GOSPEL NUGGETS
Romans 11:35: “....WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN?”
The answer to the question of course is "No one!" Who in the universe did ever put God under obligation to him? Let's apply this principle to salvation.
Does God save a sinner because he has done something for God that makes God under obligation to save him?
Is there such a sinner that gave so much good works to God that God had to pay him back with salvation? Can man really put God in debt with man as the creditor? Is it really possible that the infinite source and owner of everything can actually become a debtor to anyone?
Tell me what has man given to God that did not originally come from God Himself in the first place? Is it really possible that a depraved sinner can give something to a holy God that a holy God becomes indebted to him?
When you do good works, when you obey God’s commands, when you do His will, when you pray to God, when you worship God, do you really think that you are doing these things for God’s benefit and welfare? Have you not realized that it is instead the other way around?
Deut. 6:24 says: “…the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for OUR GOOD ALWAYS and for our survival, as it is today.”
God does not owe us anything at all. Instead, we owe everything to God, including our very selves. Even our very ability to give comes from Him. This question shuts out all human merit. This verse closes the doors on gaining salvation by good works and law-keeping as many people believe.
All are sinners, and so all must look up to God, expecting to receive from Him, as an act of His mercy and not as a repayment of a debt which God owed to us.
Salvation is not a payment made by God to us. God is no debtor to any sinner or any other spiritual criminal. It is freely given by God to those who trust in the Savior at the expense of what Christ did on the cross when He died for sinners.
