Grace and Earning Your Way Into Heaven

Grace

"Nothing you can do can make God love you more; nothing you can do can make God love you less."

We live in a world full of ungrace. It is so instilled in us that we earn our rewards, that we instinctively think of earning our heavenly reward. If we are indeed saved by grace, then what is the point of doing good, if not to earn our heavenly reward?

After today's Sunday Discussion Group, I started to think, not of answers, but of questions.

When your kids were little and they became hungry, did you feed them?

Did you feed them because, if you did not, the state would declare you to be a negligent parent and put you in jail?

Or, did you feed them because if you did not, they would start to cry, and that would be really, really annoying?

Or, did you feed your kids, so your neighbors would say what a good parent you are?

Or, did you feed them because it gave you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside?

Or did you feed them only when they were good and lovable, and refuse to feed them when they were bad or irritating?

Or, did you fed them because it was a good thing to do and would help you earn your place in heaven?

Or, did you feed them just because they were hungry and they needed to be fed?

So why do any good thing to earn your way into heaven?

Did Jesus die on the cross because he needed to earn his way into heaven?

Or did he die on the cross so that his followers could go into heaven?

Or did he die on the cross so that all mankind, even those who lived their entire lives not even aware of Jesus' existence, could be saved?

Could it be that the purpose of doing good is not to benefit the doer, but to benefit the receiver?

If we are the beneficiaries of God's unconditional love and grace, then is not the question of doing good to earn our heavenly reward irrelevant?

One of the philosophers (I think it may have been Descartes), after pondering existence, came to the conclusion "I think; therefore I am."
Perhaps the lesson of grace is "I am capable of doing good for others in need; therefore I do."