Philip Yancey writes, From childhood we are taught how to succeed in the world of ‘ungrace’. ‘You get what you pay for.’ ‘The early bird gets the worm.’ ‘No pain, no gain.’ I know these rules well because I live by them. I work for what I earn; I like to win; I insist on my rights. I want people to get what they deserve.
But Jesus’ parables about grace teach a radically different concept. In Matthew 18, no one could accumulate a debt as huge as the servant did (vv. 23-24). This underscores the point. The debt is unforgivable. Nevertheless, the master let the servant off scot-free.
The more I reflect on Jesus’ parables proclaiming grace, the more tempted I am to apply the word atrocious to describe the mathematics of the gospel. I believe Jesus gave us these stories to call us to step completely outside our tit-for-tat world of ungrace and enter into God’s realm of infinite grace.
If I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love. I deserved debtor’s prison and got instead a clean credit history. I deserved stern lectures and crawl-on-your knees repentance. Instead, I got a banquet spread for me.
How’s your math looking these days?
I am in awe of the mercy of a forgiving God who loved me when I was an enemy of his kingdom!
One of the atrocities that still goes around is the one that says, ” God helps those who help themselves”. Christ died for us as sinners who could not help ourselves! We were under the bondage and in slavery to sin. We were doomed and lost unable to do one thing to help ourselves. It was the mercy of God that lifted us when we had no power to do so of our own.