RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-07-24	Does God Want Me to be Happy or Holy?
		Imagine human life before salvation in Christ as having zero happiness. If this was true then sharing the gospel with someone would be to show how to receive forgiveness of sin, and to introduce them to happiness. But this is not reality. Human life before salvation in Christ exists in a thousand experiences of Godless happiness. There are many things that bring a sense of happiness to an unbeliever. Peter describes the pre-Christian life among the gentiles in his day (1Pe.4:3). 1Pe 4:3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. The world outside of Christ abounds with what Hebrews 11:25 calls "fleeting pleasures" So when God is working on hearts to bring them to salvation, He is working with people who have their own sense of happiness. God is not working with people who have zero happiness, and need to be given some. God works with people who have all this experience in "happiness" but is not rooted in Him. Their "happiness" does not flow from thankfulness toward God, or reflect His character. This means that through conversion God now has in His family children who are deeply contaminated. All of us! Yes, we are declared righteous in Christ having our sins forgiven and brought into a wonderful relationship with Him. But we are deeply contaminated with the world's view of happiness. God is sanctifying us from the world and the flesh because we still find so much pleasure outside of God and His ways. Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, Eph 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, Eph 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Sanctification is the process of becoming holy, This process is ceasing to have sinful desires. The "deceitful lusts" are the thousand experiences of Godless happiness which was part of our lives before coming to Christ. In sanctification our desires are changing. What brought us happiness before salvation should be fading away. Now as believers we have new desires that bring holy happiness into our lives. So sanctification is the newness of the human heart that no longer finds sin and self more desirable than God and goodness. God's divine work of sanctifying us weans us off the pleasures of the world, and into the pleasures of God. What we called happiness before and what we call happiness now should not be the same (2Co.5:17). Heb 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. All discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. He is not suggesting the discipline does not hurt. Spanking is supposed to hurt. He is pointing to the fact that the outcome or result is pleasant and not painful. The goal of sanctification is supreme pleasure in God. This will break the back of all the fleeting pleasures of sin. This process will sever the root of all the pleasures so they lose their power, and no longer control us. Trials in the life of God's children are indeed aimed at their holiness. Holiness consists in the hearts of those who forsake the fleeting pleasures of sin for the permanent pleasures of God. So the answer of holiness or happiness lies in a proper view of both terms. God wants you to be happy and holy. But what brings "happiness" now should be different than before you were saved. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Independent and Evangelical Church

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