acceptance vs pleasing

What is the difference between being accepted (received by) someone and pleasing them i.e. bringing them joy?

God fully accepts us

We are told God fully accepts us when we are in Christ. Nothing we do, say, or go through will make this more or less so than it already is. In the eyes of God, we are perfect and fully loved as if we are perfect (even though we are not).

We can please Him 

However, as our loving Father (parent), he is always delighted when we faithfully pursue Him and His directions (commands). This doesn't mean he loves us more for doing so, it means we experience and participate in His love more fully which brings Him greater joy.  He delights in our delight in Him. 

This isn't hard to understand when we consider our kids. Because they are our kids, who we love dearly, we always want what's best for them no matter what. When they go down a path we know is ¹not good for them, our love is expressed even more by the ache it causes us and by the actions we take to help prevent their harm - even if it causes them some pain (loss) now to avoid a greater pain (loss) later. We love our kids no matter what and simply do not want our kids to be harmed ¹if at all possible. 

And when they return and acknowledge they have been on the wrong path, are we not delighted? Yes, but why? 

Just as the father of the prodigal son was delighted to see his son return - so much so that he ran to him when he saw him a far way off (why do you think he spotted him so far away? He was scanning the horizon hoping and looking for his return). His love for his son was steadfast and never waned even in his sons rebellion and wandering. In this way, our heavenly Father pursues and delights in us when we return to Him in order to pursue and honor him. He knows our honoring him is in our best interest and for his greatest glory.

If this is the kind of love we have for our kids - imperfect as we and our love are - how much more so is this the kind of love our perfect heavenly Father has for us?

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matthew 7:7-11

For a discussion on whether God's love is conditional or unconditional click here  

For a discussion on being under grace not law click here

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¹we know that pain can be a good teacher, so we may allow our kids to make mistakes. We simply make ourselves available to comfort and embrace them when they return and seek it and us.  

As a child, when my dad spanked me, he would say something like "this hurts me more than it does you."  I would think to myself "sure it does dad" having no idea what he meant. Once I had my kids I understood. He was inflicting a smaller pain to prevent me from experiencing a much greater pain if I continued on the destructive course I was on.

When my kids were young we had a golden retriever named Buddy. Though he was a great dog he had zero street sense...less than zero. He had wandered into the street on several occasions and at this point had been hit at least 3 times. As a result, he was once laid up for almost a month from one incident. 

One day he had gotten off his chain and bolted for the street. I ran after him screaming "stop Buddy" and was able to grab him right before he ran into traffic. I yanked him into the yard, grabbed a small branch from the tree, and swatted his backside until he yelped. My son yelled "stop! You're hurting him, dad." To which I replied, "exactly!" Then I explained to David that causing Buddy a little pain now may prevent him from going into the street again and getting killed... far more significant harm. I asked my son which was more acceptable to him, for Buddy to get killed or to experience a little pain now that might prevent him from being killed in the future. He got it. 

God desires our highest good and knows that He alone is that highest good and we experience him most fully in our faithful pursuit of him. When we veer off that path (and run into traffic) He will either allow us to suffer the consequences so we learn to more faithfully pursue him or deliberately and directly chasten us - remember it is those who God loves that he corrects. However, when we are faithfully pursuing him, he is pleased because he knows it not only brings him his highest and rightful honor but also is for our greatest good. This has nothing to do with whether he does or doesn't accept and love us and everything to do with the fact that he already perfectly does in Christ. The fruit of knowing we are perfectly loved is faithfulness to the only one who loves us perfectly.

Why Christ must be the only way

"By the works of the law (living by God’s moral standards) no one will be justified"—that is, declared righteous, whole, and in right standing with God; accepted, approved, and fully embraced by Him, while also being in tune with ourselves, others, and the rest of creation.

When we truly grasp what Paul means here, we see that our only hope of God's acceptance and our wholeness lies in Christ—His perfect efforts done on our behalf and ¹assigned to us as a gift. There is no other way to be restored to God. Living perfectly according to God's standards (or any other moral code) simply won't work because no one can do it. Everyone falls short.
Every alternative approach—including religion, even some distorted versions of Christianity—involves trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our own efforts: being good enough or doing enough good deeds. Paul states clearly that this is impossible. ¹No efforts, good works, or spiritual paths of any kind can cause God to receive and accept us.
This isn't about exclusion; it's about necessity.
Christ alone offers restoration and alignment with God as a gift received by faith through recognizing our need for it and accepting the promise of perfect righteousness freely given. There are no exceptions.
Why?
Because only Christ did what was necessary to restore us back to God. No one else—neither we ourselves nor any religious leader—has done or could ever do what He accomplished. Though wisdom can be found in various religions, none provides a complete and perfect restoration to our Creator.
Christ alone perfectly honored God by loving Him with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, even unto death. He then raised Himself back to life as proof of His accomplishment and identity as the way, the truth, and the life. Name another person—religious founder or otherwise—who has done this. No one else ever has or ever will. He alone lived His entire life carrying out His Father's will and desires perfectly.
The good news is that He offers to assign this perfectly lived righteousness to us as a gift, even though we haven't earned it, lived it, or deserved it—and never could or will. For these reasons, Christ is our only solution and only hope.
Without Him doing this for us, we could never be restored to right standing with God. All of us miss the mark of loving and honoring God with all we are and have, as He rightly deserves. We all come up short, without exception. Restoring ourselves to God by being good enough is simply impossible.
To acknowledge this doesn't sit well with our rebellious independence—our desire to be our own god, deliverer, and provider. Pursuing life apart from God began with Adam and continues today; we all do it.
Those who object to Christ's claim of being the only way often fail to understand—or refuse to accept—that outside of Him, there is simply no path to God. Only Christ did what no other religious founder could ever do. 
We are mere creatures, not the Creator; we are not the source of life and love—God alone is. And He has extended His life and love to us solely in and through Christ.
In essence, alternative "ways" reject justification by faith and instead assume we can justify ourselves by finding a path that forces God (or the universe, karma, or whatever) to accept us. They claim the path doesn't matter, only how faithfully you follow it—and if you're faithful enough, you'll eventually achieve acceptance, perhaps through reincarnation until you reach perfection or nirvana.
The problem with this approach is that it's not about how well you walk a path; it's about recognizing you never will walk any path well enough to align yourself with and honor God as He deserves. Only Christ did this, and only he has the right to bestow His achievements on us as a gift. Only he can justify us and align us with God - we can never do it ourselves.
This is profoundly good news, because the offer is for anyone who humbly recognizes their need and receives His offer. In that moment, they are immediately and perfectly restored to God. He has made a way for all of us to be perfect in His eyes and fully embraced by Him.
Yet it's bad news for those who arrogantly insist they can save themselves, gaining God's approval by being good enough or following their chosen path diligently enough. To hear that no path works forces them to admit they (and their efforts) can never be sufficient—something few are willing to face.
This is the real objection to Christ being our only option. Christ's claim of being the only way is not the core issue. They do not accept that they can never do or be good enough to reach God or divinity etc. This is the underlying reason why only Christ is the way to God.
This cuts to the heart of our arrogance and stubborn belief that with enough time and effort, we can make ourselves right with God, and outweigh the bad with good, or achieve self-salvation through rituals or striving. 
Our deepest problem isn't that Christ is the only way—it's that restoration must be done for us, not by us. God must do it because we cannot. We resist being told we aren't the captains of our own spiritual fate; that we aren't our own god but must depend on the true Creator and Sustainer of life, love, and all things.
We are not that person—and never will be—no matter what path we take or how fiercely we pursue it.
If Christ were merely another way to God through good conduct, it might make sense to see Him as one option among many. But that's not what He claims or offers. He said He is the way to God. Or, in Paul's words: "By the works of the law no one will be justified." Christ is the only way.
For a discussion of what it means to be righteous, click here

For a further discussion on why Christ is our only way to be right with God, click here.

For a discussion on the unique claims of Christ click here

For a discussion on our alienation from God and the solution, click here. 

For a further discussion on the difference between religion and Christ, click here. 

For a discussion of the meaning of the "broad and narrow way" click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹The honor He rightfully deserves as the Giver and Sustainer of life, love, and all things.  

²We are assuming that there is absolute right and wrong. For those who believe everything is relative, you may find the following two links helpful. 

The internal dynamics of our dilemma and God's amazing solution/offer!

The basis for morality

³When we accept Christ's free offer of restoration to God, we are acknowledging that the need for restoration exists, and we cannot restore ourselves. This is a posture of humility.

⁴Or at least if I do more good than bad things, it will be enough to offset the bad things. Christ didn't do more good things than bad; he lived for God's honor and glory perfectly. This perfection is what God's perfection calls for and requires to be aligned and right with Him. And thanks to Christ, it has been lived out and fulfilled for us by Christ and offered to us as a gift. In Christ, we are now perfectly righteous (acceptable to our Creator) if and when we receive this gift.

⁵Technically, he is aligned with us as far as his disposition towards us. He now sees and loves us perfectly because he sees us in Christ i.e. fully "clothed" in his perfection.