Happy Friday, everyone. Today, we're going to talk about the pursuit of holiness as justified

believers, something we must get right. It's basically the question over whether God delights

in us as justified children. Does he delight in us in our imputed righteousness? Or does he delight

in our actual lived out holiness? The question is from Kelly, a listener who lives in the state of

Georgia. Pastor John, hello, one of the most joy inspiring truths of the gospel is the

imputed righteousness of Christ on our account. Amen. I'm thinking here of 2 Corinthians 521.

Is it safe to say then that God is fully pleased with me based on Christ's work alone?

If so, how do you reconcile this with scriptures such as Colossians 110,

where Paul encourages us to, quote, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,

fully pleasing in his sight? Does God's pleasure in me depend upon Christ's work or my own works,

or is it somehow both? Can you please explain this dynamic? This is really crucial. Yeah, yeah.

It's a question that lies very close to my heart because as I look out across the longer term

effects of the gospel-centered movement of the last 40 years or so, one of my concerns is that

the stress on justification by faith, which is a glorious doctrine not to be diminished or

compromised at all, has not been accompanied by a biblically proportionate focus on sanctification

by faith. And one form that this neglect has taken is the hesitancy for some pastors to say to

their people, you should seek to please the Lord by the way you live. And one of the reasons

they're hesitant to say this is that they think it undermines the doctrine of justification,

which says that we already stand pleasing or perfect before God clothed with the perfection

and the righteousness and the obedience of Christ, which is counted as ours through faith alone.

So this question is absolutely crucial in order to preach and live biblically,

because there's no doubt that throughout the gospels and throughout the epistles,

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