Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase meaning "something for something." Mark Galli says too many of us serve a quid pro quo god instead of the God of the Bible who loves us with an unimaginable grace:
The quid pro quo god is one who does something for us if we do something for him, and the one who refuses to do something for us, or even punishes us, if we fail to do something for him.
Put this way, it seems impossible that anyone in their right mind would believe in such a god. The rub, of course, is that none of us are in our right mind—that's one of the effects of sin. And one reason we're attracted to the quid pro quo god is that he's a god we can get our minds around. He makes sense. He seems reasonable and fair: We do our part, he does his, and all will be well.. . .
[But] what about that fellow from first-century Galilee, who by all accounts did everything right and absolutely nothing wrong, who abided by all the dictates of the quid pro quo god and still ended up dead in the prime of life.
Good thing that Galilean didn't believe in the quid pro quo god, otherwise, he would have been in despair as he hung on the cross. Instead, even at the most horrific hour of his life, when all hope seemed lost, when he felt most deserted by his God, he prayed. Not to the quid pro quo god, but to his Father in heaven. Even in a moment when he felt forsaken, he called out, "My God, my God."
The problem with the quid pro quo god is that we can never call him "my God." We never feel that close to him.
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