Monday, February 21, 2011

Do We Owe God Anything?

There was a question that was asked of me several weeks ago, a question that I had not thought about before. It has made me very curious to see what I could find. That question is “Do we owe God anything?” Many people try to get others to go out on the mission field by saying, “You owe God your life so you should go to the mission field for Him.” This is an interesting statement. Do we owe God anything?

First let’s take a look at a few passages. Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” What is grace? Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. It is by grace that we have been saved through faith. We do not have salvation by doing good works but it is the gift of God. If you give someone a gift are they going to reach into their wallet or purse and pay for the gift. If they did, we would be offended . God gave us a free gift. It was the most expensive gift and there is no need for us to pay Him anything. We do not owe God anything. This is not to say we are not to do good works. In the next verse it says “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” We are to do good works but not for the reason that we owe God for what He has done.

The reason we should be doing good works, that we are to be sharing the gospel, and that we should be going to the mission field is because of our Love for our Savior and because we want to share our Savior with all people. It is not because we owe God anything. Let us look at Paul. In His letters to the Romans, Philippians, and Titus he calls himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ. How is a bondservant different from other servants? There is a big difference. A bondservant is one who worked for his master for a long time and then one day the master told him, he was free. Instead of going away and doing his own thing the bondservant decided to serve his master for life. They would get an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door. Then He would be the master’s servant forever. (Deut 15:12-18) Paul has given His life to Christ and out of his love for his Master has decided to stay with Him and serve Him for the rest of his life. Paul does not do this because he owes Him anything but because He loves His Savior and Master. This should be the attitude of every Christian. We should be willing to do what God wants us to do because we love Him. We should be willing to obey what He commands of us because we love Him, not because we owe Him or because we feel that we have to. I Corinthians 9:16 says “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” We see here that Paul feels obligated to share the gospel. The reason for this is because Christ commanded believers to” Go into all the world and preach the gospel.” (Mark 16:15) Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And in v21a "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” And in v23-24 "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; … He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.” If we love Christ we will follow His commandments and His words. Paul preached the gospel out of love for his Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Father in Heaven. Because of this love, he obeyed Christ’s commandments, which were directly from the Father.

We don’t owe God anything, but if we love Him, we should be willing to give our life to Him. In showing our love for Him, we should be willing to die for Him. Everything we do should be out of love for Him and not because we owe Him. If we love the Lord then we will obey His commandments. That day that Christ, our Savior, died on the cruel cross of Calvary. That day that He was bruised, beaten and scourged. That day that His innocent blood was shed on the cross for you and for me. That day was the day he showed His love for mankind. All that Christ did was as a gift for the whole world, so that those who believed on Him would be saved. Does that not make you want to love your Savior even more? Does that love for your Savior not make you want to tell someone about Him? Do you not want to show your love for Him by obeying what He commands? Every time I think of that day that my Savior died, it brings tears of joy to my eyes for that great gift of salvation He gave to me and I don’t owe Him anything but I love Him for that very reason. I love Him, because He first loved me and that love for Him should be the drive behind everything I do. It should be what separates me from the world that does not love Him and what shows the world that I am a follower of Christ. What is the reason you serve the Lord ? Is it out of love for your Savior or is it because you feel that you owe Him and you need to try to repay Him back? I will leave you with the verse that has been pressing upon my heart. “If you love Me you, will keep My commandments.” John 14:15 (see comment below)

5 comments:

  1. (THIS IS JUST TO CLARIFY IN CASE SOMEONE DOES NOT TOTALLY UNDERSTAND)The whole point of this note is that the reason we serve the Lord should be out of love for Him not because we owe Him for our salvation. Our salvation was a free gift from God. A gift is something that does not need paid for. We should be serving our Savior, because we love Him for what He has done for us not because we feel like we have to nor because we owe Him. We do not owe Him for our salvation if that were the fact of the matter then we would be paying for our Salvation. We should give God glory and praise because we love Him and it is true that is what is due to Him. But If we give Him glory because we feel like we have to then is it done grudgingly or is it done out of Love for Him? Everything we do should be out of love for our Savior not because we feel we have to pay the debt of our salvation that is nonexistent because our salvation is a free gift. There is no debt for our salvation. The price has been paid for our sins. Of course we should be eternally grateful for what He has done for us. But we are eternally grateful because we love our Savior not because we feel like we have to pay a debt to God. Salvation came with no strings attached, as a free gift. But when we gave our life to Christ and decided that we would follow Him that is when we became bond servants and bound ourselves to Him for life. That is when we showed Him our love and in showing Him our love, we show Him that we are eternally grateful for what He has done for us. So the reason we serve the Lord should be out of love for Him and not because we owe Him for our Salvation.

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  2. I concur completely. I love god completely, and thank him for his grace...and the freedom of choice...today the free gift of his salvation and grace is demonstrated thru my love for him and jesus

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  3. We owe our body as a living sacrifice to God. Romans 12:1

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  4. Rom. 12:1 is not a debt, it is a reasonable service. There is a substantial difference.

    Matt. 18:21-35. The debtor was forgiven what he owed. Therefore he owed nothing to his lord. We are forgiven the debt, and therefore owe nothing to our Lord. That is what salvation is all about. Reasonable service aside, we have no debt. We don't owe God anything. Love compels us. We are, however in debt. Continuing reading in the passage we see that we are now bound to our brethren to forgive them. In other words, all the debt that has been forgiven us by our Lord, has put us in debt to give to those who would be our debtors freedom from their debt (Matt. 6:12). Further, Paul found that he was a debtor both to the Greeks, barbarians, wise, and unwise to give them that which was freely given him (Rom. 1:14, Matt 10:8, 2Cor.5:18)

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  5. Rom. 12:1 is not a debt, it is a reasonable service. There is a substantial difference.

    Matt. 18:21-35. The debtor was forgiven what he owed. Therefore he owed nothing to his lord. We are forgiven the debt, and therefore owe nothing to our Lord. That is what salvation is all about. Reasonable service aside, we have no debt. We don't owe God anything. Love compels us. We are, however in debt. Continuing reading in the passage we see that we are now bound to our brethren to forgive them. In other words, all the debt that has been forgiven us by our Lord, has put us in debt to give to those who would be our debtors freedom from their debt (Matt. 6:12). Further, Paul found that he was a debtor both to the Greeks, barbarians, wise, and unwise to give them that which was freely given him (Rom. 1:14, Matt 10:8, 2Cor.5:18)

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