Eliza Doolittle married Freddy Eynsford-Hill because she knew that she would always be a cockney flower girl to Professor Henry Higgins.  She knew that he could never accept the change in her but would always see her as she used to be.  As she told Freddy, The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she is treated.  I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady and always will.

George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion

Sooner or later, every believer must confront two most foundational of questions

  Does God accept me?
  And if so, on what basis does He do so?

Therefore, let me ask you, when you think of your relationship with God, do you think that He sees you as Henry Higgins saw Eliza Doolittle or as Freddy Eynsford-Hill saw her?  Well, let me be bold enough to suggest to you, Miss Eliza Need-do-nothing-at-all, that when God sees us, He sees us as His bride, as the fully-functioning new creations of 2 Corinthians 5:17 where old things having past away, new things have come.

You are to God what Rachel was to Jacob; never his Leah but always his beloved Rachel.  Yet, acceptance is such a deeply rooted problem in the mind of Man that even someone like Rachel, who was adored by her husband Jacob, was convinced that her husband would love her more if only she was able to give him a child

 The story of Rachel and Leah is, in many respects, one of the more melancholic stories in the Old Testament.  Leah, Jacob s wife, by virtue of her father s duplicity, sought to win the heart of her husband by giving him children (typical of good works).  Indeed, at the birth of her third son, she pronounced, Now, this time, my husband will love me because I have borne him three sons.  Therefore, his name is called Levi. [Gen. 29:34].  It is surely the heavy hand of irony which sees Levi become the priestly tribe of the law of self-effort.  The principle that surely God will love us more if only we could produce some good works is embedded in the religious mind.  Even Rachel, who knew beyond doubt that she was loved unconditionally, was still snared in the light of her sister s productivity.  Envy had taken root inside of her [Gen. 30:1].  Rachel was barren but driven by the insatiable sense of I know you love me but , she demanded of her husband to give me children or I will die [Gen. 30:1].  As with her mother-in-law before her, she reached out with the arm of the flesh to resolve her predicament and presented her maid to her husband who duly provided her with a surrogate child.  Yet, whilst Rachel drew consolation from her child, she completely missed the mystery of grace, as so many do.  In this case, she missed the fact that Jacob would not love Leah any more because of her good works and not love Rachel any less in spite of her lack of works.  Grace does not function like that.

As I will demonstrate, the child s progress to the teen-level will be hampered until the child can resolve these most crucial of questions.  Until this gnawing issue is resolved, the prospect of entering into the Hebrews 4 rest will elude a believer.  Our understanding of acceptance must be the same as God s.  The Bible is clear we are accepted by the Father in Christ [Eph. 1:6 NASB].

Paul Anderson-Walsh  Until Christ is Formed  

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