An “Entitlement” Grace

“Why should any living man complain

    when punished for his sins?

Lamentations 3:39

 

Today’s blog title is, of course, an oxymoron.

And, despite the comic I read this week which humorously presented it as such, an oxymoron is not a very stupid ox!

It is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms are combined.

We are not entitled to God’s grace.

That is to say it is not a right or a claim we can demand.

 While it might seem like Christianity 101; allow me to remind you of

Romans 3:23 and 6:23 below:

 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We deserve death, not grace.

You, me and everyone else on the planet.

I think we sometimes forget how marvelous His grace is and we can subtly

begin to cop an attitude that grace is “owed” to us.

That is not a wise place to be.

Grace is a free gift from God to us that we, of course, do not deserve.

I can, and should, do good works as a believer.

But when we begin to lose sight of the fact that those good works are a fruit of God’s grace in us and instead we begin to take credit for our salvation or, at a minimum, consider redemption a “joint effort” between the work of the cross and my works; it’s time to re-visit those verses in Romans and re-visit the work of grace wrought in Christ.

Entitlement is a ‘hot topic’ in some circles but never let it be so for believers.

My sin “entitled” me to an eternity in hell without God.

His wonderful grace paid the price to rescue me!