What Does God Want from His People?
I’m pretty sure my argument for salvation by grace through faith has transcended thoroughness and into sheer tedium now. Thank you for bearing with me, I cannot guarantee that I am done with this topic, but I can afford you a small reprieve. Let’s step away from the how and put some attention into the why. Why did God establish the New Covenant, why salvation by grace, and why follow Jesus’ commandments after the fulfillment of Mosaic law? In more succinct and practical terms, what does God specifically desire from His people?
Once we understand that, the mechanics of grace, regeneration, and sanctification are not just rationalized, but are actually rather obvious. The framework for God’s intended vision for His people, and how He would achieve that with the New Covenant, are actually laid out all the way in the very beginning of the Old Testament.
Exploring God’s Will Through the Old Testament
Reading through the Old Testament after learning about the Gospel is one of the most enlightening things a Christian can do, as it provides a lot of insight into the New Covenant. In scriptural ignorance, many people are quick to paint God in the Old Testament as cold, distant, and spiteful. The reality could not be further from the truth. The kindness and mercy espoused by Jesus is very congruent with the character of God in the Old Testament, as are Jesus’ condemnations and warnings.
One of most important aspects of the Old Testament can be found between God and the Israelites, a relationship that is ultimately a testament to God’s patience, mercy, and compassion. This relationship began when God made a covenant with Abraham (then Abram). The story of Abram directly follows the Tower of Babel. To frame the scene, this occurred shortly after God flooded the Earth in disgust of the sinful humans who rebelled against Him, and then subsequently re-established humanity from Noah. This newer cohort God had cultivated from Noah’s family had already began to stray from Him. So, God scattered them, changing their languages and spreading them across the earth to enforce an artificial obedience from them, so they would uphold His call to go forth and multiply.
Exploring God’s Relationship with Abraham
Immediately after this the fallout from the tower of Babel (not so immediately in years, but so climactically), God singles out Abram and promises to make him into a mighty nation. Even after this new people already rebelled against Him, He still sought to establish a relationship with them. Now I can’t stress this enough, Abram is not introduced with any fanfare or feats. He’s just a man. This important because God literally introduces Himself to Abram with this:
Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Remember, Abram had done literally nothing of note as of then. Abram, as we hopefully all know, took God up on this nifty deal and went to Canaan. In Morah, Abram built an altar to God and God told him that He would give this land to his offspring. Even though Abram had not established a righteousness of his own, he was readily obedient to God. God beckoned, and Abram followed.
Now, Abram was hardly sanctified in heart then and there. Shortly after cultivating his land, a famine occurred and Abram sought refuge in Egypt. There, the Pharaoh took a fancy to Abram’s wife. Fearing for his own welfare, rather than trusting God, Abram lied and claimed that Sarai was just his sister and let Pharaoh take her as his wife. Now, we all know how God feels about adultery. Naturally, He responded with plagues, not to Abram, but Pharaoh. Understandably terrified, Pharaoh rebuked Abram, loaded him with parting gifts, and was quick to send him out of his country.
In spite of Abram’s sin, God remained with him. In fact, God promised him even more land and drove out the corrupt natives there, such as the Sodomites, the Gomarites, and the Chaldeans. With God’s empowerment, Abram joined in on the already ensuing wars to rescue Lot’s tribe and he was celebrated by Melchizedek. The priest-king praised Abram and explained that God had blessed him. Abram in turn would soon exalt God before the King of Sodom:
Genesis 14:22 Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow…”
Through faith and submission, Abram was pleasing to God, and so He promised Abram an even greater nation. But Abram was still a sinner; he and his wife decided he should impregnate his servant because they didn’t believe God could make Sarai conceive. When God explicitly told Abram that Sarai would bear him a son, Abram still questioned Him and asked for proof. God gave him proof and Sarai would later conceive just as God promised. In spite of their weakness, God solidified His covenant with Abram, christening him a prophet, Abraham, and changing Sarai’s name to Sarah.
Not long after, Abraham would once again claim Sarah as his sister and pawn her off to a foreign king in order to protect himself. God would have been more than justified in killing Abraham, but He didn’t. Instead, He divinely intervened to spare the king from the lethal sin of adultery by preventing him from sleeping with Sarah and then dragged Abram out of Gerar.
Over time, God’s involvement with Abram bore obvious fruit. Abram readily submitted to God, kept peace with the same king he feared enough to offer his wife to, and had even appealed to God’s compassion toward the Sodomites, an enemy nation.
In spite of Abraham’s growth, neither he nor his wife could exactly be called righteous. When Sarah bore Isaac, she turned on the servant, Haggar, who bore Abraham’s first child, and demanded Abraham drive her out. Abraham did not rebuke Sarah, rather he was simply displeased and resigned himself to do as he was told.
Instead of beating some additional decency into the two of them, God told Abraham to do as Sarah says and that He would take care of the rest. Abraham gave Haggar some meager rations and sent her away in the wilderness. Haggar parted with so little, she thought her, and her son would die of dehydration before they could even reach a town. True to His word, God personally intervened and saved them both.
Genesis 21:17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Abraham was a Model Citizen for God’s Kingdom
Why did God not curse Abraham? Because God sees past the actions and into the heart. Just as how God spared the King of Gerar, who intended to commit a sin in spite of innocence of intent, He spared Abraham. In spite of Abraham’s struggling character, he had a genuine love and obedience to God.
Abraham would ultimately demonstrate this when God tested him, asking him to sacrifice his son. As Paul would later state, Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham himself wasn’t exactly a paragon of virtue, but God justified him due to his faith. The product of this faith would manifest when it was God’s turn to demand proof. In a test of faith, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his remaining son, Isaac.
In complete obedience and submission, Abraham took Isaac to the altar with the intent on sacrificing him. Abraham’s pleasing faith was the mechanism for this historic work. Pleased, God stopped Abraham and procured a ram for him to sacrifice instead. God multiplied Abraham’s blessings and from him God raises the Israelites. God ultimately wanted Abraham’s heart.
So, to recap, Abram was not an inherently righteous man. God chose Abram even though Abram struggled repeatedly to maintain his own righteousness. This was because, in spite of Abram’s humanity, he still followed and exalted God whole heartedly. God sees past a man’s deeds and shortcomings, evaluating the content of their heart first.
1 Samuel 16:7: But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
God’s Desire for Israel
Let’s fast forward a little bit to Exodus. The people God had raised up from Abraham’s lineage were enslaved by Egypt, just as God had forewarned Abraham back in Genesis 15. Even though they were oppressed by the Pharoah, they were God’s people. Just like Abraham, God wanted their hearts.
So, God singled another fallible man who would have a submissive and obedient heart toward Him, Moses. Through Moses, God reveals His intentions to seize the hearts of Israel:
Exodus 6:7: I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
God did exactly as He promised, with an awe-inspiring display of miracles and justice God freed the Israelites from the Egyptians and appointed Moses and Aaron as His liaison to them. For a very, very, veeeeery short amount of time, God had the hearts and minds of His people.
When the Israelites proved to be unruly and of little faith (which took not even a matter of days), God would not be deterred. He provided Moses with laws they could sanctify themselves by. When the Israelites ignored Gods laws, chased idols, and rejected God’s offer to the promised land, God did give up. God punished the most disobedient of the cohorts, but gave the promised land to their children.
When the children rebelled against God, God scattered them through enemy nations, only to save them later. No matter how terrible the Israelites were, God kept the nation alive and sought heroes and righteous men among them, such as Aaron and Joshua. God would have His sanctified people, no matter how long it took, and no matter how difficult it was.
God Raised Up Judges for His People to Cultivate Righteousness and Submission to Him
When the Israelites showed that they required constant guidance to maintain any remote form of submission, God raised up for them Judges. Though divinely ordained, the Judges were still very human. Gideon was timid and initially lacking in faith, Samson was vain and wrathful, Jephthah was a whoreson handpicked from a band of thugs.
But through each Judge God saved Israel from the hands of an enemy nation, an enemy nation God fed them to because they rejected Him as soon as the preceding Judge had died. After decades of this pattern, God would have been more than justified in abandoning them all, but here is an excerpt on why He returned to Israelites to elect the eighth Judge* (thus, the eighth time God saved Israelites from the consequences of their own rebellion, in just the era of Judges alone).
Judges 10:10 And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals! 11 So the Lord said to the children of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? 12 Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore, I will deliver you no more.
14 “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.” 15 And the children of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray.” 16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.
Eight times since the era of Judges began, the Israelites turned their backs on God and were punished justly. Eight times the Israelites pled for mercy and repented. Eight times God had compassion on them. The parable of Prodigal Son was just a glimpse of God’s incredible patience and mercy. The Israelites behavior in the rest of Judges didn’t become peerless, they were struggling under and after Samson, the final judge of that era.
Pattern recognition did not stop God from having mercy on them again. He kept His covenant with Abraham, despite the fact that the Israelites disrespected all of the laws and covenants that followed. God did not abandon the Israelites after centuries of being rejected; His compassion was every bit as much a part of His divine character as was His justice.
Of course, Judges weren’t enough to permanently cultivate righteousness in the Israelites, neither were the divinely ordained kings (who couldn’t even keep themselves righteous), not even the prophets, the godliest of all of them. In both rebellion and servitude, Israel’s heart was still corrupt.
The Israelites Would Not Pursue God Under Their Own Power, So God Would Bolster Them With His Own
So, when God spoke to the Israelites through the later prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, He promised them a different covenant. Their sacrifices, celebrations, and legalistic works meant nothing to Him, their hearts were not with Him. Here’s a refresher:
Isaiah 1:10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
So, the basis of God’s New Covenant was that instead of justification through works and obedience, He would cut straight to the root of the problem, the unjust heart itself. God would put a new heart in Israel, He would make them righteous Himself, and they would serve Him genuinely.
Why cultivate goodness through works when the heart was still foul? Justification through works was clearly possible, God Himself implemented it, Jesus proved it in His own sinless life, but the Israelites were consistently not capable of this themselves.
God was also quite aware of this, hence all of the above mercies and compromises He provided in the Old Testament. This of course, did nothing but prove God’s own righteousness, the Israelites were still shameful and rebellious. So, this time, God would instead attain His obedient, faithful, and productive people from the inside out, by changing their hearts with a righteousness not of their own. Only then would God have His people.
Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
By this New Covenant, God would secure the hearts of His people. Through His own mercy and power God would have just, compassionate, and obedient people who would walk in His statutes and exemplify His values. God would remind the Israelites of this New Covenant again in Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 36: 22 Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went. 23 I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land. 25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.
So, what does this have to do with salvation in the New Testament? Everything. People were no longer doing good works to merit themselves righteousness or a salvation they never really deserved, they were now doing good works solely for the pleasure and glory of God. This New Covenant was established and conducted on the basis of love and mercy, thus, it was both the culmination and fulfillment of everything God both sought and implemented in the Old Testament. God was focused on their hearts back then, as He still is now.
Pursuing God in the New Covenant Through Submission to Jesus
This is why in Jesus’ parables, the tax collector was justified, but not the Pharisee. This is why the prodigal son was forgiven and celebrated upon his return. It’s why the unrepentant servant was forgiven as soon as he pled for mercy, but castigated when he failed to show that mercy to others. Above all, it’s why Jesus’ two greatest commandments, the commandments that would fulfill all of the Law in God’s eyes, were to love God and to love others. God is specifically invested in men’s hearts.
Now, instead of relying on sacrifices and rites to be justified, the Elect are already forgiven. The heart within them, regenerated through the Holy Spirit, is already good. The Holy Spirit now guides men to walk in God’s ordinances, so all righteousness and boasting belongs to God alone. Now, the only purpose of good works is to please God, the only mechanisms are a love of Him and the guidance of the Spirit.
Let’s take a look at Jesus’ parable of the vine again:
John 15:1: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Even though the Elect have already been cleared of their sins, they are told that they can bear no good fruit unless they remain in Jesus. Several verses later, Jesus would specify that God would cut off the branches that bore no fruit. This begs the question, if salvation is not strictly dependent on works, why do them?
More importantly, if salvation is a gift and those who are saved are predestined, how would people discern true Christians from false ones? The answer lies in devotion to God. This why fallible men such as David, Solomon, Abraham and Moses were regarded as righteous in spite of their flaws, because they loved the Lord.
Much of the ire God expressed in the Old Testament was over how the Israelites were rebellious toward Him. Their sacrifices and ceremonies were of no merit to them because they were turned against Him in their hearts. Centuries of Old Testament rapport between the Israelites and God was neatly summed up by the Holy Spirit in Hebrews:
Hebrews 3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” 12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
Remember in 1 Samuel 16 where God explains how He looks at men’s hearts. As shown by Hebrews 3, God was directly angered by the Israelites corrupt hearts. So in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when He speaks about making the Israelites His people, the mechanism is God changing their hearts and spirits. God wants a people who follow Him in their hearts, first and foremost, which is why Jesus so strongly rebukes the Pharisees, who are known for strict dedication to Jewish laws and traditions:
Matthew 23: 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.
27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
This why men are justified by their faith rather than their works. Their faith in God is a matter of the heart, whereas deeds that seem good can be done with ill intentions. This is why Jesus says that without abiding in Him they cannot produce good fruits. So, with this in mind, let’s look at the rest of the vine parable:
John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Jesus wants His followers to love God above all, the same as God desired from Abraham and Israelites back in the Old Testament. Jesus explains that if they love God, they will hold to His commandments, just as God envisioned when He described His will for His people in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Love is the metric of the person’s devotion to God.
The Pharisees fell because even though they kept God’s commandments, they did so without a love for Him. The clear fruits of love were obedience and faith, as expressed in Old and New Testaments respectively. This is why Jesus would specify:
Matthew 22:36: “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” 37 Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Now look at these other verses in this context:
Psalm 147:10-11: His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Mark 12: 32: “Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him, 33 and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
1 Timothy 1:5 The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.
With the Knowledge That God Wants Our Hearts Above All, His Will and Commandments Throughout the Bible are Perfectly Cohesive
So, when we look at the things we are traditionally commanded within the bible through the framework of developing a heart toward God, we can properly interpret its context and purpose. This is based not just only on centuries of God inspired literature, but by His words themselves. Now we can ascend past the stumbling block of Zion (Romans 9:30) and serve God in love and grace, instead of seeking our own righteousness. How does this tie in with other acts and traits desired by God?
Though strong in symbolism, the functional mechanism of baptism is the pledge of devotion to God.
1 Peter 3:21 And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you— not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Humility is the fulfillment of glorifying God alone.
2 Chronicles 7:14 : If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Mark 10: 18 “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.
Confession involves admitting sin, justifying the need for God’s mercy before others.
1 John 1: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Forgiving others is emulating God’s mercy.
Colossians 3:13: Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Communion is the proclamation of God’s power and mercy through observing Jesus’ sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Applying the These Concepts to Christian Living
In context, all of these important Christian precepts are unified by devotion to God alone, just as He had always intended. This leaves no room for glorifying men or anything else of the world. This also leaves no room for dividing one’s devotions toward exalting or submitting to anything else of the world, including themselves.
The Elect, upon accepting Jesus, will abide in Him. Those who abide in Jesus are the ones the Father will save.
John 15:1: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
To abide in Christ is to follow Him in faith and obedience. Only those who abide in Christ can bear good fruit.
John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
2 John 1:9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
Jesus’ greatest commandment is to love God.
Matthew 22:36: “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”37 Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The fruits born of the Elect by the Holy Spirit are the product of the changed heart God had promised to His people.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
It is this by the pure heart that God is pleased.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.
1 Chronicles 29:17 Since I know, O my God, that You try the heart and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You.
Psalm 51:16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by me.
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Correction 2/10/2023: In the original version of the section regarding the era of Judges, I cited the wrong passage, chapter 14 instead of chapter 10. Not only did this lead to my reference being incorrect, but it also threw off the timeline of the Judges I had presented in my original argument. This error has been corrected, apologies to anyone who has been inconvenienced or confused by my mistake. #JudgeGate