Monday, October 22, 2018
623 - 'O' is (not) for 'You OWE Me'
Spirituality Column #623
October 23, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
‘O’ is (not) for ‘You
OWE Me’
By Bob Walters
“For it is by grace
you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
I heard a
great line on Moody Radio last week that fueled several thoughts.
Moody
Church Pastor Emeritus Erwin Lutzer was preaching on Jesus’s familiar Parable
of the Prodigal/Lost Son (Luke 15). Of the
story’s “older” son – the one who complained that he was more deserving and berated
his father’s loving, lavish reception celebrating the return of the wandering,
“prodigal” younger son – Lutzer noted: “It is possible to be busy in the
Father’s work and still not share the Father’s heart.”
All I could
think was, “Bing-O!” The older son was spitefully
and self-centeredly insisting that his own non-rebelliousness deserved to be
celebrated far more than the return of his sin-laden brother; that his father
“owed” him that. But the older brother’s
error here – the “O” in Bing-O, if you will, isn’t so much in what the son felt
he was owed; it was the unloving nature of his obedience. God is gracious, yet
we keep score.
A couple years ago in the casual
spirit of post-church, on-the-way-to-Sunday-lunch chatter among Christian friends
with my wife Pam and another, younger couple in the car, the other wife floated
the following question as an innocuous conversation starter: “When would you
say was the last time you were obedient to God?”
I – I … stammered. I couldn’t answer, not really. My wife couldn’t answer, not really. We stammered some more, looked at each other,
and never did come up with anything that we thought was a satisfactory example. The question wasn’t meant as a legalistic
throw-down, one-upmanship, or to hurt anybody’s feelings, but we had nothing
approaching a solid answer.
Later, on our own, my wife and I
re-visited the question and came to the eye-opening and faith-affirming
realization that we never think about “being obedient” in a way that keeps
score, makes a list, or, as in the case of the prodigal son’s older brother,
builds an account to recite. We don’t do
it with each other, and certainly not with Jesus.
The peril of closely monitored Christian
“obedience” is of closely calibrated boasting about it. Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians 13 that
love doesn’t boast, and it clearly ruins the divine “obedience” mojo if
obedience is ever a list instead of love.
Chesterton notes that the hardest
thing to explain is something that you believe thoroughly, so I can’t explain
obedience. Lutzer noted in his sermon
that our own merit adds nothing to God’s grace, so merit is meaningless. Paul, in the verse above, covers grace,
faith, works, and boasting, so we must never be envious of the Father’s love
for our brothers and sisters. God loves us all, deals in grace, and owes no
one.
“Prodigal,” interestingly enough,
means both “wasteful” and “lavish.” So
despite my sins that waste parts of my life, I also know I have a lavish and “prodigal”
Father who doesn’t think I owe Him anything; He is simply yearning to share His
infinite love. So…
Let’s treasure God’s grace as the unfathomable
gift it is, share His loving heart, trust the truth of Jesus, rejoice instead
of boast, and let “O” be for “O, how wonderful!”
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) offers these audio links to Lutzer’s Moody
Radio broadcasts of Oct. 18-19, 2018 - Lutzer Prodigal 1, Lutzer Prodigal 2. Good stuff.
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