I became a Christian about the same time I became a Boy Scout and I made the assumption that God grades like the Boy Scout’s do…on a merit system.  Good scouts move up.  Good people go to heaven.

So, I worked toward the day when God, amid falling confetti and dancing cherubim, would drape my badge-laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his eternal kingdom where I would humbly display my badges for eternity.

But some thorny questions surfaced.  How many badges does He require?  How good is good?

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

Unearned. A gift. Our merits merit nothing. Let grace happen. Of all the things you must earn in life, God’s unending affection is not one of them. You have it!

From GRACE