You Don’t Have to Bargain With God

SERMON

Aug 9

Scripture: Romans 10:5–10
Matthew 13:1–233

We live in a world of transactions. We pay for what we need, negotiate for what we want, and often expect something in return for what we give. But what happens when we carry that same way of thinking into our relationship with God?

The good news of the gospel is that God’s grace does not work that way. Grace is not a bargain we negotiate. It is a gift we receive.

We’re Used to Making Deals

There is almost nothing I enjoy less than buying a car.

A friend once asked me to help her buy one because she thought having a man with her would keep the dealership from taking advantage of her. We spent hours at the dealership trying to complete the deal, only to leave without a car. It was a reminder of just how exhausting a transaction can become.

My own approach to buying cars has been very different. I have purchased several vehicles online, sometimes without seeing them in person. I can search for exactly the features I want, look at vehicles across the country, review maintenance records, arrange an independent inspection, and negotiate transportation.

It has not always gone smoothly. When I bought the Volt I currently drive, the seller would not reduce the $800 transportation fee. I decided the price was still worthwhile because the car was already significantly below comparable vehicles.

Then, somewhere between Boston and the parsonage, the car apparently “fell off” the transport truck.

Fortunately, my neighbor knew the automobile business and helped me navigate the paperwork. The delivery company reimbursed the shipping fee, the seller contributed the same amount toward repairs, and the car was eventually repaired beautifully.

Good transactions, bad transactions, complicated transactions: we hardly get through life without them. We make transactions when we buy food, secure housing, repair our cars, and even when we participate in public life.

We are so accustomed to this way of living that it can become easy to imagine our relationship with God in the same terms.

Faith Is Not a Bargain With God

Paul addresses this very idea when he contrasts righteousness based on the law with righteousness that comes through faith. The distinction is important: our right relationship with God comes through God’s work and God’s grace, not through our ability to accumulate enough good deeds.

This does not mean that what we do does not matter. The New Testament consistently calls Christians to live lives marked by love, faithfulness, generosity, and goodness. But those things are not payments we make in order to receive God’s grace.

They are responses to grace we have already received.

That difference changes everything.

If faith becomes a transaction, we can begin to think, “If I repent enough, behave well enough, pray enough, or do enough good things, then God will give me what I need.” We may even begin keeping an invisible spiritual ledger, wondering whether we have done enough to deserve God’s love.

But grace cannot really be grace if we have to earn it.

Augustine of Hippo eventually came to understand this in a deeply personal way. For years, Christianity attracted him, but he struggled to see himself as part of the Christian life. Then, when he was 34, he experienced a turning point while sitting in a garden. He heard what seemed like a child’s voice telling him to take up the Bible and read.

He opened Scripture and read words from Romans that called him to put on Christ. Augustine later described the experience as a moment when confidence filled his heart and the shadows of doubt were swept away.

He came to see that while he had been resisting God, God’s grace had been pursuing him anyway.

That is the heart of grace. God is not waiting for us to complete the transaction.

What We Do With a Gift We Didn’t Earn

Jesus gives us another way to understand this through the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.

The farmer scatters seed broadly, almost recklessly. The seed represents the word and grace of God, while the different kinds of soil represent the ways human hearts receive it.

The problem is not that the farmer is stingy with the seed. The seed is generously scattered. What matters is whether it finds soil where it can take root and grow.

That image helps us understand what happens when grace moves from an idea into a life.

When we receive God’s grace, we are not freed from responsibility. We are freed from having to earn our place with God. We can begin doing good not because we are trying to get something from God, but because God has already given us something we could never purchase for ourselves.

We love because we have been loved.

We serve because grace has taken root.

We care for our neighbors not as part of a bargain, but as people who have already received a gift.

This is especially important in a world where almost everything seems to have a price. We can become suspicious of gifts because we assume there must be a catch. We may even approach relationships, institutions, and faith itself by asking, “What do I get out of this?”

The gospel offers a different way.

God’s grace is not a transaction. There is no hidden bill waiting to arrive. There is no spiritual price tag attached to mercy. There is simply an invitation to open our hearts and receive. And when grace takes root, it changes what we do next.

We do not live faithfully so that God will finally love us. We live faithfully because, in Christ, we have already encountered a love we did not earn and could never repay.

That is the freedom of grace.