Expectations

In Luke 17:11-19, the story is told of ten men with leprosy, who cried out to Jesus for healing. He told them to present themselves to the priest. As they were going, they were healed. "One of them came back, ...praising God...and he was a Samaritan" (vv. 15, 16).

Luke stresses the fact that the one who came back to thank Jesus was a Samaritan, a non-Jew, someone who would have felt his distance from God and have no expectation of healing, only profound thanks for this grace. The other nine, by contrast, Children of Abraham, who would expect favor from God, did not have the same level of gratitude. 

Individuals who grow up attending church, studying their Bibles and generally living decent lives, often do not have a profound conversion experience. Having lived a life of faith, they are not surprised that God would save them and may not feel much has changed in their lives, having simply taken the next logical step, expecting God's acceptance. 

The non-church going individual, especially one who has lived contrary to biblical moors and decency, perhaps even criminally, will typically have a life-altering conversion experience, for which he is both surprised and extremely thankful. Having no expectation of grace or mercy or forgiveness, his  level of gratitude is often "off the chain."

The truth is, however, none of us deserves forgiveness for "all sin and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23) and "no one is righteous, not even one" (Rom 3:10).  God's grace is, for everyone who embraces it, always and only a gift that has not been and cannot be earned - it "...is not from yourselves...not by works...[it is] God’s handiwork" ( Eph 2:8-10).  

Jus' Sayn.