The Debtor's Ethic

Today I started reading the book Future Grace by John Piper (one of the greatest theologian/pastor to have walked on this earth). There are 31 chapters in the book and I am going to try and blog each day over the chapter that I read. In this book he shows that justifying faith is also sanctifying faith. This means that the faith that has declared us righteous in God’s sight will also continue to sanctify us until the day we are in the presence of Jesus himself. Unfortunately many believers do not understand this and they become frustrated and confused. One of the problems is that they are that they are continually looking into the past instead of looking forward into the future grace of God. Piper is trying to help fellow Christians understand how they can live the Christ-exalting life that God desires them too. If you are a believer and you want to grow in your walk with God, first read the Bible, pray, join a church, get connected, and read books from authors like John Piper. I hope I have said enough to whet your appetite. (I also pray that me writing these upcoming blogs will not prevent you from the purchase of this book but I simply wanted to share my thoughts as I journeyed through this book.)

Chapter 1: The Debtors Ethic
Gratitude is a spontaneous joyful response we have when we receive something. However, because of sin we have the tendency to twist and distort gratitude into something it was never intended to be. When we do this we often feel as though we are now in someone’s debt and we must somehow pay them back. When this occurs with our relationship with God, it completely distorts His gift of grace and leaves us trying to pay back the God that created everything with a word. Now gratitude is not a bad thing, after all God does command gratitude.

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.”

Psalm 50:23 says, “he who offers a sacrifice with thanksgiving honors Me.”

The problem occurs when we think we “owe” God something, when we thing we need to “pay him back.” When looking at the Old Testament God’s people are never said to have sinned because of ingratitude but because of their lack of faith.

Numbers 14:11 says, “How long with they not believe in me despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?”

Psalm 78:15,17,22 says, God “split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them abundant drink…yet, still they continued to sin against Him…because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.”

Our response to God’s past actions should prompt us to continue to delight in Him and look forward to His future actions knowing that He is all sufficient and that He will never deplete His resources. “To fear the Lord is to tremble at the awareness of what a terrible insult it is to a holy God if we do not have faith in his future grace after all the signs and wonders he has performed to win our obedient trust. It’s this faith in future grace that channels the power of God into obedience” (pg 36).

Psalm 50:12-13 says, “if I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all it contains. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of male goats?” What God was saying here is that you cannot pay me back. God owns everything he already owns your payments which this alone shows how hopeless and insulting it would be to think we could pay Him back.

“In sum we can say that true gratitude does not give rise to the debtor’s ethic because it gives rise to faith in future grace. With true gratitude there is such a delight in the worth of God’s past grace, that we are driven on to experience more and more of in the future” (pg. 39).