Through Christ

2 Corinthians 1:²⁰ “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”

John Piper says, “As sinners, the only thing we deserve is God’s judgment.” And this is a very huge punch. I had to really wrestle with this statement for a long time. Piper says, “As sinners [which we all are apart from Christ], the only thing we deserve is God’s judgment“. So, back to the question, do you deserve the bigger house, spouse, money, and children? If you see things as God sees them, ultimately without Christ we are a mess. You are not entitled to anybody dying for you on the cross. So, if you are standing on entitlement, you cannot hold on to Christ. Outside of Christ the only thing any human being is entitled to is God’s judgment because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But when we come into Christ, through Christ (which we are not entitled to), God makes every other thing available to us. So, through Him, we have the children, spouse, promotion, health, healing, and abundance. We have it all through Christ. And because it is through Christ, we cannot be entitled to it, we can only be grateful for it. We have to take in all, just ingest everything, ruminate on it, and turn it over and over. In the King James Version, it is in Him that all the promises of God are ‘ye and Amen’, it is in Christ. You are not entitled to someone to go and die on the cross for you. The fact that we are saved is something we have to be grateful for.

It is strange to see a Christian that feels entitled. It makes you wonder if the person really knows what it is to be a Christian. If He, God did not withhold His Son Jesus from you and I, through Him He will give us all things. So, if we have access to all things through Christ, how grateful should we be as a people? We really are not entitled to anything. The children of the wealthiest people in the world, use second-hand cars until they are able to buy their own cars. Except maybe it is a gift or maybe a promise of if you get a first class you will get a new car.

But apart from that, when the wealthiest people on earth fly first class or business class, they put their children in economy or in coach. One man said to his son, ‘You are not entitled to anything. That space you call your room, in my house, is not your own. I am loaning it to you. You should be grateful because other children do not have that. You have nothing.’ However, I have seen people travel and their teenage children are seated in business class. You say, ‘But I can afford it.’ Yet, you are destroying those children because they will feel entitled.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the wisdom to make the tough but beneficial decisions for myself and my family, for the grace to bring my children up in the way of the Lord, in Jesus Name. Amen!