Grace Isn’t a Vending Machine

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I’ve mentioned in earlier posts and in my book Unshackled that I spent time in the prosperity movement early in my journey. What eventually turned me away was a growing understanding of Scripture’s teaching on this, along with the troubling excesses I saw in modern prosperity teachers.

Looking back, I can’t believe how theologically illiterate I was. I’m not saying this as self deprecation. It is simply an honest observation of my beliefs then compared to now.

Having escaped from legalism, it is ironic that I would choose another form of legalism, prosperity, to replace the asceticism I learned in my childhood church.

Prosperity teaching places the Christian squarely back into a pay to play exchange with God. We take our newfound grace and exchange it for a performance by works gospel that once again enslaves us, convincing us that we must give or do something to receive something from God.

This reduces the Creator of the universe to a vending machine in our minds, and it has no scriptural foundation in the New Testament. Old Testament blessings and curses were part of the law, a covenant replaced by Christ’s finished work on the cross. Blessings are no longer achieved by deeds. If we adopt that part of the law, we place ourselves back under it, contradicting the New Covenant of grace.

But there is more. The New Testament offers no evidence of blessings for giving or doing good. In fact, it teaches the opposite. Nearly all the apostles died as martyrs and lived in poverty. Several were sick. Few held wealth or political power.

Consider:

Acts 3:6

“Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Peter and John are performing miracles and preaching boldly, yet they explicitly state they have no wealth.

1 Corinthians 4:11–13

“To this present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless. We labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.”

Paul describes the apostles as hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, homeless, reviled, persecuted, and mistreated.

2 Corinthians 11:23–28

“I have been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked.”

Doing good produced suffering, not earthly blessing.

Philippians 4:12

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Paul’s ministry included poverty, not guaranteed provision.

1 Timothy 5:23

“Use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

Timothy is a faithful leader, yet he lives with ongoing sickness.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul lives with a persistent affliction that God does not remove.

Galatians 4:13–14

“It was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.”

Paul’s sickness becomes the very means God uses for ministry.

Even in the Old Testament, faithful believers experienced sickness, poverty, and suffering. If they were following the modern prosperity formula, it is clear they did not get the message.

Job

“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.”

Job 1:1

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’”

Job 1:20–21

Blameless and upright, yet he loses wealth, children, health, and status. His suffering is not due to lack of faith. It is precisely because he was faithful.

Elisha

“Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die.”

2 Kings 13:14

One of Israel’s greatest prophets, yet he dies from sickness, not miraculous healing.

Hezekiah

“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death.”

Isaiah 38:1

“Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.”

Isaiah 38:5

A righteous king who becomes deathly ill. God heals him, but faithfulness did not prevent sickness.

Daniel

“Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.”

Daniel 6:16

“So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

Daniel 6:28

Daniel is faithful, yet he lives his life under pagan kings in exile, facing danger and opposition rather than guaranteed comfort or power.

Jeremiah

“I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.”

Jeremiah 20:7

“He was put in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 20:2

Jeremiah is faithful but lives a life of rejection, imprisonment, and suffering.

Ruth

“But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. They took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.”

Ruth 1:3–5

Ruth is loyal, faithful, and courageous, yet she is widowed, poor, and vulnerable. Her story begins in famine and loss, not blessing.

Naomi

“She said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.’”

Ruth 1:20–21

Naomi loses her husband and sons and returns home in poverty and grief.

The widow of Zarephath

“And there was a widow there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, ‘Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.’ And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, ‘Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ And she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug, and now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.’”

1 Kings 17:10–12

She trusts God and cares for Elijah, yet begins her story starving and destitute.

These are heroes of faith, yet their lives contradict every prosperity formula.

So does this contradict what I said earlier? If these men and women of faith were not operating in the blessings of the law, why mention the law at all?

If the prophets lived under the law, but they did not personally benefit from its reward structure. Why am I saying that believers are placing themselves under the law?

Why did the prophets and hero’s of the faith live under the law but yet received no benefit from the blessings? Because the blessings were national, not individual. They were covenantal, not mechanical. They were relational, not transactional.

Hebrews 11 lists many of these people as tortured, mocked, imprisoned, sawn in two, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. They never believed righteousness guaranteed prosperity.

But still, why do I say that those who embrace prosperity teaching place themselves back under the law?

Because they have chosen to add to the perfect gift of redemption and salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ. Even if they adopt a distorted version of the law, it is still a return to an old covenant Christ fulfilled.

While Ascetic legalism says, “Do more, deny more, suffer more, then God will bless you.”

Prosperity legalism says, “Give more, sow more, claim more, then God will bless you.”

Both are works based systems masquerading as faith.

Both contradict the gospel.

Both enslave the believer.

Of all the issues Paul confronted, adding to the finished work of Christ, upset him the most.

Galatians 3:3

“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Galatians 5:4

“You who are trying to be justified by the law have fallen from grace.”

Galatians 3:10

“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.”

I wish I had not been pulled into this teaching, but I was. I am not there anymore. I want to see others released from this kind of relationship with God. It pulls us away from the simplicity of the gospel and makes it Jesus “plus” my own works. And that takes us right back to Eden. There is no possible way to please God enough to be holy or worthy. It is entirely a gift of God through Jesus Christ under the new covenant. All we need to do is accept Him and let Him change us from within.

The fact is:

When we treat blessings like products, faith becomes a transaction and the cross fades from view, replaced by the illusion that God can be bought.

To recap:

1. Old Testament blessings and curses were part of the Mosaic law.

They were tied to:

• Israel’s land

• Israel’s national identity

• Israel’s covenant obligations

• Israel’s temple worship

• Israel’s sacrificial system

2. The law was fulfilled and replaced by Christ’s finished work.

The New Covenant does not promise:

• wealth

• health

• political power

• protection from suffering

• guaranteed success

The new covenant does promise:

• forgiveness

• adoption

• union with Christ

• the indwelling Spirit

• eternal inheritance

• spiritual fruit

• perseverance

• resurrection

Let the chains of performance fall off!