In my last blog, I made this statement. “Jesus pleased God because Jesus is God.” Now, that sounds like a simple and even obvious statement, but I want to try to amplify and explain that statement, because I believe that it has real implications for our lives.

First, I would amplify that statement by saying it like this. Only Jesus can please God because only Jesus is God, and the only things that please God are the things done by God. Now if that is true, the implications of that statement are crucial. And I think the implications of that statement boil down to this—it’s all about Jesus.

Now I don’t want it to simply deal in platitudes, so what do I really mean by that? You see, living life as a Christian is all about Jesus. It is all about faith in Jesus. What that means is this. It is not about our efforts to do good or be nice. It is not about reducing the number of bad things we do and increasing the number of good things. We have to get it out of our fool heads that the Christian life is about behavior. It is not. If it were about behavior, then our standing before God would always be precarious. “Did I do enough good stuff today?” “I’m trying hard not to be as angry.” “Will God hear my prayers, even though I lost my temper?” “I feel pretty good about myself. I’ve had a prayer time for two weeks in a row.” If I’ve done well, then I feel good about myself and God feels good about me. If I’ve messed up, then I’m mad at myself and I’m sure that God is mad at me too.

The Christian life is just not about behavior; it is about worship. You see, if we believe that the Christian life is about behavior, then our focus will be on ourselves and our effort. But if we believe the Christian life is about worship, then our focus will be on Jesus and his efforts.

And this is not to minimize behavior. This just means that when we sin, we can still worship. God doesn’t limit the praise he receives to perfect people, even good people. He invites the broken, the humbled, the failure, the objectionable, the one who has committed the most despicable sins (as well as the one who has committed the more socially acceptable ones—they are all hell-worthy to God) to bring praise and thanks to God. Really, it is the sinner who worships the deepest. In fact, the greater the sin, the deeper the worship. If we think that the Christian life is about behavior, then the worship of God will seem more like one peer complimenting another. But it is not. Worship is about the repentant expressing gratitude over forgiveness and the thirsty expressing joy over satisfaction.

When our Christian life focuses on worship and not behavior, then we will lock our eyes on Jesus and let our behavior catch up with our worship. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us this. These verses tell us to lay aside our sin and to persevere in the Christian life, all the while we are “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” You can’t keep your eyes on Jesus unless you lay aside your sin. You can’t focus on two things at the same time. This is what Jesus meant when he said that you can’t serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). So the great task of the Christian life is to keep your eyes on Jesus—no matter how good you think you’ve been or how bad you’ve really been. To do otherwise leads to either arrogance or guilt, and neither has a place in worship.

If we believe that the Christian life is about behavior, then our life as a Christian will begin and end with ourselves and our efforts to work harder and do better. If we believe that the Christian life is about worship, then our life as a Christian will begin and end with Jesus.