Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt. Student loans have filled me with mixed feelings through the years. While it has opened the education door for many who otherwise couldn’t attend college, it has also burdened graduates with mortgage size debts before they ever have their first jobs. Something else that bothered me through the years is too many students flippantly borrowed as if there never was going to be a day of reckoning. That flippant attitude then spilled over into a lack appreciation for the education itself. Often times we only value things for which we have worked. I have often advocated that loan moneys must be matched with wages from work study programs.
So why am I speaking of this? Occasionally I hear people speak of cheap grace. Jesus saves. Eternal life is a gift. Is there a problem that humans do not appreciate that for which they have not worked? Maybe this is why so many churches have developed works theologies? Paul wrote to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith.” So there is some kind of battle. It isn’t accepting the gift and going on with life as usual. There is something else involved. One issue is character development. The obligation of love draws us to be like our Savior. Another issue is to continue to abide in grace. If one has come from a works environment such as Paul there is this constant lure, a pull back to the theology of the past because the story of grace seems way too good to be true. Keeping the faith for Paul was just that. Hang on. Don’t get sucked back in.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 9, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, Ca 94574
Rogerbothwell.org