14 And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory; and Aaron did expound all these things unto the king.
Since man’s fall, he could not merit anything of himself. What does the 1828 Webster Dictionary say about the meaning of the word Merit:
Webster:
MER'IT, verb transitive [Latin merito.] To deserve; to earn by active service, or by any valuable performance; to have a right to claim reward in money, regard, honor or happiness. Watts, by his writings, merited the gratitude of the whole christian world. The faithful laborer merits his wages.
A man at best is incapable of meriting any thing from God.
1. To deserve; to have a just title to. Fidelity merits and usually obtains confidence.
2. To deserve, in an ill sense; to have a just title to. Every violation of law merits punishment. Every sin merits God's displeasure.
How wise and inspired and a good man was Mr Webster! How blessed this nation was to have him define Christian principles in the meaning of words... at least for a while. Today, the evil tech giant Google is defining (or rather redefining, or revising) the very meaning of words, and that to be the opposite of what they actually mean. Horrible....
Man cannot merit anything of himself, when it comes to God. Why? Why can’t man earn or merit anything from God?
What can we give God that he needs in exchange for something else? What do we have to offer the Creator of the universe? What can we give him that he doesn’t already have? Nothing! We are the created. He is the Creator. We would not even exist if he didn’t create us.
Can the painting give anything in return to the painter? Can the sculpture give back to the sculptor? Can the house give of itself to the builder? So of what have we to boast?
But there is one thing we can give. Our hearts. Our will. To surrender to him who has and does give us all. Who not only provides for our needs day to day, but from one breath to another, and one moment to another.
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