Learn This: You Simply Can't Earn This

I sat in a small group of educators as we discussed school experiences.  Our conversation lingered on teaching students through dialogue and open-ended questions rather than through a transmission model.  "Do you think any of your students will have trouble with the fact that you aren't looking for one right answer?  Can you think of kids like that?" the professor probed.  I candidly replied, "I am that student.  I just want to know what the assignment is, what's expected, and then I'll do it well."  Thus, the story of my life, my motivations, and the inner workings of my brain.  The unknown and blurry edges aren't comfortable, yet give me the specifications and expectations and I will work ravenously to achieve and earn the grade, a good evaluation, the approval.  "Just believe you can achieve!" the old saying goes.  As we read Scripture, we are clearly reminded that life simply doesn't work that way.

Don't get me wrong, many people believe that they just have to do the right things.  Follow the golden rule, don't lie too much, and drop some change in the Salvation Army bucket on the holidays.  Check, check, and check.  You just have to be a good person, right?  I suppose that this works-based model of salvation would be a decent system if we could do it, but we can't.  Not even close.  Give me a short amount of time after my feet hit the floor in the morning and I've already failed.  I am once again reminded that I am a sinful human, I am imperfect, and that I cannot make a way for myself nor earn my righteousness.  If God were in the business of issuing report cards, I'd deserve a big old red F stamped across the page.

Praise God that even before Adam and Eve first sinned, He already was making provisions for His sons and daughters.  He planned to send Jesus into the world to take on flesh and live the perfect, sinless life that you and I cannot.  Christ submitted Himself to death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to bear the judgment and wrath that we rightfully deserve.  Three days later, He rose victoriously having conquered sin and death!  For those who place their faith in Jesus Christ and submit their lives and hopeless strivings to Him, we are saved by His blood.  United with Him, we are accepted because we get to claim His righteousness as our own.  Yet we didn't earn it, not even for a millisecond.  It's like failing miserably, but your report card boasts an A+.


This reminds me of the words spoken to the Israelites after God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and had fulfilled His promise to give them their inheritance of the Promised Land.  I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them.  You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. (Joshua 24:13)  In Christ, I too am living in a promise and saving grace that I did not labor for nor did I construct.  Like His people, I get to taste the sweetness of His love and reap the glory of His presence because He is such a good, loving, and extravagant Savior.

How can I possibly respond to such an incredible gift?  What can I give, for surely He needs nothing that I have to offer?  Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. (Joshua 24:14a)  Praise Him that I don't have to begin each day trying to maintain my salvation.  No, His work was sufficient and complete.  However, out of the overflow of my thankfulness and adoration for His saving grace, I am called to revere Him.  My heart overflows in such a way that I continually call Him Lord of my life and that I strive to bring glory to His name alone.  May I grow in my service to Him and become an increasingly faithful servant of the one true God.

Learn this...you simply can't earn this.  We are the creation of One who is infinitely more holy and glorious than any human being's striving.  But treasure this truth: He has built a bridge to cross the chasm between our sin and His perfection, and His name is Jesus Christ.

I surely don't deserve this.  I've done nothing to earn Him, but He is mine.