You Get what He Paid for.

"You get what you pay for".  "You have to spend money to make money".  We've probably all heard and believe these well-known market proverbs.  We expect a certain quality according to what we spend.  When something costs more that's usually because it's higher grade, right?  Oftentimes this saying rings true.  We go to the Olive Garden and not the McDonald's when we want higher quality, even though it will cost us more.  However, we seem to think sometimes that the concepts apply outside of the shopping we do.  But there are places they don't belong, especially in relationships.  But we do sometimes put them there.  We apply them to our relationships so that we think "If I invest this into the relationship, they'll invest that."  We may even find ourselves not expecting something from someone because we didn't give them something.  This is not the best way to handle our friends and family.  But there's an even worse place for us to have this mentality than with other people, and that is in our relationship with God.  How often do we find ourselves doubting God's goodness because we couldn't give Him anything, or because we did something we thought made us disqualified for His grace?  I do it.  I think almost everyone doubts God in this way sometimes.  Do we ever find ourselves thinking there must be a catch to God's grace?  I've been guilty of thinking it.  "Oh dear, because I did x or y I'm just not sure if I'm still saved".  We limit God's grace to what we can do, forgetting that He is God.   Today we're going to look at someone who simply believed God,  named Abram (later Abraham), and see what the Apostle Paul had to say about him.

     Abram was getting to be an old man.  In fact, he was a old man.  You see, he had been told by God to leave his home and go to some new place.  He had been given an interesting promise as well.  We read it in Genesis 12:1-4:

"Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”" (NKJV)

     Note the phrase "I will make you a great nation" (v.2).  Abram was well past the age for having kids, but God did not mean to make him a military nation.  No, He meant to make Abram a great nation through his descendants.  Now this seems exceedingly unlikely.  You don't hear of many elderly men like him having more kids, and this was exactly what God was promising Abram.  So what did he do?

"So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan." (Genesis 12:4-5 NKJV)

     Only three chapters later, we see an actual conversation between God and Abram.  It has a statement that I would like to bring special attention to.  In Genesis 15:1-6 we read:

"After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”  And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”  Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. (NKJV, emphasis added)

     Righteousness?  God accounted Abram's belief to him for righteousness?  That's great, but what does it have to do with us?  Well let me zoom a little farther in the Bible into a book called Romans, where the Apostle Paul looks at this story and explains how it affects us.  We pick up what he has to say to us in chapter 4.

"What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?  For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.  For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.  But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,  just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”  (Romans 4:1-8 NKJV)

     Do you see what Paul is saying?  Those who work get paid for their work, but Abraham (by they way, if you noticed the name change, it came from God,) was not like that.  The righteousness Abraham acquired was through belief.  He didn't invest money or strike a deal with God.   In fact, God struck the deal with him and made the deal to rely specifically on God.  As a result, Abraham was  given something that we all need today.  God did not impute sin to Abraham. 

     So what does this have to do with us?  The answer is fairly simplistic.  God followed through on His promises to Abraham, and He will do the same for us.  We need to stop thinking about our investment in our relationship with God.  He cares about our actions, but they do not dictate His.  He will save us.  In fact, let me make your life a little easier.  Every bad thing you do God already saw coming before the creation of the world.  You can't surprise or shock Him.  Paul has more to say a little later in the chapter.

"For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.  For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,  because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression." (Romans 4:13-15 NKJV)

     Do you see what's happening here?  We don't live under an if-then system of our action starts God's reaction.  He remains the same, fickle as we are, and will never change His promises towards us.  We are not under the law of condemnation, but instead the law of grace.

     So what do we do with this?  Simply this:  when we mess up (as we will, daily,) we repent, ask for forgiveness from our Father, and we move on.  He doesn't remember our sins, why should we?

     So God is not treating us like a businessman who expects an investment of a certain perfectness from us.  He does want our hearts, and for us to love Him with all we have.  But He knows we're imperfect.  That's why He died for us!  He loves you too much to be fickle towards you.  He's God, and He doesn't work on the same plane of operation that we do.  In essence, we get what He paid for.  That's how much He loves you.

(NKJV Means New King James Version)