Respond to Grace.

We often lose sight of the basis of our faith – which is God’s grace alone, nothing else. Nothing about our faith consists of anything that we can do, yet so often we live quite contrarily. Jesus teaches through a parable in Matthew 20, and through this teaching we are able to see clearly that our works do not provide salvation, but instead they are a response to the salvation that has already been given to us.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.  He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.  About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.  ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?  Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Somehow, it crept into the mind of the workers who were hired first that they would receive more because of what they did. But is this the God we serve? I sure hope not. If that’s the case, I think it’s safe to say that we are all in a heap of trouble. Unfortunately, if we’re not careful, this concept of “faith by works” can easily and unintentionally inch its way into our minds today.  Most of us have heard our entire life that “it is by GRACE you have been saved”. And Romans 11:6 adds on, “and if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” But what does all this really mean to us? Are we allowing this truth to be manifested in us? We have to get it into our heads that there is nothing we can do to be good enough for God, which is why He already did it. That’s right; He has already given us the reward: Life. So what now? We respond out of love and devotion for a King who gave His life when we had, and still don’t, nothing to give in return.

The landowner (Jesus) gave the workers (us) what He had promised. Yet, since they thought their reward was based on works, they fell into the misconception that they deserved more than what was given to them. So what did they do in response? “They began to grumble against the landowner”. When we live in the mindset of “faith by works” – we will respond to Christ in one of two ways: We will grumble out of dissatisfaction, like the workers, as if to say, “I deserve more than this. I’ve served persistently, had a quiet time every morning, gone to church every Sunday, and have led countless small groups. And this is all I’m getting? What is He thinking?” Or, we will in fact recognize the worthlessness of our works, but without understanding God’s grace, we will dwell in self-pity and allow the chains of insecurity to choke the life out of us. Both options seem pretty unsettling, wouldn’t you say? This is why we have to continually revisit the basis of our faith:

             While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What does this mean? It means that we are free from faith by works. We are free from the exhaustion of constantly trying, of striving to measure up, of struggling to be enough but somehow never being satisfied.

Although works is in fact a beautiful feature of our faith, it is by no means the basis. And unless we are able to see this clearly, our faith will drown – you can count on it. In reality, the only reason we are able to do good deeds in the first place is because of grace. Thus, we now have the liberty to respond out of devotion to our great King – with no strings attached.