As the praise of true religion is not of men but of God, so there certainly is a thing called Religion which will please the world, whose praise is not of God but of men; but the downright libertine and the real Christian will both be disapproved of, though the latter more than the former. Sir Richard Hill
One of the reasons that true religion that is of God and from God is not praised by men is that of the source and result of the Law and of grace. The glory of God and how He loves Himself is set forth in His Law and far more in the Gospel. But men want a law that they can keep so that they can have a religion which the world can be pleased with and with which they have the power to keep. True religion is not praised by men because it strips them of all ability to keep the Law and has a Law and a Gospel which declares the glory of God and the world hates God.
There are many disputes about what the Law is and the extent of the Law, not to mention whether the Law has been done away with. But according to the Bible the Law operates differently than the world and the religion of men thinks it does, and so does the Gospel of grace alone. If we can strip away all the vain wrangling that men have about the Law and look at it from a couple of aspects, it may help us to see the nature of true Christianity and of the glory of the Law.
In terms of getting at the heart of the matter, and without trying to get at all the disputes that have been raised about the Law and about the Gospel, the Law has one work to do and the Gospel has another work to do. The religion that is praised of men but rejected by God views the Law as the commands that God has set out and that men have the ability to keep that Law. While orthodoxy rightly rejects that idea in terms of justification and leaves justification to the Gospel, the religion of men loves this because that gives them the control and power to be saved by their own righteousness and works. However, among the orthodox the idea of keeping the Law has crept into sanctification. This also leads to a religion praised by men but is not acceptable to God. In sanctification we are not driven to Christ alone and grace alone in this manner, but instead we are told that Christ and grace helps us as we pursue sanctification. In this way sanctification is to some degree according to the power and ability of man.
But what we must see, however, is that neither the Law nor the Gospel have the power to do anything apart from the work of Christ and His Spirit. The issues we must deal with regarding the Law and sanctification are in many ways the same as with justification. If no man can earn any part of his justification before God, then why do we change the pattern with sanctification? All grace is in Christ and there is nothing acceptable to God apart from what grace works in the soul. The Law has no power to open the eyes of man to sin and no man has the power and ability to keep the Law apart from grace. It is Christ in His office as Prophet that by grace teaches man the inward nature of the Law and it is Christ who gives men grace to open their eyes. Sanctification is by grace alone as there is nothing man can do to earn merit or sanctification apart from Christ. As the Scripture so plainly teaches us, Christ is our sanctification. We are to seek Him and the holiness that comes from grace.
The Gospel has no power to open the eyes of men to Christ and grace, but instead it is grace that must open the eyes of men to sin and then to Christ and the Gospel of grace alone. Men that are blind don’t have the faculty of sight, so men who are spiritually blind have no faculty to see by the Law or by the Gospel apart from the work of God in them. The real issue in the religion that pleases the world is that man has the power in both the Law and the Gospel. In Christianity, it is God alone in Christ by grace alone who justifies men and sanctifies men according to His good pleasure. Men hate God and so they hate Christianity which utterly depends on Christ and grace for all things at all times. Apart from Christ working in men there is nothing they can do that is good. Men hate that and teach against that in many ways, and one of those ways is teaching the responsibility of man to keep the Law of God.
Must men love God and be like Christ in His keeping of the Law? Yes, that is true and that only comes by grace. But no man has any ability to please God apart from grace working this in the soul. Men are obligated to pursue holiness, but they have no ability to do so apart from grace working that in them. This is what men hate, yet this is what Christians who know their own hearts love. They go to Christ who is full of grace to receive “for of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” Regardless of what pleases men we must live to please God and that means living upon Christ alone and the grace which is in Him and comes from Him alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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