Hope with Grace – Part Nine
We can sometimes fall into a view that the world “owes us”; it’s a view that places rights above responsibilities. It’s a view that says I’m here to be served; it’s a view that says I deserve more than I receive. It’s a view that’s completely counter to a Biblical Christian understanding.
Os Guinness, suggests that
“at the very heart of our modern world is the almost complete absence of dependency and indebtedness and a corresponding reinforcement of forgetfulness and ingratitude.” [1]
Alexander Solzhenitsyn simply says,
“If I were called upon to identify the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, it is that we have forgotten God.”
Dostoevsky wrote that only an idiot could love, and be grateful to, themselves or humanity rather than to God.
And if that’s all too high-brow, then consider Bart Simpson, who when asked to say grace at meal time intoned,
“Dear God, we pay for all this ourselves. So, thanks for nothing.”
How easy is it to lose the awe of God and the understanding that He has created all things, sustains all things and He redeems His people solely through His grace. That truth has been replaced by a sense of autonomy, rights and entitlement. How sad this is… but how devastatingly horrific it is when the people of God think and live in the same way.
It doesn’t take long for us to think about times when we feel we’ve been treated unjustly. All of us can recall a feeling of resentment when we perceived someone else was treated better than us; we all seem to be able to readily make claims that our rights have been violated. “Fairness” often seems to have ourselves at the centre.
Paul’s question, “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?”[2] has a clear answer; “Christ makes us different, and we have nothing except by His grace.” We have been purchased at enormous cost which kills our self-conceit; our lives are for His service to be lived in communities of grace. As we grow in our understanding of the great grace that we receive; we become great givers of grace to others. The parable of the unforgiving servant[3] shows God’s immense intolerance of those who do not see, and live in, this inestimable truth of grace.
“Hope with Grace” again.
Blessings, Brian
[1] Guinness O The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life Thomas Nelson. (1998)
[2] 1 Corinthians 4:7
[3] Matthew 18:21-35