Acceptable Worship

What makes someone acceptable to God, worthy of dwelling with Him? Psalm 15 gives this list.

1. Walks with integrity
2. Works righteousness
3. Speaks truth in his heart
4. Does not slander with his tongue
5. Does not do evil to his neighbor
6. Does not take up a reproach against his friend
7. Despises a reprobate
8. Honors those who fear the Lord
9. Swears to his own hurt and does not change
10. Does not put out his money at interest (unjustly)
11. Does not take a bribe against the innocent

So, is this a checklist for holiness? If we simply toe the line with these 11 items, do we make the cut?

It can’t be.

Consider #2: “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Our most shining efforts to work righteousness are tainted with pride and impurity and are repulsive to God.

Or take #3: “Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts’” (Isaiah 6:5). Isaiah, a good prophet of God wrote that—he was alarmed to realize that his mouth was filthy when seen in relation to the flawless God.

And #4: “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). Every careless word? I’m not even particularly talkative, and I still have countless words that I should never have said.

Consider #8: About the very most religious people of all, Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead man’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). These were the most honored, most fervent people of all at Jesus’ time, and He blasted them as worst of all.

So if Psalm 15 is not a recipe for pleasing God, what is it?

I think it is the description of a life changed. Our best efforts can’t succeed in earning God’s favor. Ever.

But God made a way for His standard to be fulfilled and our hearts changed.

Paul (one of those super-religious leaders … before he trusted in Jesus) said about his former life of religious efforts and accomplishments:

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:6-9).

Christ became the Righteous One for us. And when we trust Him, He changes us from the inside out.