The Value of Grace

I recently read Atlas Shrugged by Ayne Rand. A very good book. I highly recommend it. Without giving any of the story away, the book discusses the nature of wealth. It very much favors a free market and excoriates the redistribution of wealth. That rang true.

The Bible explicitly talks about redistribution of wealth...

You shall not steal - Exodus 20:15

You shall not covet your neighbor's house. - Exodus 20:17a

"Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!" But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave. - Proverbs 9:17-18

The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them. - Proverbs 12:6

Okay, so the world works correctly when we trade value for value. How does salvation (grace) fit into that? Isn't the point of grace that we can't ever repay it - that we are not worthy - we have no value to trade? If giving something for nothing hurts the recipient, and God's grace does not hurt us, how can we receive it for nothing?

I first thought that maybe our obedience is payment. God expects obedience, and forgives our failures as part of His grace. A friend rightly pointed out that this would lead to the heresy of works based salvation. We definitely do NOT want to go down that road. Salvation is wholly God's work (solo gratia).

Maybe I approached the question incorrectly? I assumed that receiving something for nothing is harmful. What if the harm isn't the act? My friend explained that our obedience stems from gratitude. We obey because God gave us something of great value. The love and justice we mirror (created in His image) beget a response of gratitude. And God has made clear in His word that He wants our obedience as an expression of that gratitude.

What if someone were to remain ungrateful for God's gift? Is that even possible? Well, no. The act of salvation renews our spirit. The process of sanctification - which begins then - makes our heart more like Christ's. Jesus and the Father are one - the same. We respond with justice and love because those are attributes of God. You must respond in gratitude because of who you are - a living reflection of God's image.

Proverbs 12:10 says that "a righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." An act is a physical thing. You do something, and everyone can see what you do. The nature of the giver and recipient are spiritual - you can't see or measure it. Their nature determines the effectiveness of a gift. A person with a wicked nature can perform kind acts that still result in harm. The spiritual result comes from the spiritual source - the nature of the giver.

So are the senators and congressmen calling for more government benefits righteous or wicked? Wise or foolish? Because their nature determines the results. Even the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. It doesn't matter if your representative agrees with your political stance. Their nature - their character - weighs far more heavily.

Back on topic... God changes our nature. We were dead in sin. He makes us alive. He begins the process of turning our hearts more like Christ. His nature and our nature make the gift effective. God does not willy nilly throw His gift into the sea of humanity. He picks and chooses. And in so doing, makes us valuable. Let me be clear - our value comes entirely from God. He makes us valuable, and then gives us a gift because of our value to Him. Wow.