A few days ago I got an email from an author I follow. The this email had a subject line that jolted me to my core.

“We all deserve unconditional grace and forgiveness.”

I literally felt like an electric charge zapped through my body when I read that.

This guy has not once shown any inclination towards God or theology. But I do not think he could have typed a more theological subject line to his email. And terrible theology at that, I might add.

To be clear, he didn’t just make a left turn into spiritual matters.  The point of his email was that as an author, you’ll make mistakes – so forgive yourself, show yourself grace and move on.  And show this same behavior toward others…

Intellectually I understand what he is saying. Making mistakes and recovering from them is a thing. Not just for writers, but for all walks of life.

But I still can’t get over that subject line (and not necessarily in a good way).

What do we deserve?

That’s a question much bigger than how to recover from a mistake in a hobby. It’s much bigger than a decision that leads to a monetary loss, or a waste of time. It’s a big existential question.

We deserve the just deserts of our thoughts and actions.

And in the face of a holy and righteous God, that does NOT equate to “unconditional forgiveness and grace.”

I think saying the words of the subject line out loud is a dangerous act – even if you only mean it in the sense of recovering from a mistake in a hobby.

It’s a short step from that limited application to a general sense that forgiveness and grace are a right or an entitlement. And then you’re 100% wrong.

When the Bible says “the wages of sin is death” – that’s what we deserve. Nothing less than the full wrath of God poured out on our sinfulness.

For Christians, that’s not the end of the story. Through faith we do receive forgiveness and grace – BUT NOT BECAUSE WE DESERVE IT. That’ the important 2nd half of the verse I quoted above.

“But the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

We don’t deserve it in any way. But God’s free gift makes it ours.

Language matters. As a writer I totally lean in on this. What you say and how you say it matter because words frame ideas and ideas lead to beliefs.

I don’t deserve unconditional forgiveness and grace – but I’ve been given forgiveness and enjoy the free gift of grace.

The point here is all this goes back to God. For His glory, He does these things. Not for our glory or our entitlement.

I’ll tell you a secret…  

I haven’t read that email. Only enough to understand where it was going.  But I can’t bring myself to ingest an email that is wrapped in such a spiritually dangerous statement.

How do you run into this kind of spiritual peril in the daily walk of your life? 

I know I’m not the only one who deals with this. Do you recognize dangerous statements when you run into them? Do you reject them and run from them? 

The Bible would call this “Keeping yourself pure”.  Not tainted by false doctrine and the lies of the world.

Consider all the things you hear today.  How many of them are dangerous – or even sneaky in their bad doctrine?

Spiritual food for thought…