There is a system of grace—a comprehensive, God-designed order that governs salvation, service, and reward. This is not a vague or sentimental notion. Grace is the very structure by which God deals with His people, and it stands in direct opposition to the world’s ingrained, law-based, merit-driven mindset.
The Universal Problem: The Religion of Merit
By nature, we are drawn to systems that promise reward for effort. This is not a minor quirk of human psychology; it is the foundation of every major religious system outside the gospel—karma, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, and countless others. All of them are built on the premise: you get what you earn. This is the default setting of fallen humanity, and it is fundamentally opposed to the way God operates.
This obsession with merit is not neutral. It is the root of our pride, our striving, and our constant anxiety about our standing before God. It is the very impulse that leads us to imagine we can obligate God, that we can put Him in our debt through our performance. When we import this thinking into our understanding of salvation or reward, we do violence to the gospel itself.
Grace: The System that Offends Human Pride
Grace is not merely God’s willingness to overlook our failures. It is His sovereign decision to dispense salvation, service, and reward according to His own generosity—not according to our effort, merit, or strength. This is why grace is so offensive: it strips us of all grounds for boasting. It ensures that the glory belongs to God alone.
Consider the parable of the eleventh-hour laborers. Those who worked only one hour received the same wage as those who bore the burden and heat of the day. The long-working laborers grumbled, declaring it unfair. But the vineyard owner replied:
“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” (Matthew 20:15)
This is the scandal of grace. The reward is determined not by the laborer’s toil, but by the master’s goodness. The system is designed so that no one can claim credit, and all must acknowledge the generosity of the Giver.
What Is Lost If We Reject the Grace System?
If we refuse this system—if we cling to a law-based, merit-driven approach—we do not merely adopt a different “emphasis.” We forfeit the very heart of the gospel. We undermine justification by faith, nullify our inheritance as sons, and turn service into slavery. We rob God of His glory and attempt to enthrone ourselves as the arbiters of what is “fair.” The moment we demand wages from God, we abandon the ground of grace and place ourselves under a curse (Galatians 3:10).
The Glory of God’s Generosity
God’s grace system is not an afterthought; it is the only way He deals with His people. In this system, all boasting is excluded. The glory and reward go to God, and we are left with gratitude. The “unfairness” of grace is our salvation. It is the assurance that everything—our acceptance, our service, our reward—rests on His unchanging generosity, not our fluctuating performance.
When we finally see this, our entire posture changes. We cease striving to earn what can only be received. We serve not as wage-earners, but as sons who have already inherited everything in Christ. Our works become a response to love, not a desperate attempt to secure favor.
Embrace the Gospel-Centered System
To embrace grace is to renounce every system of merit. It is to confess that all we have and all we will ever receive is a gift. This is not a secondary matter—it is the difference between slavery and sonship, between self-glory and the glory of God.
Grace is the system. Let us abandon the religion of merit and rest in the generosity of our God.
Read more: Rewards and Service in Grace
