Welcome back to a new week on the podcast. Michelle is up next with her question. Hello, Pastor John. I'm a 25 year old avid listener of the podcast from New Zealand. I work at a university and often have conversations with the academics and university staff alike who are all mostly older than I am.

By God's grace, I would sometimes have the boldness and courage to speak with them about Christ and challenge their unbelief. The normal accusation against God that they would pose to me would go something like this, God owes us because he made us. To elaborate, they would say things like, if I can be a good father to my child and forgive him when he rebels against me, then why can't God do that for all of us?

He made us after all, or God must bless us because he made us. And why all the mystery? God owes us the explanation to all this because he made us and put us in this place to begin with. Now, I believe that God doesn't owe us anything, but in fact, we owe him everything.

However, can you please help me explain this better to my non-believing colleagues? Let me try to answer Michelle in three different kinds of steps. First, for her own encouragement and stability, it would be good perhaps to remember the words of Jesus. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and reveal them to little children.

In other words, Jesus tells us not to be surprised that high level academics will be among the most blind people in the world. The apostle Paul warned about the very same thing when he said, "Where is the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" And he gives, Paul gives the reason why God reveals these things to those without any worldly credentials like this, "So that no human being might boast in the presence of God, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." In other words, the underlying problem is pride and self-exaltation and a deep desire not to find our significance and satisfaction in God's greatness, but rather in our own.

So that's the first thing I would say to Michelle. I don't think that should cause us to give up on proud academic types any more than we want anybody to give up on us. So the second thing to say is that Paul did give an answer to the question of why God doesn't owe us, but rather we owe God.

And he says it in two ways. He says it in Romans 11.34 like this, "Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?" In other words, give him counsel. "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever and ever.

Amen." In other words, none of us could ever give counsel to God since he knows everything and all our knowledge is dependent on his. And so we can never put him in our debt by offering him any counsel that he doesn't already know as though he would then need to pay us back.

In fact, Paul says we've never given him anything. We've never given God anything that would put him in our debt because everything is his already. Instead, he says in verse 36, "From him, through him, to him are all things to him be glory forever and ever. Amen." In other words, since all things come from God and are sustained through God, they exist to call attention to his glory, not our glory.

That's the root issue of proud people. They don't like everything existing for God's glory. They want some ground of boasting in themselves. That's the first way Paul says it in Romans 11.34. Here's the second way he says it in Romans 9.20. He says that God is like a potter and we're like pots.

And then he says, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, the pot, to the potter, 'Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay?'" Now, right there's the key issue. "Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honor, honorable use, and another for dishonorable use?" In other words, creation has no right to tell the creator how he should have done his work or how he should run his work.

So I think Michelle should make that point, which she does, I think, and then let it stand. If people reverse it and say that the creature has natural rights to dictate to the creator, well, that mistake is going to be exposed sooner or later. But here's the last thing, the third thing that I think might, just might, open a window, a door with the people that Michelle is working with.

Jesus told a parable, Matthew 18, 21 to 35, about a servant who owed the king a million dollars, actually millions of millions, just off the chart, zillions of dollars. The king canceled the debt for this servant. And when the servant went out, he showed that his mindset had not been humbled to the point where he believed he really was a debtor to mercy.

Instead, he acted like he deserved to be forgiven. So he choked, he choked his fellow servant who owed him $10 and tried to make him pay. Now, I think that parable is very relevant to Michelle's question. Doesn't it teach that when we have the mindset that thinks God owes us forgiveness, doesn't that mindset of "you owe me" naturally lead to an arrogant abuse of other people?

Not just God, but other people. And that's what might cause her colleagues to sit up and take note. The mindset of being owed, "you owe me, God," is the essence of pride, and that leads to the destruction of others. You can see it in history. But the mindset of owing God everything, being a debtor to mercy, expecting nothing because of our merits, but only freely in mercy and deserving nothing good from God at all, that leads to a life of brokenhearted humility and service.

And Paul put it just that way. He said, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." If you are treated better than you deserve, then you have the mindset to treat others better than they deserve. So maybe that might give a breakthrough to Michelle's friends and help them see that it is a good and beautiful thing to humble ourselves as debtors to mercy rather than demanding of others, including God, that they owe us.

Amen. That's wise. Thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for writing us, Michelle. That's a perceptive question that you sent in. And this is my chance to let you know that you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our episode archive. And you can even reach us by email with any of the difficulties that you're facing in life that you would like some biblical counsel to address.

You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. On Wednesday, we're going to return with a question about how to cultivate deep thinking in a culture that makes it too easy to slip into passive superficiality. We all feel this tug. So how do we break free from the current?

We'll ask John Piper next time. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. We'll see you next time.