Some of your passengers may be on extravagant vacations because they saw a billboard on a highway showing some distant beautiful place and saying, in huge capital letters, “YOU DESERVE IT.” They look at their “good works” lives and say “Yes, I do!” But do they?
Telling someone who does not yet know the Lord that they “deserve” a good job or spouse, or a nice home comes very naturally to us. It is our way of expressing personal regard and respect. But it does not do the recipient any good. It certainly does not help them to understand the grace of God and it may well hinder such an understanding.
How can they grasp the idea of “unmerited favor” in salvation when we are implying that such favor, like everything else, is earned by their actions?
In our good intentions, we are only giving people desperately in need of spiritual humility a reason for pride and an accompanying sense of entitlement.
“As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one…” -Romans 3:10 (ESV)
