"Paul continues in Romans 11:35: 'Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?' If everything is God's, you have nothing to give him that he doesn't already own. This means that you cannot put him into your debt. And this means, alternately, that God owes no man anything. Our very existence has been gifted to us by his grace.
While we lament the apparent injustice of pain and suffering, how often do we forget that every good thing in a fallen world is wholly a gift of God's mercy and grace? We think to question God when bridges fall but not to wonder at his grace that every bridge does not. Every fit of laughter, every delectable morsel of food, and every single smile is a result of his mercy and grace; he owes none of it.
Now let me tell you why this is so terrifying. If this is true, we have nothing with which to negotiate with him, nothing to bargain with. But it has been my experience that most evangelicals believe Christians are in a bargaining position. We carry an insidious prosperity gospel around in our dark, little, entitled hearts. We come to the throne and say, 'I'll do this, and you'll do that. And if I do this for you, then you'll do that for me.'
In the end God says, 'You keep trying to pay me off with stuff that's already mine.' Some of us even try to bargain with our lives. But God says, 'Please. I'll take that life if I want it. I'm God.'
We presume upon our service. 'I'll serve you, God!' we say. But he replies, 'I'm not served by human hands as though I need anything (Acts 17:25). What are you going to do, give me something to eat? What are you going to do, paint my house? What are you going to give me, as if I'm lacking?'
The profitable result in these exchanges is the revealing of idolatry and pride within us. We want to live as though the Christian life is a 50/50 project we undertake with God, like faith is some kind of cosmic vending machine. And we're reinforced into this idolatry by bad preachers, by ministers with no respect for the Scriptures, by talking heads who teach out of emotion instead of texts, who tickle ears with no evident fear of the God who curses bringers of alternative gospels (Galatians 1:8-9). He owes us nothing.
And we have nothing to give to him that he doesn't already own outright.
The customary response to this, of course, is to ask about the place of following God and serving his cause. There is plenty of call for this in the Bible. But the reality is that all God has to do is reveal himself to you, and you'll gladly join the mission in service to his kingdom. He doesn't force the issue; he just has to reveal himself as he is: mighty, wondrous, gracious, loving and radically saving. No man goes back to saltine crackers when he's had filet mignon.
And even this truth is further revelation of God's grace, because it shows that God doesn't need us; rather, he wants us. When we who call ourselves Christians realize how utterly self-sufficient God is all within himself -- the three in one -- the gift of Christ to us and for us becomes all the more astonishing. And we will want it that way. Because a God who is ultimately most focused on his own glory will be about the business of restoring us, who are all broken images of him. His glory demands it. So we should be thankful for a self-sufficient God whose self-regard is glorious."
- Matt Chandler
from: http://www.amazon.com/Explicit-Gospel-Re-Lit/dp/1433530031/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378416614&sr=1-1&keywords=the+explicit+gospel
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