Reward vs gift

It's easy to see where our idea of working for God's approval comes from. The first half of the Bible is filled with God saying - if you do the things I say I'll bless you, but if you don't, I won't. Kind of like rewarding young children for good behaviour in order to train them in the right direction. But then we see a change of direction after Jesus comes into the world. From then on we are directed that the only way we can live God's way of life is by focusing on loving the God that he is and letting that love change us.

I've often wondered why God tried one way first before the other when he must have known it wouldn't work. And then I remembered something. These things are not God trying to figure stuff for himself! He already knows it all. If he's done it this way he's trying to get something very important across. Maybe, with the whole of creation and all its universes watching what's playing out here, we all needed to see for ourselves that the first way doesn't work! And that he had no other way of reaching and saving us than sending his Son to do it all for us! Maybe without that, we would still be trying to win his approval to have the blessings he offers.

I guess just telling us wasn't enough to get his point across - how often do we not listen but learn by experience? And maybe some of us haven't got it yet ...