May four, a dangerous motive, who has given a gift to God that he might be repaid,

for from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever,

Romans 11, 35 and 36. When it comes to obedience, gratitude is a dangerous motive.

It tends to get expressed in debtors terms. For example, look how much God has done for you.

Shouldn't you out of gratitude do much for him? Or you owe God everything that you are and have.

What have you done for him in return? I have at least three problems with this kind of motivation.

First, it is impossible to pay God back for all the grace he has given us.

We can't even begin to pay him back because Romans 11, 35 and 36 says,

who has given a gift to God that he should be repaid answered nobody.

For from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever.

We can't pay him back because he already owns all that we have to give him,

including all our efforts. Secondly, even if we succeeded in paying him back for all his grace to us,

we would only succeed in turning grace into a business transaction.

If we can pay him back, it was not grace. If someone tries to show you a special

favor of love for having you over for dinner and you end the evening by saying you will pay them

back by having them over next week, you nullify their grace and turn it into a trade.

God does not like to have his grace nullified. He likes to have it glorified, Ephesians 1, 6, 12, 14.

Thirdly, focusing on gratitude as a motive for obedience tends to overlook the crucial

importance of having faith in God's future grace. Gratitude looks back to grace received

in the past and feels thankful. Faith looks forward to grace promised in the future whether

five minutes from now or five centuries from now and feels hopeful. Faith is the assurance of

things hoped for Hebrews 111. This faith in future grace is the motive for obedience that preserves

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