grace-is-an-economy-of-gift-not-merit

# Grace is an economy of gift, not merit Merit and grace are two different economies, not two attitudes within one. In the economy of merit, standing is earned, owed and counted; salvation read that way becomes a transaction. Grace runs on gift, and a gift economy has its own strange accounting: you only get to keep what you give away, and there is a deep power and dignity in being a giver, perhaps the same dignity found in work. Rest, in this frame, is recognising that I do not have to work for my salvation. The diagnostic question for any practice or institution is which economy it is running on. Related: [[grace-creates-chosen-obligation]], [[grace-gives-someone-not-something]]