Entitled To Nothing

Well this is a puch in the nose!  But I needed it..... and you do to. Christian Exile: You Are Entitled to Nothing by Stephen McAlpine

...Christian exile, let me be clear. You are entitled to nothing. You are entitled to nothing.

In Christ you will be given everything, Romans 8:32 tells us so. But what are you entitled to? Nothing.

Jesus himself says so to his disciples:

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

What are unworthy servants who have only done their duty entitled to? Nothing.

What can we bring to the cross of the one who, though entitled to everything, gave it all up for our sakes? Nothing.

A sense of entitlement has a sound. It is not the sound of warfare, but ofwhinefare. An over-preening sense that we are entitled to, if not everything, then at least a good deal of it.

And when such a sense of entitlement is threatened we throw a hissy fit.

And it worries me. Why? Because we are entitled to nothing.

I am not saying we cannot stand up publicly for biblical truth in our culture. The church is a witness to the gospel and a fractured enactment of God’s future kingdom, here and now. But the culture is not the kingdom – yet. Hebrews 12:28 tells us we are “receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken“. But we’re receiving it, not entitled to it. Why? Because we are entitled to nothing.

Our sense of entitlement derives from three decades of prosperity gospel, or an iteration of it that, like a parasite, latched onto the entitlement culture and suckled at its malevolent teat.

This false gospel tells us that it is God’s role, nay his very duty, to ensure that all of the creases in our lives are ironed out.

That our teeth are white. That our car is shiny. That our second car is just as shiny. That our kids are happy. That our retirement is healthy.

Such a gospel is, ironically, an impoverished gospel, no gospel at all.

Then, bloated on this ricin-laced sweetener, we watch as the culture slides away from a Christianised morality framework.

The predictable response is an outraged sense of entitlement; a low grade social-media whine occasionally flaring to hot anger.

Yet we are entitled to nothing. We are entitled to nothing.

Oh, I forgot. We are entitled to something: a godless eternity, cut off from all that is good and the good God whose very presence makes it good.

We are entitled to an eternity of nothing, but here’s the good news: the God who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us, will also give us all things. Because we are entitled to them? No. We are entitled to nothing.

Grace and entitlement cannot co-exist. They are mutually exclusive. Where one exists the other must give ground.

Why are “all things” not enough for us? Why the sense of outrage when the godless culture of entitlement threatens our entitlements? Because we don’t want to wait. We want all things now, we are entitled to them now.

Yet the gospel tells us we are entitled to nothing, past, present and future.

Christian exiles, it’s going to be a tough couple of decades in the West, as the culture turns increasingly hostile towards God’s people. If we are going to thrive joyously in the Babylon of our day, indeed if we are going to be compelling witnesses to a desire nothing else can touch, then the first thing to go must be our strong sense of entitlement. Its a strong sense indeed, but a misplaced one.

I sense that we are so afraid of losing what we believe we are owed, we are blind to the distinct possibility that this is God’s judgement for a culture that has rejected Him, and His refining process for a church that has neglected Him.

And the first step in our refining process may well be acknowledging this:

We are entitled to nothing. We are entitled to nothing.

Proportionate Identity

Saint or sinner? Son or servant? What term best describes our identity as Christians. The answer is all of the above, in balanced proportion. Check out this post from  Terry Johnson

What happens when one or two aspects of our Christian identity get emphasized at the expense of others? What happens when we fail to keep the four central elements (sons, saints, servants, sinners) of our identity in tension with each other? Let’s see. 

Some have made “sons” and “saints” the message of the gospel and have neglected the categories of “servant” and “sinner.” The result has been a strong emphasis on our unchanging security as children of God and our safe status as “holy ones,” righteous in Christ. Many hurting souls have derived great comfort from this constant refrain. Those of “tender conscience,” to use the Puritan term, have found deep consolation in regular reminders of sonship and sainthood.

However, in the absence of an ongoing emphasis on “servant” and “sinner” the result too often has been complacency about duty, service, responsibility, and even about sin.

“Don’t should me,” some preachers have been known to say. “There is nothing that I must do that will make God love me more. There is nothing that I have done that will make Him love me less,” these preachers rightly insist. Yet, they continue, “My Father is always pleased with me and never displeased. He sees me ‘in Christ,’ perfect and complete.“ Consequently, don’t tell me what I need to do. I don’t need to do anything – just bask in grace. When I fail, I’m loved and accepted. When I fall, I am safe and secure. The Christian life is not doing but being, being ‘in Christ.’”

There is a problem with this even in terms of sonship. While fathers don’t love their children more or less according to their performance, they may be more or less pleased according to service and obedience. We are regularly told to do the things with which God is pleased and that He rewards and blesses (e.g. Mt 6:1ff; 2 Cor 5:9; Col 1:10; Eph 5:10). God’s love is unchanging. However, He may be more or less pleased with us, and may be at times quite displeased.

Four Elements of Our Identity

This is REALLY good! (Via: Justin Taylor and Peter Cockrell)

Identity & PerspectiveBy Terry Johnson:

What happens when one or two aspects of our Christian identity get emphasized at the expense of others? What happens when we fail to keep the four central elements (sons, saints, servants, sinners) of our identity in tension with each other? Let’s see.

Some have made “sons” and “saints” the message of the gospel and have neglected the categories of “servant” and “sinner.” The result has been a strong emphasis on our unchanging security as children of God and our safe status as “holy ones,” righteous in Christ. Many hurting souls have derived great comfort from this constant refrain. Those of “tender conscience,” to use the Puritan term, have found deep consolation in regular reminders of sonship and sainthood.

However, in the absence of an ongoing emphasis on “servant” and “sinner” the result too often has been complacency about duty, service, responsibility, and even about sin. “Don’t should me,” some preachers have been known to say. “There is nothing that I must do that will make God love me more. There is nothing that I have done that will make Him love me less,” these preachers rightly insist. Yet, they continue, “My Father is always pleased with me and never displeased. He sees me ‘in Christ,’ perfect and complete.“ Consequently, don’t tell me what I need to do. I don’t need to do anything – just bask in grace. When I fail, I’m loved and accepted. When I fall, I am safe and secure. The Christian life is not doing but being, being ‘in Christ.’”

There is a problem with this even in terms of sonship. While fathers don’t love their children more or less according to their performance, they may be more or less pleased according to service and obedience. We are regularly told to do the things with which God is pleased and that He rewards and blesses (e.g. Mt 6:1ff; 2 Cor 5:9; Col 1:10; Eph 5:10). God’s love is unchanging. However, He may be more or less pleased with us, and may be at times quite displeased.

Beyond this, the larger problem is the emphasis that is being placed on one aspect of our identity (sonship and sainthood) at the expense of the other (servant and sinner). We are called to serve (Rom 12:1,2). I am a son, but I am also a servant. This means that I have the duties and responsibilities of a servant which I am not to neglect.

Moreover, while I am a saint, I am also a sinner. I have not yet arrived. I must “press on,” as the Apostle Paul put it (Phil 3:14). I have not yet been glorified. I am not yet in heaven. I am not in a state of non posse pecare. The dregs of sin that remain can only be overcome by strenuous acts of mortification and vivification, as we have seen. No room is left for complacency.