Unconvinced: Exploring Faith As A SkepticSample

We live in a world that rewards performance. Answer the test questions right and you pass. Answer them wrong and you fail. Score the most points and you win. Score one less and you lose. There’s no denying that performance matters.

This performance orientation can shape our assumptions about God. When you ask people to describe what they think they have to do to get on or stay on God’s good side, you get a list of behaviors—religious performance. Just about every aspect of life works that way. Why wouldn’t it be the same with God?

Let’s look again at how God forgives our sins. Paul gives us a recap in today’s passage from Ephesians. “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith . . . not by works.” We begin our relationship with God through an expression of faith. But so many of us immediately slip back into judging our worthiness “by works”—by how well or how poorly we’re following the rules. Old habits die hard.

So, how are we supposed to sort out this tension between rules and relationship? After all, every major religion teaches that followers need to keep the rules. But if breaking the rules won’t get us kicked out of God’s family, why even try?

Let’s pretend you get in a fender-bender and the other driver brushes off the incident without filing an insurance claim. Or the guy in line behind you pays for your coffee after you realize you’ve forgotten your wallet. Now imagine if the person who bailed you out said, “I don’t want anything in return. Simply do for someone else what I’ve done for you.” Chances are, you’d immediately look for an opportunity to pay it forward.

With that in mind, consider how John sums up the Christian life. “We love because he first loved us.” We are to behave out of the overflow of our gratitude for how God behaved toward us. We don’t obey to gain anything. We obey because of all we have already gained. We pay it forward. One hundred percent of the “to do’s” in the Christian faith are responses to what God has “to done” for you already.