Defiant Grace

I am reading a very insightful book that serves as a reminder that God’s Grace is absolutely astounding.  The book is called “Defiant Grace” and is written by Dane Ortlund.  In this book he points out that grace through Christ can’t be measured and can’t be bound to any innate sense of fairness, reciprocity or balance. 

Dane uses Matthew 20:1-16 to illustrate:

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. ² He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.³ “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went.“He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. ⁶ About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’⁷ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’⁹ “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹² ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 

From this passage he points out that we can clearly see a telling sign – compassionate generosity where the landowner treats the workers according to what they need; not what they deserve.  Ortlund reminds us: “When our gratefulness for grace received devolves into Jonah like resentment that others less deserving have received grace, we show that we have not, in fact, understood the grace we ourselves have received.  For if grace is truly grace, freely granted and not tethered to any personal merit or demerit, then it is impossible for anyone to deserve it any less or any more than the next person.”

Ortlund then borrows from Kenneth Bailey who says: “The story focuses on an equation filled with amazing grace, which is resented by those who feel that they have earned their way to more…  The complaint is from the justly paid who cannot tolerate grace… Grace is not only amazing, it is also – for certain types – infuriating!”

What a reminder; a reminder for us all!  Father, thank you for grace and thank you that it is not based on what I deserve; but what I need…and oh how I need it!  Father, never let us lose sight of the fact that your grace is freely granted and that no matter how good we think we are, how active in the right activities, how deserving we might feel; that the grace you grant comes through the tremendous sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.   Father, I am humbled by your compassionate generosity and  your overwhelming, astounding, amazing grace.  Amen and Amen.

Grace and Peace!