Satisfaction

Personal Matters

When the Rolling Stones released the hit “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” it struck a powerful chord with the sexually driven generation of the 60’s, and nothing much has changed since. Some years after rocking to these beats I became a Christian and for the first time in my life began to reflect on human motivations. I remember being struck by an insight from Francis Schaeffer that a promiscuous culture’s endless search for variety stems from a deep sense of dissatisfaction. Today people are commonly dissatisfied with their jobs, houses, cars, bodies, husbands, wives… our consumer culture is based on dissatisfaction. I see many believers living a dissatisfied life and looking for strategies to find satisfaction in relationships, health, finances, career, spirituality, ministry and so on. To seek a foundational sense of satisfaction in these areas of life is a foundational reason why Christianity is failing to impact our society. Against the flow, I can confidently testify that I am fully satisfied with who Jesus is for me for I am increasingly aware in the Spirit of the Father’s total satisfaction with the Son.

Where Is Satisfaction

Just about everyone is looking for fulfilment in the wrong place. The prevailing myth of our culture that if only I had more money, more friends, more holidays, more sexual pleasure, more….I would be happy. The wisdom writers of the Old Testament exposed the futility of such a quest. The author of Ecclesiastes was a man of renowned wealth (2:1-8), as such he was in a position to proclaim, “Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!” (Eccl 5:10). To the consumerist mentality of our age the message of the sages of the old covenant that the appetite of man is insatiable sounds entirely stupid (Prov 27:20; 30:15-16; Eccl 1:8; 4:8). This is only another sign that the dissatisfaction they live with every day is a judgement of God (Lev 26:26; Hos 4:10; Amos 4:8; Mic 6:14). Not a judgement designed to annihilate all human happiness, but to drive us to a Saviour in whom alone true satisfaction may be found (Ps 17:15; 63:5).

The Fully Satisfied Man

Christ is the one fully satisfied human being. Unlike us he never murmurs, grumbles or expresses discontent about his lot, but ultimately his satisfaction is evident in the way he speaks about his Father. Jesus’ satisfaction cannot be found in the fulfilment of his “felt needs” but is located in his desire to satisfy the Father. The temptations to physical fullness, power and fame in the wilderness became simply an occasion for Christ to confirm his commitment to worship God alone (Matt 4:10). This is why Jesus’ life was filled with the pleasure of the Father (Luke 3:22; 10:21). Christ expresses his awareness of the Father’s pleasure by referring to the unlimited presence of the Spirit, ““For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.”” (John 3:34).

Jesus’ satisfaction in God did not however impact the disciples, they were ambitious for prestige and glory right up until his arrest (Luke 22:24; Mark 10:37). Such unending desire for more underlies the profound observation of Augustine; “What could be greedier than a man for whom God is not enough.”  The folly of all consumerism (material and spiritual) is the failure to understand that a human being can only be truly content if their conscience is satisfied with the goodness of God whatever life may bring (Phil 4:11-13). Jesus is able to impart such deep realities to us only through the sacrifice of the cross.

Isaiah prophesied of the coming Messiah, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied” (Isa 53:11). The cross is not so much the cost of glory but the way to glory (Luke 24:26). The glorified Jesus is fully satisfied with who the Father has made him to be through the way of death-and-exaltation. Christ is satiated by the knowledge that the old Adamic humanity has been put away through his painful sacrifice and that he is the new man in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell (Col 1:19). The truth of Jesus’ own teaching has been fulfilled in his own heavenly state, ““Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”” (Matthew 5:6, ESV). Jesus now offers us a share in his heartfelt satisfaction with the Father’s work in his own life.

Christ Our Satisfaction

The life of the Early Church in the book of Acts not only stands in stark contrast to the individualistic consumerism of our day; “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” (Acts 4:32; 2:44). It is sometimes recognised that such radical sharing is a fruit of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, but it is rarely grasped that the gift of the Spirit means that as the people of God we share with the Father and the Son in all they have in common (Acts 2:22; Col 2:9-10)[1]. As raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places we share in Jesus’ full satisfaction and pleasure in the heavenly Father (Eph 2:6).  A revelation of this fullness imparts an incredible satisfaction with the plan of God and our part in it.

Now the Father calls the Church through the Spirit to share his goal that Christ be revealed in all dimensions of life and culture; “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Eph 1:22-23 cf. 3:10). The insight that we lack nothing in Christ is the foundation of an abiding satisfaction that promotes a style of life directly opposite to the selfish consumerism which surrounds us.  Some in our society will find this repulsive, others will find it wonderfully attractive (2 Cor 2:15-16).

Conclusion

Our society is plagued with the disease of “more-ness”: more money, more fun, more goods, more success…; all this “more-ness” signals of deep dissatisfaction with life. Churches are infected with the same disease;  if only we had more people, more miracles, more good teaching, more money, more leaders etc. This sort of demand for more from God is a sign of a deep spiritual confusion; ‘When men have Christ they not only have everything one needs, they have everything one can possibly have’ (Haupt). Mere words cannot undo our deep confusions. In the midst of praying for a particularly rebellious congregation I sensed the Lord saying, “I am satisfied with these people”. This was one of the most remarkable revelations of my life. I needed to come to understand that the Father is fully satisfied with the work of the Son in us; for us there is no condemnation (John 3:17; Rom 8:1). As I realise that the fullness of Christ is being formed in me I may confidently exclaim, “Lord, I am fully satisfied with what you’re making.”   Let’s put death the asking for more mentality (Rom 8:13). “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” has no proper place in the Christian life.