TAKING
CARE OF THE CHECK

Topics: Assurance; Atonement; Choices; Dependence on God; Doubt; Faith; Gift of Righteousness; Grace; Help from God; Promises; Salvation; Trust

References: Exodus 32:30; John 3:16; Romans 3:21–26; 5:11; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8–9; Titus 3:3–7; 1 Peter 1:17–19; 1 John 1:9

I was having breakfast with my dad and my younger son at the Real Food Café in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As we were finishing our meal, I noticed that the waitress brought our check, then took it away, then brought it back again. She placed it on the table, smiled, and said, “Somebody in the restaurant paid for your meal. You’re all set.” Then she walked away.

I had the strangest feeling of helplessness. There was nothing I could do. To insist on paying would have been pointless. All I could do was trust that what she said was actually true and then live in that—which meant getting up and leaving the restaurant. My acceptance of what she said gave me a choice to live like it was true or to create my own reality in which the bill was not paid.

That is our invitation—to trust that we don’t owe anything. To trust that something is already true about us, something has already been done, something has been there all along.

To trust that grace pays the bill.

—Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis (Zondervan, 2005)