“You owe me $2.30, Daddy! Can you get it to me by the end of the day?”
I sat there stunned! I was shocked, not that my son had asked me for money, but that he was charging me for something he made for me as a “gift” to show his love and affection for me!
I stood there holding 23 beautifully hand-drawn “letters” my son had made for me out of multicolored construction paper. He had included a hug and a kiss when he handed them to me.
Little did I know that this little street hustler was planning to roll me for some cash. Yeah, that’s my boy! (I’m not proud to write this.)
As I sat there feeling somewhat hurt (he didn’t charge his mother) and taken advantage of, God did what He does best. He took a normal event in my day and made it supernatural. God suddenly spoke to me, and I was impressed with this clear thought:
Omar, that hurt, didn’t it? Imagine how I feel when you think I need you to pay Me back for the salvation and grace that I’ve given you for free!
Wow, I was cut to the heart!
No doubt, you’ve probably done this in your spiritual life, too, haven’t you? Come on, be honest. We’re all friends here. Have you ever felt as though the things you do, or don’t do, are your way of paying God back for all He’s done? That somehow you and I can work our way to Heaven and into God’s good graces? Hey, if we could do that, Jesus wouldn’t ever have had to live perfectly and die for our sins!
The apostle Paul, an ex-murderer and someone who clearly understood and appreciated God’s salvation and grace, wrote this: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8, 9, NLT). Translation: there is nothing we could do to deserve this gift—no matter how good or perfect our thoughts, words, or actions.
F + D = L
So, if Paul reminds us that there’s nothing that we can do but accept God’s free gift of Salvation, how should that show up in our lives?
James, a leader in the early church, and half-brother of Jesus (yes, you read that right!)–clarifies this point and makes it practical to how we should live it out:
“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well’—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, ‘Some people have faith; others have good deeds.’ But I say, ‘How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.’ You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.’ He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works” (James 2:14-26, NLT).
Don’t miss it: James gives us the most important math equation of all: Faith (F) + Good Deeds (D) = Life (L)! So, what does this mean for you and your life? Let me ask the question a different way: based on this information, is there something that you’re not doing that you should start doing; or is there something that you are doing that you should stop doing? Maybe a certain person’s face or situation popped into your head as you were reading this. Yes…you know what I’m talking about. So, what are you going to do about it?
As I tell you so often: take the time to think, pray, consider, and discuss the answer to this question, and then make a plan to make a change—and then act!
Because, at the end of the day, the only thing God wants from us is our obedience—motivated by a loving and thankful heart—not because we’re trying to pay God back for our salvation, but because we’re thankful for our salvation. I’m so thankful that God doesn’t expect me to pay Him back for His perfect life and death for me. Now if I could only figure out how to get my son to feel the same way.
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