Grace 5: The generosity of God’s Grace

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 NIV As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus told of a landowner who hired several workers thorough out a day. His started hiring workers early in the morning and continued until the eleventh hour of the day. When evening came he paid all the same amount.
Those who worked all day began to grumble against the generosity of the landowner.

Matthew 20:15 “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

In this story and in God’s mercy, everyone gets the same grace. Most of us are familiar with the principle of equal pay for equal work. Jesus is demonstrating a different principle of equal pay for unequal value of work! This concept is totally contrary to the economy of the world. It just not fair!

Why should people who worked an hour be paid as much as those who worked all day? This is contrary to our way of thinking. This should be illegal for an employer to do! It seems so wrong! The mathematics of grace does not make sense. God’s methods do not work in the world. Grace just seems wrong to us, unless we know God! Paul’s statement and the Lord’s parable appear to be in contradiction. Jesus is saying it is all of grace.

Paul said: “His grace toward me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all.” On the surface, it sounds like Paul is saying I earned my way. I did my job. I was worthy of my hire! Before we go read what Paul said about his past.

1 Timothy 1:14-16 NIV 14The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

Paul knew that he could not depend on his own goodness. He knew that grace that saves. He knew the mercy of Christ that was abundantly given.

Ernest Hemingway was an American writer, who was known for his outrageous lifestyle and gritty, realistic writing. One of his stories, however, is a beautiful story of grace. An estranged father and son in Spain had a vicious argument and the son had run away to Madrid. The father, wanted to reconcile with his boy. So, he took out an ad in the city paper: “Paco meet me at Hotel Montana noon Tuesday. All is forgiven. Papa.” Paco is a common Spanish name. When the father went the square he found 800 young men named Paco waiting for their father.

Jesus constantly demonstrated God’s grace.
Many of His parables, sermons, and miracles were demonstrations of God’s grace. Luke 15:3-7 records the parable of the one lost sheep. Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to search for one lost sheep. It does not make sense! The 99 sheep were left exposed to rustlers or wolves while the shepherd searched for the one. What if he returned with the one to find 23 now lost? Grace searches for the lost ONE!

In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus gave us this parable of the farmer who dispensed grace without relationship to performance. Why did this man pay the part-day workers the same as the full day workers? This parable was a common story circulating in Jesus’ day. Jesus altered it to teach a radical truth about God. In the popular version of the story, the reason the last workers were paid the same was that they worked so hard that they impressed their employer. So, he paid them the full-day wage. But that is not how Jesus told the story! Jesus’ purpose is contained in the question the owner asks: “Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” Matthew 20:15

This is not a story about the rewards of hard work. It is a story about the generosity of God. Each employee received what they needed to feed their families for the day. Why did the owner hire the eleventh-hour workers? The text does not tell us that it he needed them for a final push to get the job done. The only reason we are given for hiring them was they needed the money to feed their families. He hired them because of their need! He did what he did out of grace. Each worker was not paid according to their work, but according to their need. Everybody got enough to feed their families for the day.

God is generous with His grace for us because we need it. It is all of grace. None of us merit it. God is generous because that is the kind of God He is!

Jeremiah 32:40-41 NIV “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.”

This is a wonderful expression of God’s grace.