Many in our culture seem to have the attitude that God owes us something, that He is lucky to have us around doing good works, etc. Those, particularly in the west, seem to also thing that we are entirely self-sufficient. We forget that not only is Christ the One who sustains us, (Colossians 1:17) but we owe God our very being, for “in him we live and move and have our being,” (Acts 17:28, ESV).
We need to shed that attitude when we place our faith in Christ. To come to Christ and trust in his promises means also to trust in God’s judgment. R.C. Sproul in his book, A Taste for Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity, emphasizes this when he said:
If we’re children of Christ and we stand before the judgment seat of God on the last day and God says to us, "You’re covered by the blood of my Son, and it’s a good thing, because you did this, this, this, this, and this," we won’t say, "But, Lord, I did this in Your name, I did that in Your name. You really aren’t being fair." However, there will be many who will respond in just that manner. Jesus is going to say to those people, "Please leave, I don’t know who you are." A person who trusts God trusts not only His promises but His judgment. Even in a prayer of contrition, such a person acknowledges that God would be absolutely justified to destroy him for his sin. You can never come to God’s church, come to the Lord’s Table, thinking that God owes you something. If you do, you’re better off not to pray, not to commune, because you are blaspheming and slandering the Giver of every good and perfect gift, Who has treated you only with mercy.
God doesn’t owe us anything. He gave us His Son whose blood was shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sin. He is a merciful and just Judge who loves us deeply. Praise God that we wear Christ’s righteousness rather than our own when we stand before Him.