I'd encourage you to go read the parable of the landowner in Matthew 20:1-16 again if you haven't recently...I've read it many times but have never really thought about it so much. The fact that God pays according to His grace and not merit or debt hasn't been as clear as it is now to me. Can you imagine? Needing work so badly, knowing that if you don't, you won't have food to feed your family that night? And then along comes a landowner, who already has enough workers who have been working 11 days already, but by generosity hires you because you are in need. And then, at the end of the day, he not only pays you for the amount of work you did in just one day, but he pays you the same amount as he pays the workers who have been working the past 11 days. He promised them a denarius when they began and he promised you a denarius when you began. This is incredible...it seems so unfair when I first think about it. It not only shows how generous our God is, but how sovereign when the landowner says, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?"
The author also told a story of an aged former slave- his former master left him an inheritance of $50,000, which had been deposited in a bank. He didn't even realize how much money it really was. The banker called him to remind him it was there, and he asked the banker if he could have fifty cents for a sack of corn meal. We just don't understand the "grace upon grace" that God has given us.
1 comment:
I guess this was a while ago, but I still think it's really cool; I like the story and the message. :)
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