How Can Someone Satisfy God?
A group of sixth formers were asked,
“How can a person satisfy God?”
They came up with this conclusion:
“You have to worship him.”
They were then asked what sort of worship God expected and they concluded:
“You must live a good life.”
This is a very common way of thinking today. The obvious questions are ‘What is good?’ and ‘How good do you have to be?’
The prophet Isaiah reminded his readers of a very important fact that what God values is different to what we value:
“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways,’ says the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8
Isaiah went on to remind all his readers:
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2
When they thought about it they came to realise that this was true:
“So justice is far from us and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light but all ius darkness, for brightness but we walk in deep shadows.” Isaiah 59:9
“For our offences are many in your sight, and testify against us.” Isaiah 59:12
They understood the problem but had forgotten God’s solution. God had demonstrated a way for him to be satisfied. It could not be through beautiful temple singing and praise. It could not even be by the moral way they lived. God cannot be satisfied by anything we do because we are all spiritually dead. Righteousness has to be a gift and our sin has to be taken by someone else. To teach people this:
“They had to offer sacrifices.”
The need for a sacrifice
Just imagine the court of priests in the tabernacle or temple when sacrifices were made. The animals would be led or pulled in. Some would cry out and others would undoubtedly defaecate on the floor. When they were killed by cutting their throats the blood would splatter around on peoples’ clothes and fall on the floor. Yet they were worshipping in the way God had ordained. This was very different to the beautiful music and liturgy offered in many churches and cathedrals or the rousing rhythmic praise seen in some charismatic churches. It is not that such magnificent events are not awe-inspiring, therapeutic and helpful but they cannot act as a substitute for the cross of Christ in satisfying God.
There are people who think that because they belong to a church with ‘right beliefs’ and regularly think of and praise God and try to live good lives they will be accepted by God. This however is never enough to ‘satisfy’ God.
Even the Old Testament prophets had to remind people that outward religion, however theologically correct, could not make man acceptable to God. The prophet Amos reminded God’s people that their services, offerings and singing did not impress the Lord whatsoever. He wrote,
“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. ” Amos 5:21-24
Imagine the bloody sacrifices of animals in the temple. The worshipper would bring with him a perfect animal. He would put his hand on the animal’s head and symbolically transfer his sin and that of his family onto the animal. He would then kill it by cutting its throat. The priest would then collect some of the blood which would then be poured out onto the altar where the burnt offering was then made. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, some of this blood would also be poured onto the altar of incense too.
Why was this what God wanted? A thinking Jew must have often pondered this question. How could the death of a lamb give forgiveness of their sin? This dilemma was partially answered when Isaiah foresaw that the time was coming when God’s servant king would enter his world as a baby and would die to carry our sins.
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way. and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:4-6
Surely God had ordered these sacrifices to remind people that no-one is able to satisfy God’s holiness by themselves but that God himself would provide a way.
The sacrifice of an animal cannot, of itself, put anyone right with God. These sacrifices were all symbolic and looked forwards to the day when God himself would atone for our sin. We can be ‘at-one’ with God because of Jesus’ bloody death.
There was no other way that the Almighty Holy God could be satisfied. Our word ‘satisfaction’ is derived from the Latin ‘satis’ and ‘facere’. At school a child has to achieve a ‘satis’ level which, in Latin, means ‘enough’. ‘Facere’ means ‘to do’ so God is only satisfied because Jesus has ‘done enough’ to appease God’s wrath at man’s sin. Christ’s death made atonement for our sins and we can now be united or at-one with our creator. God reckons us as being righteous, if we are genuinely and personally following Jesus, because of what Jesus has done and for no other reason. This is the only way that God can be satisfied with us. Since the time of Anselm, a monk who became Archbishop of Canterbury (1093 to 1109AD), the Christian church has recognised that the death of Christ resulted in God being ‘satisfied’.
This explains why ‘blood’ is such a major theme of the New Testament. The ‘blood of Christ’ is short-hand for the sacrificial death of Christ. Consider these passages,
“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” Romans 3:25
The NIV has an alternative translation which more accurately portrays Paul’s meaning of ‘sacrifice of atonement’:
“. . . as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin.”
This is the meaning of the King James version which says:
“. . . whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.”
God hates all sin, anything that is not in accord with his righteousness, and yet because of his love he was willing to take the penalty for our sin on himself. Paul continually emphasises the centrality of the death of Jesus,
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” Romans 5:9
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7
“. . . through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:20
The words ‘reconciliation’ and ‘redemption’ have a similar meaning. We have been freed, forgiven, justified and given peace with God because of what Jesus did on our behalf.
“You were redeemed from the empty way of life . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:19
If Jesus were not God his death could only be an example of selflessness. But as God, the one sinned against, he is the only person who can bear our sin. He had to be sinless himself to do this. In the Old Testament only perfect animals could act as substitutes for peoples’ sin. The writer of the book of Hebrews contrasts the sacrifice of animals in the temple to that offered by the Lord Jesus.
“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Hebrews 9:13-14
John similarly stresses that Christians have been purified from every sin through the death of Jesus.
“But if we walk in the light . . . the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:9
God cannot be satisfied by the worship we offer him but only by the death of Jesus, God’s own Son. We have seen that throughout the New Testament this truth that we can only be justified, declared righteous, through the blood of Christ, is emphasised again and again. It is not difficult to see the link between the unpleasant bloody scenes in the temple and the awful bloody scene at the cross of Jesus. It is this turning to Christ by faith that is the key to being accepted and made righteous.
“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:17
A patient of mine with terminal cancer had recently become a Christian. She understood who Jesus is and what he died to bear her sin on that cross and she committed her life to Christ. I subsequently visited her in the local hospice. To remind her of this new status she now had because she was trusting in Christ, we looked at Romans 8:1 which is a great verse on assurance.
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . . ”
To make this simpler to understand, I wrote her name on a piece of paper and placed it inside the Bible and closed it, hiding the paper with her name:
“Let this Bible represent the Lord Jesus and this piece of paper represent you. Because you are now ‘in Christ’ when you meet God he will not see your sins at all, he will see that you are in Christ and have ‘his righteousness’. Furthermore Jesus is now in heaven and because you are in Christ he will take you to be with him there.”
This verse so excited her that she asked a nurse to read the whole of Romans 8 to the others in her unit.
Although there is nothing we can do to be made righteous in God’s eyes, God has achieved this for us by sending his Son to die in our place. Subsequently there are different sacrifices we can make but we can never offer our own ‘sin offering’. When we have become committed to Christ there are offerings that God recognises:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1
God cannot be worshipped without a dependance on Christ who has saved us; our response reflects our gratefulness. It is obvious that if our lives don’t change we haven’t understood how much God hates sin. God’s chosen people must set out on a new path, to be holy.
King David, who realised that he was justified through the blood of a sacrifice, recognised that there are still sacrifices we need to offer in response,
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
The Old Testament clearly teaches that the worship God requires from his redeemed people is holy living.
“Worship the Lord in the splendour of holiness.” Psalm 96:9
An alternative translation which is preferred in the New International Translation of the Bible (NIV) reads,
“Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.” Psalm 96:9
No human being can be holy enough for God; we can only be acceptable to God if he gives us the status of being righteous and this is what Jesus offers us. God accepts me because Christ’s righteousness has been credited to me, he has given me the status of being holy. It is not my righteousness but his that gains my acceptance. When we are resting on the holiness of the Lord Jesus, with whom we must be intimately linked, we are saved. Our response, which will always come if our faith is genuine, will be to spend our lives obeying him, so becoming a holy people who live like Jesus and long to win others for him.
In contrast, pagan religion teaches that to be right with God, people must enter the body of their god through an initiation rite and then live according to their rules. When the final judgment comes, it is their hope that their lives will be considered good enough, but there can be no certainty. This is the very antithesis of the Christian gospel which teaches that no man can be good enough but, if we are followers of God’s Son, then it is His righteousness that will be our passport to heaven. Such a relationship with Jesus will inevitably lead to changed lives that will focus on living to please him.
Substitutional atonement
The trigger that started Christchurch Baldock was an inter-church Easter March around Letchworth. At one stop a curate spoke about the cross of Jesus but his only application for us was to say that Jesus did this as an example of selfless living that all should follow. There was no mention of Jesus dying to bear our sins, the very centre of the Christian message. When a group of us wrote about this in the inter-church magazine some senior churchmen objected, supporting the view of the curate. This problem, wanting to gain the support of influential people over what the Bible teaches has now spread to other issues within many churches such as women’s headship, who can marry who, and other ‘woke’ issues. When the Bible is rejected as being the word of God, anything goes. Many of us felt we could not stay within a church where the central themes of the bible were not being taught.
The wrath of God at our sin is a fundamental issue stressed in Scripture. For example:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” Romans 1:18
God’s wrath is directed against human sinfulness and rebellion, which leads people to reject the truth.
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.” Ephesians 5:6
This is a terrifying teaching for those who turn their backs on God, his Son and His word. Yet this wrath has been appeased or propitiated by the death of Jesus as our substitute.
The concept of a ‘whipping boy’ who took the punishment deserved by a prince was probably rare, but when the future Charles I of England (1600–1649) was a boy, William Murray, later 1st Earl of Dysart was his ‘page and whipping–boy’. When Charles did wrong his friend had to pay the price!
Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was 45 years old and a gendarme, a French police officer. In 2018 a man aligned with ISIS hijacked a car in southern France, killed someone, burst into a supermarket, killed two more people, and took a woman hostage. Arnaud Beltrane, who was a convinced Christian asked to be allowed to take the woman’s place and this he did. He was then murdered. He gave his life so that the woman could be freed. Can you imagine the deep gratitude that woman must feel for her saviour for the rest of her life.
This substitution is beautifully described in God’s directions in the Old Testament for what should happen on the Day of Atonement when the sins of God’s people over the previous year were propitiated or atoned for. In Leviticus 16 we read that the High Priest, after offering a sacrifice to make atonement for his own sin, takes two goats.
“He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.” Leviticus 16:21-22
The sins of God’s people are removed far from them. It is a picture of forgiveness. The other goat is then sacrificed and offered as a sin offering. The only way for sin to be forgiven is through a bloody sacrifice.
The writer of the book to the Hebrews is clear that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the atonement that the activities of the Day of Atonement represented. This is how our sins have been propitiated:
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Hebrews 9:14
The message of the church
We held an inter-church youth meeting in our church. One lady I didn’t know brought three youngsters with her. She sat on her own so I went up to welcome her. Her opening words shook me:
“The trouble with your church is that you talk too much about Jesus.”
I answered her by showing her the opening ten verses of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Every verse stresses the importance of Jesus. But Paul goes further than this. He emphasises the death of Jesus above everything else as this is how the redemption of god’s people was achieved.
“. . . but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” 1 Corinthians 1:23
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 6:14
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
“The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Galatians 3:13
This is the heart of God’s message to all people. He loves each of us enough to come and die so that we can be put right with God. Our sin is all taken by Jesus, it is removed far away from us, so we are free to live a new life representing Jesus is word and action.
There is no other way for God to be satisfied so this message about Jesus and his cross needs to be widely proclaimed by every Christian.
BVPalmer
