Unearned Unmerited Underserved

Unearned! Unmerited! Undeserved?

2/17

To begin with these three words are not in the Bible or Webster’s dictionary, even though we do understand the meaning to be the opposite of their root words; earn, merit, and deserve. They are used often in Christian speak regarding our opportunity for salvation and reconciliation with Father God through the death and resurrection of His Son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They can also be considered synonymous with one another, especially unearned and unmerited. Not so much with undeserved. I can understand the relationship between unearned and unmerited because both refer to being performance based in their root definition, or not, in their opposite. Our opportunity for salvation and reconciliation with God is strictly based on His grace, mercy, and love brought about by His son Jesus Christ when He came bringing the New Covenant of Grace and Truth. Hebrews 8:8-13 & John 1:16-17 We did not have to earn this opportunity in any way, we just have to believe in Him whom He sent. My question is this: why do some of our brothers and sisters insist on telling each other, and the world, that we didn't deserve this opportunity? Did God not create us in His image and does He not love us unconditionally? Genesis 1:27 & 5:1-2. Do we not have the DNA of our creator? Didn't God love us enough to send His son as an atoning sacrifice, once and for all, for all mankind? Hebrews 9:24-28 & 1 John 4:10. I think that God thought we deserved this opportunity for salvation and reconciliation, otherwise why would He ask his one and only son to be a blood sacrifice for us? How could God possibly consider doing this if He did not love us unconditionally and decide we deserve it? He is omniscient, right? All we have to do is acknowledge who and what He, His Son, and the Holy Spirit are, accept and receive Him. These are the conditions required to come into relationship with Him, because He is holy and cannot stand in the presence of sin, but it doesn't mean He loves any of us any less if we don't. I believe He loves us unconditionally wherever we are in our walk, thinks we are deserving of this opportunity, and wants us all to be with Him in eternity someday. John 1:12 & 1 Timothy 2:1-6 & 2 Peter 3:8-9.

1 Corinthians 2:15-16 & 2 Peter 1:3-4

I believe that God's grace is not just a word that we speak to describe what has been done for us or is somewhere out there waiting for us to receive it. God's grace to me is a combination of gifts given to all believers and should be available to others through us. First, and most important is His unconditional love for all of us. We are created in His image as His offspring and after repenting and surrendering our life to Him we become His children. Second, He has forgiven us all our sins and will remember them no more. This forgiveness comes through the blood sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ, who willingly gave His life for this reason on the cross at Calvary. With His sacrifice Jesus brought the new covenant of grace and truth. Also with Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection comes our justification to receive the opportunity for salvation, sanctification, and reconciliation with Father God. After becoming new creations, born again Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us and we start on our journey of sanctification becoming Holy and righteous children of God, acquiring the nature and characteristics of God. This enables us to share this same grace and mercy with everyone we meet and fulfill God's purpose and plan for our life.

I believe that God's grace and mercy offered to us is a gift. Grace and mercy are an open invitation to an opportunity, through repentance and surrender, to receive salvation, forgiveness of sin, and reconciliation with Father God. We understand gift to mean something voluntarily given from one person to another without any required compensation. In this case God's gift to us, and this gift of grace and mercy comes from His love and He feels we are deserving of this opportunity. Ephesians 2:8-10. 1 Peter 4:10

Peace and Love, Pastor Walt Scott

Addendum to the above message written 4/26.

I wouldn’t change a word of the above message as I wrote it at that time. However as time goes by God does add to our knowledge, understanding and wisdom, if we ask. So I do have a few additions to enhance what I now believe is the more accurate meaning of the previous message.

To begin with let’s start with Adam and Eve in the garden. They both walked with God in the Garden and had a very close personal relationship with God. We know that Adam was personally directed by God not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “for you will surely die.” I am assuming that Adam passed this command on to Eve and she did not get it directly from God. Anyway, they both received this word and then were both deceived and that deception caused them to be expelled from the Garden, which led all mankind to be born into original sin. I just wanted to clarify where original sin began and why we carry it at birth today. Every human being on earth came from the family of Adam and Eve. They sinned but because we are their descendants we also carry that sin even though we did not commit the original sin. We inherited it.

However God, through his grace and mercy, gifted us all with the opportunity, through the life and sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ, to be born again. We can be washed clean through the blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross, by acknowledging who he is, what he has done for us, repenting and accepting this and then receiving him into our hearts and minds as our Lord and Savior. This opportunity is the gift of salvation and is just that, a gift. We don’t have to earn it or merit it in any way, otherwise it would be a contradiction to call it a gift. All we need do is acknowledge the opportunity and accept the gift, or not. We are given a free will choice. Gifts are given from the heart and there is no quid pro quo. Most Christians consider this opportunity and gift to be undeserved, to which I highly disagree. I don’t remember reading that in the Bible. If it was undeserved why would God give us this gift? Do we, as human beings give a gift in expectation of something in return? Maybe some of us do, but should we? Mankind’s explanation or opinion is that it is undeserved but I believe God spoke to me and said because of his unconditional love, and by His mercy and grace He gave us the opportunity because He believes we deserve to take advantage of and receive this gift. To think otherwise is once again a contradiction of what a gift is. Mankind's definition sounds and acts like false humility to me but I believe this belief is unintentional because of ignorance or misunderstanding. We are not stupid, we just haven’t understood the reality of this gift, or maybe we are using false humility as a reason or excuse not to respond appropriately to His greatest commandment. Yes we have to be humble before our God and acknowledge our creator and we have to follow the example of Jesus Christ as we walk this place we call earth. Jesus showed us many times what true humility is, but he was never weak in the face of affliction or adversity. He stood tall and proudly pronounced His faith in the face of life's many challenges. He never faltered in bringing us the new covenant of grace and truth. We are called to be followers of Jesus Christ and His example. We are called through that example to stand tall, proud, and courageously share the good news. If we want to bring the lost people of the world to Christian faith we need to look and act like we are strong supporters of our faith in all circumstances and thru all adversity. If we go through life sharing the good news of salvation thinking we never deserved it I believe this promotes a perception of weakness in us to others. People will not follow something or someone that displays weakness and appears frightened when speak the truth. We have to remember as born again believers we have the Holy Spirit of God living within us. We are not weak. We should not be intimidated, embarrassed, afraid or shy about sharing the good news in love and respect. Not to mention being apathetic or complacent. All we need do is rely on God to guide us and then speak and act.

As I stated previously we carry original sin at birth but we didn’t commit this original sin. We inherited it and God gave us an opportunity through his gift of salvation to be washed clean and be born again. We just have to believe. Our faith, trust, obedience and hope rests on our foundation of belief without doubt, and this belief rests on the foundation of unconditional love, and the grace and mercy bestowed on us from Father God because of His love for all mankind.

Love and Peace, Amen

Pastor Walter C. Scott