Every Blessing by Grace - Matthew 20:9-15

[insurchoftruth]

Every Blessing by Grace - Matthew 20:9-15


Very often in life, we as Christians, think that we must work out, earn, deserve any blessing from God. We think that if we do not perform well enough in our spiritual walk with God, then perhaps, he will restrict his blessings to us, until we repent, do better, or work out to earn the blessing.

That is called self-righteousness. That is what the Pharisees tried to do. They thought that by obeying the Law, they could earn their blessings and salvation from God. It all depended on their performance of how holy is their life before God.
But the Bible tells us that Grace and Truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of John 1:17.

If we look at the parable of Jesus, in Matthew 20:9-15, we can clearly see, especially in verse 15, that God can decide to give free gifts to those he wants to give, without them needing to work for those gifts.

In verse 15, Jesus clearly says, that giving to the workers who started work latter a bigger wage, was depending on his grace, and not on their performance or how many hours they have worked.

So it is very clear, that the blessings God gives us, are clearly by his grace, depending on his grace for us, and not on our performance, effort or work for him, and not on how holy we live before him! His generosity came out of his grace.

 

[Another Lazarus]

not on how holy we live before him!

Who can ever say that he/she is holy ?
Proverbs 16:18,19 Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall…

 

[Serving Zion]

Every Blessing by Grace - Matthew 20:9-15


Very often in life, we as Christians, think that we must work out, earn, deserve any blessing from God. We think that if we do not perform well enough in our spiritual walk with God, then perhaps, he will restrict his blessings to us, until we repent, do better, or work out to earn the blessing.

That is called self-righteousness. That is what the Pharisees tried to do. They thought that by obeying the Law, they could earn their blessings and salvation from God. It all depended on their performance of how holy is their life before God.
But the Bible tells us that Grace and Truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of John 1:17.

If we look at the parable of Jesus, in Matthew 20:9-15, we can clearly see, especially in verse 15, that God can decide to give free gifts to those he wants to give, without them needing to work for those gifts.

In verse 15, Jesus clearly says, that giving to the workers who started work latter a bigger wage, was depending on his grace, and not on their performance or how many hours they have worked.

So it is very clear, that the blessings God gives us, are clearly by his grace, depending on his grace for us, and not on our performance, effort or work for him, and not on how holy we live before him! His generosity came out of his grace.

The workers who began later in the day didn't receive a free gift though.. They still had to work for it. They agreed to do the work without agreed amount, because they were desperate. They trusted the owner to pay them righteously, and besides, it was better than having nothing at the end of the day.

The story shows the way of evil compared to righteousness - where the ones who worked harder became jealous when seeing that others worked less for the same reward. They would not have been jealous if it weren't for those later workers, so their displeasure was sinful. They expected the owner to pay more than what they had agreed as having been a fair wage - only to subdue their envy. Their eye was evil because his was good (v15). They attempted a type of emotional blackmail, as sadly, it would seem right in the eyes of a lawgiver these days.

I saw the same thing essentially happen today - a grand mother led the child from the store, and because the child was crying, she said in angry tone "why are you crying?". The child being barely two years old and not able to express with complex language, cried as if to say "no, you're not listening!". Then because grandma wanted the child to stop crying, she said "shall I take the brush back then?" Even though the child wasn't crying about the brush. (She had bought a hair brush for this child and she used emotional blackmail to make her stop crying instead of showing genuine concern and affection to console her). The child gave a final cry of anguish and then conceded to the injustice because she wanted the hair brush and no good would come by insisting to be heard.

What you have said here seems to need the added perspective of Ephesians 2:8 - grace comes through faith - and faith is not our own, it is a gift of God. God gives as it pleases Him, and that's not a thing to be taken for granted. For instance, there is Hebrews 10:38-39.