Grace and Entitlement

As I write this blog, I am also waiting on the phone with a software development company. I've either been on hold, listening to pleasant music, or have been transfered back and forth between various customer service representatives or technical support representatives.

It's times like these - it really is - when I think upon God's grace in my life. I believe that so often our temptation is to conduct ourselves, especially around those with whom we have little to no personal relationship (i.e. customer service representatives, bank tellers, grocery checkers, waitresses), as if we were entitled to their serving us excellently and without error. Yes, some may argue that the money that we pay entitles us to demand good service. But perhaps more often than not, our Western, affluent, immediate-gratification society draws us towards becoming demanding people who believe we're entitled to have others serve us (even if we're paying for it).

And, by us, I mean even we who profess faith in Jesus Christ as God's gracious provision of salvation to sinful and undeserving mankind. Yes, even we who have embraced grace - and by doing so we are essentially saying that we deserve none of God's abundant blessings - even we find ourselves becoming demanding of others, asserting our sinful sense of entitlement.

When we recognize that we are saved by God's grace, that we are entitled to and deserving of nothing aside from the righteous judgment of a holy God, this ought to change how we deal with others. Believers, if you are grace-based in your salvation, then you ought also to be grace-based in your relations.

And as a result, God's grace demonstrated towards me prompts me to show that same grace to the man who cuts my grass, or the woman who handles my vehicle registration, or the guy who makes my coffee, or the girl who puts me on hold.

Do you make demands as one who feels entitled to do so? Or do you show grace as one who deserves nothing but has received everything in Christ?

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8, NIV)