The Lie of “The Grace Loan”

Imagine the following dialogue for a moment:

Dad: “Here, daughter {hands her an envelope}, this is a graduation gift from your mom and I.”

Daughter: {opens envelope} “This is a check for $50,000!!!!” {Screams in excitement}

Dad: “Yes, we are wanting to pay for your college.  It is a gift we have been planning to give you for quite some time.  The joy you have right now has made all the saving and sacrifice worth it!” {Smiles broadly}

Daughter: “Thank you so much!  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this!!!”

Dad: “You’re welcome.  We will set up a repayment plan once you finish up with school.”

See anything strike you as odd about this interaction?  I am sure if you are struggling to survive on your current income the thought of someone having $50,000 to give away seems absurd.   Yet, try to move past that and see if you find anything else.  Does the father’s final statement “We will set up a repayment plan once you finish up with school” strike you as odd?  Why? 

We have a word in our society for this transaction of goods, and it is not a gift.  It is a loan.  What separates the two?  A gift is something given to someone with no expectation of repayment, as determined by the giver.  Sure, the recipient of that gift may feel undeserving and attempt to pay back the giver.  However, this does not change the original intention of the giver, he/she still intended to give without repayment. 

On the other hand, a loan is given with expectation of repayment.  Once again, the giver determines this.  If I were to loan my friend $100, but he assumes that it is a gift, would he still not owe me the $100?  Of course he would.  We might need to have an additional conversation where we are on the same page, but his misunderstanding of my intention does not afford him the right to keep the money.  Just like a gift, the giver, not the recipient, determines a loan.  

So while all the technical definitions and illustrations?  We need to recognize a lie that Satan subtly sneaks into view of God and our way of living: God’s grace to us is a loan.

Here is how he sneaks it in:

“God sent Jesus Christ to die for us.  Therefore, since He gave everything, we owe our lives to Him.”

“Jesus Christ paid for our sins on the cross.  Consequently, we should spend the rest of our time here on Earth paying him back.”

“Everything we have was given to us by God.  Therefore, we owe Him 10%.”

Before, I go any further, there is a lot of truth in those statements: Jesus did pay for our sins, He did give everything, and everything we have is His.  In addition, we should give our lives to him, we should serve him with our gifts, and we should give to God out of good consciousness.  Furthermore, God does deserve our trustworthiness, our love, our faithfulness, our time, our talents, and our monetary gifts.  In that sense we do “owe” God.  However, a clear distinction must be made between “owing” in the sense of thinking we can pay Him back and “owing” Him in the sense of choosing to live for Him.  The former is living under the grace loan, the latter is the godliness of living under grace. 

This is because when we say we should “pay him back”, we, the recipients, are attempting to determine the nature of grace instead of God the giver.  As we illustrated earlier, we cannot determine whether grace is a gift or a loan, only the giver can.  So let us go to Scripture to see what He says on the nature of grace.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 (emphasis mine)

“But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.” Romans 5:15-16 (emphasis mine)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (emphasis mine)

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12 (emphasis mine)

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10 (emphasis mine)

Gift of God, free gift, gift by the grace, gift, free gift, free gift, freely given, gift of God, given…we could on and on and on.  However, hopefully you can get the point: God GIVES us His grace FREELY, which means He gives it WITHOUT EXPECTING REPAYMENT. 

To approach Him with that intention is to deny the nature of the gift.  While we may feel it is honorable, what we are really saying is “I am more comfortable with a grace loan, something I can pay back.”  Yet two things are profoundly wrong with that:

1)    We could never “pay back” God, or even BEGIN to pay back God for Christ’s sacrifice on the       

cross.  Imagine if Bill Gates wrote you a check for 30 billion dollars and you turned around and 

sent him $10 in the mail.  Anyone with a sound mind would find this ridiculous!  He gave so much and you gave so little in return.  Yet, what God has given us in His Son Jesus is worth far MORE than $30 billion (we couldn’t put a price tag on it) and what we could possibly give Him in return is far LESS than $10!!!!

Furthermore, to even say that we could pay part of it back is to say that over time we could have earned our righteousness in the first place.  If someone loans me $1000 it is because I do not have the money at that time.  However, I will have it later (hopefully) and will then pay them back.  Yet, with our righteousness there is no way, even given an eternity, to where we could earn a portion of it.  Therefore, we could not even pay back a trillioneth of what we owe.

2)  By the very definition of grace, God cannot give it as a loan nor could you pay it back.  It is theologically impossible.  Paul puts it this way: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” (Romans 11:6)  See that?  IF it is by grace, it is NO LONGER on the basis of works.  If it were on the basis of works, grace would NO LONGER be grace.  The two are mutually exclusive.  You CANNOT have grace AND works.  This is why grace HAS to be free and it HAS to be a gift; to expect a repayment is to nullify grace. 

Therefore, is it a sign of thankfulness when we attempt to pay back what God has given us?  No!!!!  Instead, we are doing the complete opposite.  We are pouring contempt on the loving intention of God.  It’s insulting, it’s foolish, it’s poor theology, and it’s EXACTLY what Satan wants us to do.  He wants us to picture God as a loan shark.  He wants us to live in fear, guilt, and avoidance.  He wants us to see grace as a loan.

Instead, we must accept the free gift of grace for what it is: a gift.  Only from there can we attempt to follow Christ, not in order to pay Him back, but simply to say thanks for what He has done.  We do this willingly.  We do this joyfully. We do this lovingly.  We do this in His presence.

What a contrast that is as compared to the grace loan.  When we leave our transaction mindset at the door, biblical grace is such a beautiful thing.  Therefore, along with our Heavenly Father, I encourage you to accept His gift of grace.

Faith and "Curiosity"

Have you been following news of NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity?

Last week, Curiosity made an incredible discovery:  definitive evidence that liquid water once flowed on Mars.  The rover sent pictures back that appear to be from an ancient Martian stream bed.  There photos showed gravel that was smoothed by erosion and to large to have been moved by wind.

All in all, these photos aren't earth-shaking.  We know that water exists throughout the universe.  We've observed Mars' polar ice caps and trace ice on our own moon.  Jupiter's moon, Europa, is a vast frozen world.  And comets are essentially massive chunks of rock and ice hurtling through space.  Water, in its frozen state, is something that scientists have observed in relative abundance across the vastness space.

However, for the relatively new field of astrobiology, this discovery is a major boon.  Astrobiology is concerned with the viablitiy of life being established on other worlds and the possibility of a "second genesis", life that occurs independently on other planets.  In both cases, liquid water is fundamental to our understanding of how life works.

When I excitedly relayed this story to my brother, his response was one of concern:  "But wouldn't scientists use this information to prove that life can exist outside of Earth, therefore disproving God?"

My answer was two-fold:  Probably, so what?

I don't think my brother's position is that uncommon among Evangelicals.  Our society has created a situation where we Christians have to choose between two apparently competing narratives.  On one side, traditional Western Christianity dictates that God created the Earth and everything in it in a very specific way across a very specific period of time.  In another narrative, scientists are asking questions about our origins and their discoveries seem to point to a very slow and steady development of the Universe over countless ages.

And I guess my response to this dilemma is... Why choose?

Christianity is about knowing and following Jesus Christ, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  Science, when it is honest and agenda-free, is about discovery and learning the truth about things around us.  At the end of the day, Christianity and science are both about the quest for truth.  The methods may be very different, but the two can be allies in their pursuits.

In fact, throughout history there have been several leading scientists who were also devout believers.  Their awe of God's creation spurred them to delve deeper into nature's mysteries.  Unfortunately, the Church also has an ugly history of resisting scientific revelations.

Several questions arise when you consider this dichotomy.  Why do we Christians challenge scientific developments?  Is it because we are the ones who's faith in God is insecure?  Do we not trust God to be bigger than any new discovery?  Won't science, if it is honest, continue to reveal new things about the nature of God as it studies His creation?  Is it at least possible that our dogmatic approach to certain narratives about God are in fact limiting His scope and character?

To illustrate my point, the Grand Canyon is an awesome geological feature whose formation is debated by fundamental Creationists and traditional geologist.  A "Young-Earth" Creationist's narrative regarding the Grand Canyon would say that God carved it out of rock relatively quickly with a sudden blast of water.  That in one mighty blast God split the Earth asunder leaving behind the distinctive canyon roughly as we see it today.  

The traditional geologist would say that the Grand Canyon was carved from solid stone over eons by an infant Colorado River, then just a trickle water working its way to the ocean.  It could be said that God guided those water molecules as they trickled from their head waters and hewn rock one dust particle at a time.  That He slowly carved one of the most recognizable natural wonders on Earth meticulously over centuries or millennia all while managing billions of other details that would shape the world His children would call home.

Two different stories about one small part of this vast galaxy of wonders that God has set us in.  One reflects God as a being of power and action.  The other describes Him as a patient craftsman.  Which is true?  Only God knows, I guess we'll have to turn to Him for the answers.