully present to him the results of their efforts, counting on his fair judgement. Their good master has placed trust in them, and they have been good and trustworthy in return. Their character emulates his.
We get three more pictures of what this attitude looks like, in the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, his disciple:
Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. […]
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:3-15)
Why join Paul in suffering? Why keep ourselves from getting entangled in the affairs of this world? Why play by the rules? Why work hard at preaching the Gospel and bringing people into His Kingdom?
Because our desire is to please the One who enlisted us: He gave us the dignity of fighting an honourable fight, and we want to bring Him honour in our turn. Because He has for us a victor’s crown, and, as Paul says in verse 12 of the same passage, ‘if we endure, we will reign with Him’. Because the reward of our hard work is the first share of the crops. All three – appeals to good desire.
In ardently pursuing this good desire, we imitate the character and attitude of Christ the Victor, ‘the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Hebrews 12:2).
How will we ‘run with endurance the race that is set before us’ (Hebrews 12:1) and enter into the glory of being approved by Him (2 Timothy 2:15)? By looking to Christ and becoming more and more like Him. A character like Christ’s is what pleases the Father and elicits His approval (Mark 1:11).
A burning desire for both of these – God’s approval, and being like Christ, has been kindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit at the moment of our regeneration. What He values – love, compassion, faithfulness, patience, holiness, justice – is what we value. Through His amazing grace and mercy, most people value these things even before their encounter with God in Jesus. They want them in their lives, and try their best to embody them. That’s why, in a previous article, I called them the ‘values of common good’. As His children, though, we desire these things not only because we are aware of their intrinsic goodness, but also because they bring us closer to our Lord and Master: closer in likeness to Him, and closer to the moment of glory, when we will receive the accolade of approval, the victor’s crown, and our share of the hard-won crops.
‘If we endure, we will reign with Him’ said the apostle – and doesn’t your heart burn with desire to bring Him gladness, and ‘enter into the joy of your master’?!
Let that be what gives energy to your endurance.
