Do you understand that if you are trying to pay God back for saving you,...?

Question

then you have not accepted or received His grace?

Answer 1

you cant pay God back...you dont even deserve his grace. However good works are the fruit of the Spirit

Answer 2

While this is somewhat true, I'd say that even you "acceptance" or "reception" would be an act of will and a "work". God's Grace is indeed a gift - but - the Church (from the beginning) has always taught that Grace is received Sacramentally - and that begins in Baptism.

Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

It's NOTHING that you can do. It's ALL God.

Salvation is a process...not an "event". We were saved, we are bing saved, we will be saved" - past, present and future.

Answer 3

This is true. The very meaning of Grace is that it is not deserved. The New World Translation (Jehovah's Witness Bible) uses the term "undeserved Kindness", which conveys the same idea.

The fact is that we can not "pay God back" and He doesn't expect us to. Scripture describes it as a "free gift". Thru it we have liberty and Scripture warns us not to become "entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1), which is to say that we shouldn't go back to doing things as if we are under the Law, working to attempt to gain God's favor.

The reason that the Mosaic Law was given was simply to show humans that we can never be righteous enough to garner the favor of a perfect and Holy God. The prophet Isaiah said that all of our righteousness is like "filthy rags" before God.

By the same token, there is nothing we can do to "pay Him back". It could only have been a free gift because we are unable to purchase it for ourselves. The price was far to high for us to pay on our own merit.

Answer 4

..I think as a Christian, we understand, we could never pay him back. That is no reason not to fill your life with as many good works as you can. It is not pay back, it is the right thing to do. Faith without works is dead. Grace doesn't mean we shouldn't try in every way to make life easier for others if we can. Grace is not meant to relieve us of any responsibility to our fellow human beings...and it doesn't mean we haven't accepted his Grace if we try in some small way to help or relieve someone's suffering.

Answer 5

Grace is God’s giving us something we cannot earn or deserve. According to Romans 11:6, “work” of any kind destroys grace—the idea is that a worker earns payment, while the recipient of grace simply receives it, unearned. Since salvation is all of grace, it cannot be earned. Faith, therefore, is a non-work. Faith cannot truly be considered a “work,” or else it would destroy grace. (See also Romans 4—Abraham’s salvation was dependent on faith in God, as opposed to any work he performed.)

Answer 6

That's right. Paul explained it in his letters to the Ephesian church and the Galatian church, and to the church in Rome.

But there are still those who feel obligated to KEEP the Law that judged them, or adding something to what Jesus said, just like the "Judaisers" that Paul warned against.

God bless you that you understand that not only are we SAVED by Grace, we REMAIN saved by Grace. ("What we have begun in the Spirit, should we complete in the flesh?")

Answer 7

I don't try to pay God back for saving me. I try to live a life pleasing to God because I love Him and after what He has done for me it is the least I can do for Him. Also because God loves me and when he tells me to do things or not to do things he has told me that because it is what is good for me.

Answer 8

It seems obvious that the "grace" or "undeserved kindness" associated with salvation is a free gift that cannot be earned. True Christians (such as Jehovah's Witnesses) understand faith to be the primary thing for a Christian, but they also understand that professed "faith" is not a license for a sinner to continue to indulge his sin.

(Matthew 7:20-23) Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize... “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.


One's faith must have SOME effect on the individual's personality and lifecourse. The Scriptures quite plainly explain that humans can disqualify themselves from receiving everlasting life; it is only the faithful COMPLETION of a life course that assures salvation. [Emphasis added to citations below.]

(Zephaniah 2:3) Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. PROBABLY you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah's anger.

(Amos 5:15) Hate what is bad, and love what is good, and give justice a place in the gate. It MAY be that Jehovah the God of armies will show favor

(Matthew 7:13-14) Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; 14 whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.

(Matthew 24:13) But he that has endured TO THE END is the one that will be saved.

(Philippians 2:12) Keep WORKING OUT your own salvation with fear and trembling

(Hebrews 10:26-27) For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, 27 but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment

(Hebrews 5:9) [Jesus] became responsible for everlasting salvation to all those OBEYING him

(James 2:14,17) Of what benefit is it, my brothers, if a certain one says he has faith but he does not have works? That faith cannot save him, can it? ...17 Thus, too, faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/19960201/article_02.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_09.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_15.htm

Answer 9

A gift is not a gift unless it's free. & God's grace is a gift. If you have to do anything other than accept it, it is no longer a gift. Amen!!!!

Answer 10

I love the way Christians so disagree with each other, or for that matter are completely unable to understand even other versions of Christianity. If you can't understand each other, how will you ever understand other faiths?