PRIDE 3

One of the tragic consequences of the sin of pride is its ability to take something good and twist it into a bargaining chip. The bargain was that Martha would open her home to Jesus and give him a wonderful meal. Jesus would complete the deal by saying how grateful he was, what a gracious host Martha had been, and leave with some words of wisdom, which would bless her home.

That does not sound like a bad trade. We often give in order to get. Pride argues that giving is the only way to get, and life’s disappointments seem at times to underscore that message. Pride cannot accept grace.

Grace is kindness given where it is not earned or deserved. Jesus came first to give and without pride. That is the story of his suffering and finally his death on the cross. He died for us to give us life by taking our sin on his shoulders. God raised him from the dead and now he gives this gift of life to all who will receive it. He didn’t do this to wrangle a thank you. There is nothing we can give back to him for this gift he has given. He believes his gift of grace will change our lives, that we will be grateful, and that we will become giving people because of his gift. This does not make his grace a give-to-get transaction because that would assume that somewhere down the line we could expect Jesus to call in our account so that we would repay him. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He gives simply believing his gift will do what it is intended to do, give us life. He believes the Holy Spirit then will produces new fruit from our lives in response to that gift. Later on we will examine how that works.