No grace, no gratitude

We often look for practical tips on how to be grateful. They're useful, but they usually just make us polite. Saying "thank you" is good manners, and every believer should be as polite as possible. Gratitude, however, goes deeper: it has a root, and that root is the grace of the Lord.

The main text is 1 Corinthians 15:9-10. Paul calls himself the least of the apostles, not even fit to be called an apostle, because he persecuted the church. Even so, he says that by the grace of God he is what he is, that this grace was not without effect, and that he worked harder than all of them, yet not he, but the grace of God that was with him.

Jesus preached the Kingdom and lived out grace: He is the grace of God revealed (Titus 2:11). Paul lived the Kingdom and preached grace. From this text I want to share five insights into what grace does in us.

1. Grace reveals your identity

Who you are in God is defined by how much grace you understand you have received.

1.1 The sinful woman and the Pharisee

Jesus was having dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee when a sinful woman began to weep at His feet, anointing them and wiping them with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Simon thought that if Jesus were a prophet, He would know who was touching Him. So Jesus told the parable of the two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty, and both were forgiven. Which one would love more? The one who was forgiven more.

Simon didn't wash Jesus' feet, didn't kiss Him, didn't anoint His head. The woman did everything she could. Why? Because she was aware of the bottomless pit she was in. The Pharisee, in his religious pride, thought he wasn't there. Jesus left Simon's house and Simon received no grace at all. The woman received everything.

1.2 The more aware of the fall, the more grace you receive

Paul matured in this understanding: he came to call himself the worst of sinners. Whoever thinks they have no problem doesn't receive the solution.

Don't keep a ledger of sin by comparing yourself to others.
We're all in the same pit of the old nature.
Whoever thinks they're less of a sinner receives less grace, because they think they need less.

An unbeliever hearing the gospel for the first time may receive more grace than someone with fifty years in church who still thinks they have good deeds to present to God.

2. You don't deserve anything: grace gave you everything

When you look for merit, you don't find grace. God's Kingdom is not a meritocracy. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). What we deserved was death.

We grew up learning to "earn it": clean your plate and you get dessert. We carry that into life and even into our relationship with God: "It's been so long since I prayed that I don't even deserve for Him to speak to me."

But think about it: the most important thing in your life is your salvation. What did you do to deserve it? Nothing. So why live trying to earn everything else?

The culture of merit also wounds relationships. Someone who grew up thinking they have to earn love comes to believe they don't deserve to be loved. What heals that is understanding grace.

3. The gift is grace, and it reaches your whole life

Grace isn't only about prayer and Bible reading. It rests on your work, your family, your plans. God wants to give things that no effort and no merit could ever reach, but we often block it because we want to earn it, and whatever we received would turn into pride.

God's plans are bigger than yours. Moses said he wasn't a good speaker. Elijah hid in a cave. Grace sometimes makes us uncomfortable and goes against our will.

Jesus asked: which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? (Matt 7:9-11). God isn't stingy. He didn't promise wealth to everyone, but He is a good Father who wants to give good things to His children. He works with grace, not with merit.

4. The response to grace is effort

This is where our heads get tangled: "If it's grace, I don't need to make an effort." But Paul says grace was not without effect because he worked harder than all of them. Without effort, grace is wasted.

4.1 Reward, not merit

There is a reward for effort: whoever plants, harvests.
But there is no merit: sometimes you plant and circumstances don't let it grow.
Grace multiplies your effort: you plant one seed and God grows a forest.

4.2 Gratitude for what you've already received

Effort is a response to the grace you have already received, not to the grace you're still hoping for. You don't work from reasons to be grateful, but from truths: God saved you.

David refused to receive the threshing floor and the oxen for the sacrifice for free: he would not offer the Lord something that cost him nothing (2 Sam 24:24). Faith without deeds is dead (James 2:17-18). The sinful woman spent her perfume, set aside her own dignity, and let her hair down in public. Grace that is understood is grace expressed with effort.

5. Humility is the right understanding of grace

You can't be proud and grateful at the same time. The proud person is self-sufficient and thinks they already have what they deserve. Paul calls us to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5), and Jesus said: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart" (Matt 11:29).

The more we understand grace, the more humility settles in the heart, the more gratitude fills the soul, and the more effort the body will put into celebrating what we've already received.

Conclusion

The measure of your gratitude is the measure of your understanding of grace. When you understand what you became by grace, what you truly deserved, and the gift you received, you respond with intense effort and a deeply grateful heart.

In what area of your life are you still trying to earn what God wants to give you by grace?