If your church promises you something in exchange for your offering, it is no longer offered in love, rather it is a payment for something.

If you are trying to pay for love, it is a fool’s errand. Love is not for sale. The correct term is “prostitution.” And what you are getting in return is a corruption and a simulation. It is a diabolical deception.

Our offerings to the church are given without any expectation of anything in return. Otherwise, it’s an attempt to buy something: God’s mercy (as if He can be bribed), time off of punishment (as though money is a superior currency than Christ’s blood), or bragging rights.

Both the forgiveness of sin and the penalty due for our sins are freely offered by Christ as our full atonement on the cross: “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

St. Peter (the putative primary predecessor of Pope Leo X) teaches us: “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:18-19).

Anyone who charges you for something that is already yours by the “once for all” (Heb 9:12) sacrifice of the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) is running a grift.

The idea that God’s grace is a commodity to be sold goes back to Simon Magus. St. Peter replied: “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!” (Acts 8:20).

It is the same scam that we see in megachurches that require tax forms and enforced tithing as a condition of membership. How do you think these people live like the Sultan of Brunei? To use one of Luther’s lines, such people deserve to be “pelted with dung.”

No matter who is doing it, it can only be described as “pimping.”

Grace is simply God’s love and mercy. It is not for sale at any price.