(originally written in August 2001)
God’s grace is an overflow resulting from the very nature of who and what He is. None of us is properly adapted to survive in God’s world. Left to our own devices, we would perish in our hopeless ineptitude. God has provided eternal life, that is, the resources to survive in His world, to all who are willing to receive it.
Think of it like this: When an inventor creates a new invention, there are all sorts of additional benefits to society above and beyond the invention, that come as a result of the invention. These are a natural overflow resulting from the very nature of his work. He does not provide them because he is motivated by any sense of duty toward his fellow man. Nor does he provide them because people pay him; they only pay him for his invention; that is all they can pay him for. Any attempt to pay for anything more than the invention itself would be either bribery or extortion. He provides them because he enjoys creating his invention and doing the work required to create it. His invention’s benefit to others is strictly a secondary consequence. He is glad that others benefit from his invention, and he is perfectly willing to let them benefit from it, but they are not, and cannot be, his prime concern.
In the same way, the benefits of God’s grace are a consequence of God being who and what He is, but strictly a secondary consequence. God does not give us grace because He is motivated by any sense of duty toward us, as if we are the sole motivation for Him to be who and what He is. (There’s a big irony here. There is much talk about selfless devotion to God (i. e. “It’s all about you, Jesus, …not about me, as if you should do things my way…”), but underneath it all is the smug self-assurance that God has already given Himself selflessly to us, that His sole motivation for giving grace lies in us. This results in an endless circle and total equality–a “train dance” if you will–of each person having no ambitions or desires of his own but to satisfy the ambitions and desires of his neighbor, who has no ambitions or desires of his own but to satisfy the ambitions and desires of his neighbor, etc…–all around the world. And God is no better than any of us, because He’s in on it too!!) Nor is God motivated by any payment we might bring, because it is not possible to pay for anything that is strictly a secondary consequence.
God’s sole motivation is His enjoyment of Himself, and His desire to be who and what He is. There are consequences to that–salvation for all who are willing to receive it–and God is perfectly willing to allow it. But that is not His chief aim.
So what is the proper response to God’s grace?
When a person chooses to live off the overflow of the talents of his betters, he must live by their standard. He is not free to demand that they live and work according to his standard, with his need and his satisfaction as their end. Instead, he must leave them free to live and work as they please, knowing that he will benefit, and that that benefit will be far greater than anything he could have done for himself.
God’s grace is the overflow of Him being who and what He is. Salvation for all who are willing to receive it is a service which He is perfectly willing to provide. What does He ask in return? Nothing but freedom. Freedom to be who and what He is, to operate as He pleases, by His standards–not ours. Unfortunately, that is a price which many people choose to reject as too high. Most people have reduced God to the level of a cosmic bellhop whose sole purpose for existence is the meeting of our needs and desires. If we do certain things in a certain way, then God is required to respond in a certain way.
In some churches there is the idea that faith is a force, that words are the containers of that force, that words spoken in faith have a mystical, creative power to which even God himself is subject. If your faith is strong enough, you can speak into existence whatever you desire, and God must respond.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, there is the Catholic system of things. All Catholics believe and are required to believe that at a certain point in their liturgy, when the priest utters a certain prayer, the bread and wine that are used for communion become the actual body and blood of Christ. Never at any point does the character of the priest offering the prayer come into question, nor does the question of why any mortal, sinful man should think that he can summon God to do his bidding merely by uttering a ritual prayer. All that matters is that the prayer is said, in the words and manner prescribed by the liturgy, and the deed is considered to be done.
An example from my own life: I wanted to believe that those who honor God would be blessed and honored. In Deuteronomy it says that those who honor God would be the head and not the tail, the lender and not the borrower, etc., while those who dishonored God would be the tail and not the head, the bottom and not the top. The alien among you shall rise higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower. I work in a job where for years I was the tail and not the head, the bottom and not the top. I watched as people who despised the name of God and cared nothing for the things of God rose higher and higher above me, while I sank lower and lower. This caused me to become angry with God at times, and at times to question the quality of my own devotion to the things of God. Now I am coming to the place where I realize that I must let God be God in my life. If I allow Him to operate by His standards, there will be benefits. My situation may not change–it may never change–but if God is God in my life, then there will be benefits, and it will be far better than anything I could have done for myself.
When a person chooses to live off the overflow of the talents of his betters, as he enjoys the benefits of their work, he must give them at least a moment’s silent gratitude for doing more for him than he could have ever done for himself. But in the case of God, because of who and what He is and also the nature of our condition, namely that we are unfit to exist in His world and without His intervention would perish in our hopeless ineptitude, the proper response is more than just a moment’s silent gratitude. It is an all-consuming, passionate reverence and devotion that reaches down to the very roots of our souls.
Unfortunately, most people lack the capacity for this sort of devotion. They do not have the capacity for reverence or for taking things seriously. They do not hold anything to be serious, sacred, profound, or immensely important to them. There is nothing absolute in them, nothing that can inspire in them any sort of passionate reverence or devotion. Instead, they take all things lightly, easily, pleasantly, and indifferently, as if they can have it or not, claiming nothing as an absolute necessity. They are too small and weak to feel with all their soul–and they disapprove of all such feeling. They are too small and low for a loyal, profound reverence, and they disapprove of all such reverence. They are too small and profane to know what sacredness is, and they disapprove of anything being too sacred. They despise anything that can’t be taken with a snickering little sense of humor. So they preach that a sense of humor is an unlimited virtue and that one must not take things too seriously. They say things like:
“You have taken yourself too seriously.”
“It’s the little things that count.”
“Just relax. Nothing is that important.”
(Any of these sound familiar?)
“It won’t make any difference five years from now.”
“Don’t take yourself so seriously. It’s only life after all.”
“Don’t bother trying to do anything big in life, because life is only made up of little things.”
“It isn’t good to be brilliant, because the brilliant ones always wind up insane.”
In so doing, they destroy their capacity for reverence–because one doesn’t reverence with a giggle.
In sum, the response which God’s grace, by its very nature requires of us is a ruthless, absolute, uncompromising, passionate reverence and devotion. Anyone who wishes to live under the grace of God must live by God’s standards, not his own. This means leaving God free to be who and what He is, to operate by His own standards. It also means not treating God lightly, easily, or indifferently, as if we can have Him or not. The reality of our situation is that God is an absolute necessity, and we must treat Him as such.
