Congruence—or recompense?

On the logic of the congruent gift, God’s grace is not the opposite of recompense, but is simultaneously gift and reward. There is no antithesis here between gift and merit; grace and recompense stand in conjunction, not opposition. This is not to make the gift any less a gift or something akin to “pay.” Those who deserve gifts are still the recipients of gifts, given voluntarily and without legal requirement. They do not cause the gift to be given (that is always a matter of the benefactor’s will), but they prove themselves to be its suitable recipients and thus provide the condition for its proper distribution. We must insist, against our instincts, that the ancients knew, and had reason to celebrate, a form of divine grace that rewarded those who were fitting recipients of its free and lavish beneficence.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 316