Rights Part 2

We talk about rights in a number of different ways. One way is to say, “I have earned the right to X.” This seems to mean that I’ve done A, B, and C and therefore whatever X is it is right for me to have it, do it, or maybe be it. For example, “I’ve worked 40 hours this week and therefore I have a right to 40 hours’ worth of wages.” Another way of saying this is to say, “I’ve worked 40 hours this week and it is right that I should receive wages commensurate with that.”

This sounds reasonable. But what if you agreed to a certain amount of money for your work without talking about how much an hour you should receive? Suppose, one fellow was hired for $100 dollars to work in the field, then three hours later another fellow was hired for the same amount to work in the field, and then three more hours later the boss did it again. Would the first fellow be right to demand that he receive per hour what the last guy received? Should the first fellow receive, per hour, what the last person received? No. They weren’t hired on a per hour basis. They were hired for work that day. The first guy agreed to work that day for $100 and the last guy agreed to work that day for $100. They both received $100. One fellow worked 10 hours, the other only four. We don’t think that whole things is fair. It isn’t right, we say.

When it comes to God and the Bible, what rights do we have in this sense? I have earned X. What have we earned? Well, the God we have to do with his perfect, holy, righteous, just, eternal, everlasting, before all things, outside of all things, inside of all things, and on and on. What exactly do we mean when we say we’ve earned anything from God? The bible tells us that God created Hell for people who don’t measure up, who don’t do what he’s said, who do what he’s said not to do. Based on this, what have we earned? If earning means as a result of having done A, B, and C we get X, then what are the A, B, and C that we’ve done?

Of course, the answer is that we’ve fallen short in every category. We’ve not done anything to the standard of the Holy and perfect God. Our A, B, and C’s were things like coveting, hating, not loving, gossiping, backbiting, nagging, being contentious, idolatry, playing the victim while creating victims of everyone around us, and anon and on. What has all this A, B, and C’ing earned for us? Well, the Bible is clear that we’ve earned eternity in Hell.

What about our rights? Don’t we have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Here’s the thing. God gave us those inalienable rights, but as with all rights, they don’t apply to him. In other words, with every right he gives us, he takes them away if and when we assume that they are above him. For example, in seeking for life, we’ve ignored his way of life (Mt 19:17). In seeking liberty, we’ve bound yourself up in chains of slavery (Gal 4:9). In chasing after happiness, we have settled for things that tickle in the moment rather than things that last (2 Cor 4:8; 2 Tim 4:3).

So then, get this straight, the only rights any of us have earned, is the right to spend eternity in Hell. If we want justice, he’ll give us justice, we just need to keep going on this same path.

But there is a better way….