Tools for Monday: Still Trying to Earn Your Keep?
The enormity of God’s gift of grace can still perplex even grizzled veterans of Christianity. How can it be that Jesus’ death and resurrection totally paid our sin debt so that we simply receive salvation by faith in Christ? It’s mind-blowing to contemplate that Jesus really did pay it all. Because of Christ, there is nothing more to be done from our end, no sacrifice to offer, that puts us in right relationship with God. We are free from law, legalism, religious rigidity, and all these imply. So why is it that we still try to make a competitive game out of spirituality in which the winner takes the spoils? Why do we put the burden of legalism on our backs, only to become repeatedly exasperated?
Sometimes we get stuck in the feedback loop of religious legalism because it’s simply part of the cultural air we breathe. In our society, a person’s worth is measured in terms of accomplishments, likes, social media subscriptions, material possessions, bank accounts, influence, and the ability to dominate others through intelligence, wit, and physical prowess. We are exposed to the spirit of our age so frequently, in fact, that it becomes second nature to us. And when this mindset infiltrates the church, we clamor to be the “greatest” and “most influential” church in town. Success is measured by buildings, budgets, and baptisms. Pastors preach messages about how we all should try harder to be our best selves. And if someone fails, then it must be because either they didn’t put in the effort, or God’s getting back at them for something they did in the past.
Do you recall how Jesus turned such religious mumbo jumbo on its head? Consider Christ’s ingenious story about the field hands who all got paid the same rate (Matthew 20:1-16). Some of the workers were hired at 6am and worked all day, while others were hired at 5pm. Yet, each worker (regardless of the number of hours worked) was paid the same. The ones who had worked all day were obviously furious that each got the same payment, but the landowner had the authority to make that call.
Jesus’ story about the workers is not a commentary on economic systems or politics. It’s a commentary on grace. The landowner paid his workers based on his grace rather than their merits. The rat race of trying harder to earn God’s favor simply doesn’t work since there’s nothing we can do to earn it. Jesus did the earning on our behalf. At the end of the day God’s grace is equally distributed. This does not mean that we should use God’s grace as a license to sin. It does mean that God’s grace sustains us and provides a good guard against an unattainable legalism.
What’s the tool then for today? The tool of letting go. You don’t have to do more to earn God’s favor. He already died on the cross and defeated death for you. Simply reach your hands to heaven and receive the gift.