The Equality of Salvation

Matthew 20: 1 – 12 (NIV): "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 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?' " 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "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.' "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. '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.' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

What an amazing parable! Jesus lets us know through this illustration that all who believe in him will receive the same salvation – the same heaven – no matter how hard we work, because it isn't work that saves us, but God's generosity. God's grace.

This story proves that salvation is not earned in the first place. If it were, only the workers who hired on early in the morning would receive the daily wage. Instead, everyone is paid the same even if he only worked an hour.

That may seem unfair, but Jesus is making the point that no Christian is more valuable in the Kingdom than another. We all all sinners, saved by grace, and God is the only one who should be worshiped, celebrated and emulated. There is no class system in Christianity; we are all equal.

This amazing story shows another truth, too. It tells us that if we have waited all our lives to believe in Christ – to be saved – we still can. A man who is saved at 95 goes to the same heaven as a boy saved at seven. I wouldn't want to wait too long since tomorrow isn't promised and since a life lived for Christ is so much more rewarding, but if you have waited, the good news is it's never too late.

A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12: 1, 2 (NIV): Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Jesus said to love God most. The first Commandment says to put God first. Here, Paul says to give ourselves completely to God. I'm seeing a pattern: God wants to be our God. He is a loving Father who wants us to surrender our lives to him. He wants first place in our lives, and he wants us to trust and obey him. As God's children, we need to understand that we belong to him. He created us, he purchased our salvation, and he knows what is best for us.

Paul says our spiritual act of worship is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. This means we surrender our wills to him and live our lives holy and pleasing to him. Perhaps the very heart of worshiping God is to surrender to him. In other words, to love him most, put him first, and live our lives for his pleasure, not our own.

Easy enough to understand, but it is not easy to do because we don't like the idea of surrendering. We like the idea of being our own boss, doing what we want to do, not letting someone else tell us what to do. We want what we want and we want it now. But the Christian faith says “give up what you want and give God what he wants instead.”

The pattern of this world says if you surrender to someone, you lose to him. Paul is saying, yes that's exactly right! Lose to God. Surrender to him. Give him your body, your hopes and dreams, your wishes and desires. Give it all to God. What I've found to be true is that we are all going to surrender to something anyway. Paul says surrender to God and God alone.

The idea of a living sacrifice seems to be a contradiction. When an animal was sacrificed, it was killed first and had no choice in the matter. What Paul is urging us to do is voluntarily climb on the altar and sacrifice ourselves to God. And since we are still living, that means we can crawl off the altar again if we choose. My advice is, when you do, simply climb back on. We have to continually surrender to God. Frankly, we do better some days than others. Don't give up. Surrender to God today, then again tomorrow. When you do, God will transform your mind to become more and more like Christ. He will prove to you that surrendered to him is the best place to be. After all, he is God.

The Luxury of Contentment

Ecclesiastes 2: 8-11, 24-26 (NIV): I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well--the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have all the money in the world? To have all of the pleasures and delights that people desire at your fingertips? I have! We read about celebrities with their glamorous lifestyles, beautiful homes, cars, friends, vacations, and all of the latest gadgets and toys, and it is human nature to wish for that for ourselves.

In this passage, a man gives to himself everything he could possibly want or desire. He not only buys pleasure and entertainment, but he also oversees building projects that make his community better. This man is the third king of Israel, Solomon, the richest person who ever lived. He said his wisdom stayed with him during this experiment – in other words, he took note of whether or not he found true happiness and fulfillment in his lifestyle of luxury.

His conclusion? That everything left him unfulfilled and empty.

Isn't that what we see happening with our celebrities today? They have “everything in the world”, but they are not satisfied with it and have to continually clamor for more. They can't keep their marriages together, and many of them end up in jail or rehab or both. It's not that being wealthy makes you unhappy, it's just that it doesn't make you happy. Just ask Solomon. Wealth, pleasure and entertainment can give happiness, but it simply doesn't last and we are never satisfied. That's why, when asked how much wealth is enough, a famous billionaire said, “just a little bit more.”

Solomon concluded that the only thing that makes us truly happy is to please God day after day. When we do, we will find fulfillment in our work, we will find pleasure in our belongings, and we will find love in our families. Searching for meaning in things leaves us empty – but living for God's pleasure every day gives us meaning and happiness and joy and a purpose.

Free Indeed

John 8: 31 – 36 (NIV): To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Freedom is perhaps the most precious gift a person can receive. No other comfort can be fully enjoyed if a person is not free. More than a million men and women have given their lives so we can be free in our country and that makes it the greatest country on earth.
How sad, then, to live in America – the land of the free – and not be truly free. Jesus said if you sin you are a slave to sin. Slaves have no rights. Slaves do what their masters tell them. Millions of Americans are slaves to some addiction, for example, and cannot break free from it. And any sin is addicting. Paul said he would not be enslaved by anything other than Christ.
It's interesting that the Jews who were speaking with Jesus in this passage said they had never been enslaved. They had not only been enslaved more than once in their history, they were slaves to the Romans at that very moment. Denial does not set a person free! Only a life in Christ can do that. Apparently these Jews did believe in him and he was encouraging them to hold on to his teaching because he knew that persecution would come.
And that brings us to American Christianity today. The church throughout history has thrived during times of persecution. Why? Because persecution weeds out hypocrisy. This is why church father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” I'm thankful for my free country, but I am concerned about the state of the church today. I believe the greatest assault against our faith is apathy. We want to be comfortable and Christians have never been called to be soft. We want to feel at home, but we are not at home here. Our citizenship is in a “better country” (Hebrews 11:16).
If we, as the church, want America to be truly free, we must stand against the sins that enslave us. We must stand up for the innocents and we must stand up for the family. Will that make us uncomfortable? Yes, and if we are uncomfortable here on earth, then we know we are true followers of Christ. Jesus said the world hated him and it will hate us too if we follow him. People are longing for freedom and it is not a country that can give it to them, it is the church.

The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37: 1 – 10 (NIV): The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.

Ezekiel was a Jewish street preacher who lived in Babylon during Israel's exile there which began in 605 B.C. So he was living and ministering in a very hopeless and frustrating time for his people. It would be hard to imagine things getting any worse than being taken captive by a hostile, foreign country and having all of your rights and freedoms taken away from you.

Ezekiel says the bones were very dry. This is symbolic of them being beyond hope. Beyond the living. Long dead and never coming back. A whole valley of people without any hope of ever living again.

Ezekiel sees the hopelessness of the situation. But then God turns things, just as we see him do over and over in the scripture and in our lives. He tells Ezekiel to “prophecy” to the bones – which means to preach to them – that God was going to bring them back to life. He was going to cover them with flesh and skin and put breath back into their lungs.

Ezekiel could have refused to preach to a bunch of dry bones, but instead he obeyed. He preached and God did exactly what he said he would. He brought them back to life. He gave them life and hope and a future.

When God's Word is preached, lives are changed. People who have no hope suddenly find life again. With God there is always hope, even after someone dies, or after things seem hopeless. God's Spirit gives life now and forever. We must continue to share God's Word even if people seem dead to the message. And if we live our lives by God's Spirit, he will breathe life into everything we do.