▶︎ AS A CHRISTIAN, YOU’RE “ENTITLED” TO… WHAT? ?
“I’m just standing on all the promises of God!” you sing. And who told you that all the promises of God were to YOU PERSONALLY?
The vast majority of God’s Bible promises were to OTHER individuals or OTHER groups. They were CONDITIONAL covenants in which God says, “If you do this, this, and this, then I’ll do that, that, and the other. BUT if you DON’T, I WON’T. Instead, I’ll bring in the Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, Arabs, Muslims, Nazis, and the United Nations.”
“But that was the Jews. I’m a CHRISTIAN, and Christians have BETTER promises,” you mechanically recite. And by “better,” you mean like scourging & crucifixion or being boiled in oil or sawn in two or pulled apart by horses or thrown to lions or covered in pitch & set afire as the original “Roman candles” to light their feasts?
“No! I’m a MODERN-DAY Christian!” you proclaim. And by “modern-day,” you think that means you’re ENTITLED to the American Dream and health & longevity and a storybook marriage and adorable & adoring children and maybe even a winning lottery ticket?
? As a sinner, you and I are “ENTITLED” to death, Hades, and the Lake of Fire.
? Anything better than those are GRACE, and grace is “UNMERITED FAVOR.”
? “UNMERITED” cancels out “ENTITLED” — for all time.
There’s absolutely no way for us to atone for even ONE sin, much less all of our many sins, or to earn our way to Heaven. Jesus is the ONLY ONE who could ever forgive us, save us, and provide us eternal life.
Therefore, we should live lives of profound GRATITUDE, not pampered entitlement. Should we be blessed to escape death at the rapture, to escape 1,000 years in Hades, and to escape the Second Death in the Lake of Fire, that’s much more than we could ever deserve!
◉ GOD DOESN’T OWE US ANYTHING, BUT WE OWE HIM EVERYTHING!
Live accordingly — whatever your lot.
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Jimmie Douglas
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