What Do I Really Have To Offer God?

What Do I Really Have to Offer God?

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV).

We live in a society that asks, “what can you offer me?”  Not far behind is a similar question, “is it good enough?”  I used to work for an electrical contractor, and these questions (along with others) will make or break the job.  The customer wants to know if I can do the job, and the quality of my work.  Although these questions are wise in the realm of business, all too often we drag this concept of our faith.  So a question I present to you is, can we earn God’s favor?

Before we answer this, let’s take an inventory of our natural self; it’s rather easy because God has already done this in His Word.  The subject of our first question was a matter of what, i.e. goods or service.  In relation to God, this would be our works.  Isaiah 64:6 states that “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”  I won’t get into a word study as to what polluted means in this context, but it is rather harsh.  The result of this pollution, however, means that the garment will never be seen as clean again and is now useless.  Think about that for a minute, our very best is seen as filthy and useless.  The subject of our second is regarding quality, let’s think heart, what is the natural state of our heart?  Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  This does not paint a good picture of quality.  Overall, we have useless service with horrible quality.  We have no hope in ourselves because we are subject to total depravity (from the Five Points of Calvinism).  This means we are naturally evil, according to God’s perfection.  So where is our hope?

The great reformer, Martin Luther, took the above passage from 2 Corinthians and came up with the theological term the Great Exchange.  In this, the Christian gives Jesus his sin, and in return Jesus gives the Christian righteousness.  This is not a fair trade because Jesus gets the short end of the stick.  And I know that I have plenty of sin to offer Jesus, and that’s just on my daily commute to LAX on the 405.  This is because grace is at the center of the Good News of our salvation.  God gives us unmerited favor in sending Jesus to die a death we deserve to pay the debt that we could never pay.

What does this look like in our day to day lives?  To answer this, we again have to look at our heart.  In pagan culture, people would make sacrifices to false gods believing that this would bring them favor with that deity and they would ultimately get what they want.  If you stop and think about it, that’s a form of manipulation.  If our God is as all-powerful, all-knowing, and is everywhere; then He cannot be manipulated or impressed.  Instead of trying to use our works to earn favor with God, our works should be the result of a heart changed by God.  We must learn to let go and let God.  I know when I try to control a situation, it doesn’t go well.  But if I let God have control, it will eventually work out for me and ultimately bring Him glory.

If you struggle with this, as I do, I encourage you to pray about it.  In your prayers, give your concerns to God.  You might have to say “God, I give you ____.”  In this I am reminded of a saying; I can’t, He can, I’ll let Him!

Justin