Tuesday, September 11, 2012

When Gratitude Malfunctions - Ch. 2

Let us not say that grace creates debts; let us say that grace pays debts.

Past grace is glorified by intense and joyful gratitude.  Future grace is glorified by intense and joyful confidence.

Faith empowers us for venturesome obedience, it is the source of radical, risk-taking, kingdom-seeking obedience.

It is natural to embrace a mindset of repayment - but the only debt that grace creates is the 'debt' of relying on more grace for all that God calls us to be and do.

Christian obedience is the work of faith, and not the work of gratitude.

If the impulses of gratitude slip over into the debtor's ethic, grace soon ceases to be grace.  If we see acts of obedience as installment payments, we make grace into a mortgage.

We glory in past grace through gratitude, and we bank our future, by faith, on the inexhaustible flow of future grace.



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