The law of grace

The parable of the labourers in the vineyard (Mt.20) is enigmatic, and it is not easy to understand its meaning. If we imagine that what it teaches is that in the kingdom of God everyone is going to get equal rewards, we would be totally wrong. Every man is going to be rewarded according to what he has done (Re.22:12). But this parable is teaching us one of the important laws of grace. We are saved by God's undeserved mercy towards us and not because of any merit on our side (Ep.2:8,9). In the kingdom of grace there is nothing we can boast about.

In this parable we see labourers who joined in the last hour being rewarded just as much as the ones who worked the whole day. If we see ourselves as those who do not deserve God's kindness but as those who actually deserve His judgment, that is what we will see ourselves as, those who were given a full day's wages which we did not deserve at all. That is the attitude of heart that 'qualifies' us for receiving grace. Don't misunderstand me when I talk about qualifying for grace. I use that phrase to bring out the fact that the opposite attitude will actually disqualify us from grace. If we think we deserve God's favour for being good, having done good things or accomplishing things for Him, we disqualify ourselves.

The labourers in the parable who had worked for the whole day thought that they deserved to be paid more than the others who had come in late. This would have been a fair assumption as far as natural laws went. But if we realise that it is a spiritual lesson that Jesus is trying to teach through this illustration, then we can look deeper.

Think of all of us who understand the principle of grace under which God is offering salvation. We all come before Him from different conditions of life, some from gross forms of sin and others from 'ordinary' sins! Those who have been forgiven gross sins find it easy to appreciate the depth of grace from God, while those who think they have only done some ordinary sins have difficulty accepting the idea of grace. In their deepest mind they may imagine that they deserve God's mercy more that these others who had committed gross sins. This attitude exposes their lack of understanding of God showing grace towards them. They may even look down on others!

The difference in attitude can be easily seen in the way we forgive others. If we say some people don't deserve to be forgiven, while we imply that our own forgiveness was more or less deserved, we disqualify ourselves. That is what Jesus meant when He said that if after we have received forgiveness from God, we refused to forgive others, God might even take back our forgiveness which He had given us earlier. That is the warning of the parable of the king and two servants given in Mt.18:35.

'Grace' is not a cheap concept God throws around freely. His Son had to pay for it with His life. If we understand that our sins were what required Him to die in our place, we will value grace much more!