Work, the Gospel, and God’s Pleasure
by Rev. Douglas W. Merkey
Sparrow by Rev. Douglas W. Merkey
I can still hear John Houseman’s haughty British voice from a series of classic 1980s TV commercials: “Smith Barney. They make money the old-fashioned way. They earn it.” The campaign was so memorable that the investment house spent $10M to revive it in the mid-1990s.(1)
Perhaps one reason this slogan has had such a long shelf life is that it embodies the timeless “you get what you earn” and “you earn what you get” worldview. If we’re honest, many churches and ministries teach this same idea, speaking of our need to work in ways that please God without any reference to Christ and the gospel. At its core, this idea just a modern variation on the heart-killing “philosophy and empty deceit” which is “according to human tradition and not according to Christ” (Colossians 3:8). It’s the heresy that reframes Smith Barney’s slogan: “<Your name here,> you must please God the old-fashioned way. You must earn it through your work, morality, impact, etc.”
I was so steeped in this worldly view of work growing up that even after God saved me in my early twenties, I unwittingly transferred Smith Barney’s slogan to my ongoing relationship with God. As a result, I worked hard for God. Really hard. I even left a flourishing career as a marketing executive with a global telecommunications company to try and please God by enrolling in seminary. That way, my gospel-penurious heart thought, “I can work full-time in the ‘things of God’ so He’ll be more pleased with me.”
But no matter what I did, I never experienced real assurance that I was earning God’s pleasure the old-fashioned way. Or in any way, really. The exhaustion caused by this vain, gospel-forgetful work ethic came to a head in 1999 when I experienced a breakdown. It was then that God graciously gave me a unique opportunity to sit under pastors Scotty Smith and Barney Hayward who were teaching an interterm class on the gospel at Covenant Theological Seminary. The Spirit used that class to set me free from viewing my work as a necessity for earning God’s pleasure.
Among other things, He showed me that my view of the gospel was horribly impoverished, especially as it related to my view of my work. As a Christian, He’d already convinced me that Jesus’ work, not mine, earned God’s pleasure at the point of my salvation. This was the gospel of Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of [your own] works, so that no one may boast.” What I didn’t understand or believe was that Jesus’ work, not mine, earns God’s pleasure every day after the point of my salvation, too.
The Spirit used texts like Galatians 5:1 to close this gaping hole in my theology of the gospel and help me experience the freedom and joy God intends. “So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law” (e.g., trying to earn God’s pleasure by my work, morality, impact, etc.). This is the gospel that continually looks to Christ’s work, not mine, as the work which earns God’s peace and pleasure. It’s the gospel that frees me to work for a God who’s already permanently predisposed to pleasure toward me in Christ. It reframes Smith Barney’s slogan once more: “Christ permanently pleased God the old-fashioned way. He earned it by His life, death, and resurrection. He did all this work for me and then permanently gifted it and its benefits to me in the gospel by grace through faith.”
As the Spirit opened my heart more deeply to the gospel, I was overcome with joy. It was as if I were hearing the gospel for the first time, even though I’d been a Christian for almost ten years and was currently a full-time seminary student. The gospel had once again become life-changing “Good News” to my heart. Since then, it’s become my passion in life to let the gospel flow through my heart in everything I do. Here are two practical ways the Spirit helps me keep enjoying this freedom:
Keep enjoying the gospel. This is the primary and non-meritorious work of ongoing faith. It means continually celebrating Christ’s redeeming work as the work that permanently replaces God’s wrath with His pleasure. It means that we keep hearing the Father speak His pleasure over us as those who were “in Christ” when He said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” (Matt. 3:17, 17:5).
Express gospel-joy in work. In a spirit of ongoing gospel-celebration, we approach all our work as a way to express gratitude to God for His pleasure toward us in the gospel. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1). (2)
To explore these ideas more deeply, please visit GODWARDGIFTS.COM. It’s a tangible example of the redemptive principles I’ve mentioned above. As my most recent pastoral-theological-artistic-entrepreneurial work, it was born out of a gospel-freed heart to help others enjoy and express Christ in their work and lives. Be sure to check out the site’s sculptures and their accompanying videos and artist’s statements.
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/25/business/media-business-advertising-smith-barney-summons-ghost-haughty-john-houseman.html and HERE’s a sample of the commercials featuring John Houseman
The phrase “in view of God’s mercy” is the Spirit’s shorthand here for the gospel He’d just spent eleven chapters explaining. In this sense, “gospel” and “God’s mercy” are synonymous. As He begins to draw conclusions based on this gospel, the Spirit reminds the Roman Christians (and us) to keep this gospel in view as we go about our lives. This is what I mean by my phrase “keep enjoying the gospel.” In that context, we are permanently “holy and pleasing to God.” This sets us free to work as people who already have God’s pleasure, not as those who must earn or maintain God’s pleasure. Unfortunately, some interpret this verse in a heretical Smith Barney fashion. They reason that God gives us mercy so that we might work hard and somehow earn a “holy and pleasing” status before God. But this would contradict the clear message of the gospel God propounded in Romans chapters one through eleven! The gospel really is that good. It really is the end of earning holiness and thus earning God’s pleasure.
Rev. Merkey is a recovering performance junkie who, by God’s grace, keeps enjoying the gospel as a pastor, commercial model, fine artist (www.dwmerkey.com) and founder and chief sculptor of WWW.GODWARDGIFTS.COM. By God’s grace, he embodies Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” This blog clarifies the object of his “giving thanks” – the grace of Christ in the gospel that sets us free from having to earn God’s peace and pleasure.