A heart that desires to hold God at a distance would prefer a contractional relationship with Him where a person can earn approval and acceptance from God; a situation where God owes them something as a payment for their good deeds and behavior. But grace, something given without merit, something extended in the place of deserved judgment takes a claim upon us… it gives birth to a gratitude that binds us to the one who loved us in our sins and our brokenness. And that kind of intimacy and that kind of claim upon our hearts is resisted by the sinful and independent instinct of our flesh.