Work vs. Grace

Don: In the parable of the vineyard workers, the demonstration of grace is couched in the context of work. It’s ironic that work is important in some context while in the end the rewards passed out to the laborers totally negate their work effort. Both the early, diligent workers and the late, dilatory workers were surprised to receive equal pay at the end of the day.

How can work be essential to the story yet be dismissed in its ending? At the End of the Age—at the last judgment—everyone will be surprised at the reward or punishment meted out to them:

“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’” (Matthew 25:37-45)

And there are more surprises in store:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

The surprise amounts to disbelief. Why is it so difficult for us to accept or believe in the idea of grace? Is the issue of work, apparently so important in the parable, there to help us appreciate or understand the concept of grace?

From beginning to end, the Christian faith is an insult to the work of Man, because it leaves Man and the best he has to offer standing on the outside looking in. True Christian faith denies a place to Man’s carnal nature to prove his own worth and earn his own way. It offends the pride and the independence that insists on owing no-one anything and controlling everything. Grace is insulting because it is free and can be given only to the unworthy, insulting Man’s desire to earn his own redemption, and it must remain free on an ongoing basis, insulting Man’s ability to perfect himself after has received the initial grace.

The central theme of the parable of the vineyard workers is that grace cannot be earned; that it is free and available to the undeserving. The great deception of those who value our faith (perhaps they are you and me) is the belief that after redemption by grace through the work of Christ we must then sanctify ourselves on our own. This seems like the responsible thing to do, but despite the fact that Jesus is not only the author but also the finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), scripture contains ample admonition to shun evil, resist temptation, and live an overcoming life.

Is work to be seen as something of value to ourselves rather than to God? We are, after all, taught from our earliest age the concept of cause and effect through the teaching of Newtonian laws and the principles of natural and social science. We depend upon the predictability of life and the world around us; that is why grace is such a surprise and the ultimate disruptor of cause and effect. It means, after all, getting what you do not deserve. In this concept, so foreign to man, so difficult to comprehend, so utterly alien to our thinking, God seems to risk being misunderstood about the meaning and nature of work and its importance with respect to our salvation. Somehow, work is necessary; but not for salvation, as this key scripture makes plain:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

The passage says that we are the product of God’s work. And so does this:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Is it possible we could be the product of God’s work together with work of our own? I think it is, if we define “work” as the passing on of grace. Jesus talked often in the gospels—in the parables of the prodigal son, of the debtors, of the good Samaritan, of the publican and the pharisees, of the talents, and many others—about the danger of hoarding grace. He summed it up thus:

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8)

Grace cannot be hoarded lest, like manna, it becomes spoiled, rancid, and toxic. Passing on grace is the work of God in our lives and is the evidence that we have received ourselves the gift of God’s grace. Grace hoarded is the righteousness of the Pharisees, who sought God’s favor only for themselves, which is why Jesus said to them:

“…Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31)

The “work” must never be for our own benefit or improvement. It is work done on behalf of the owner of the vineyard—of God—to bear fruit in the vineyard—in the kingdom of heaven. Self-control is OK (Galatians 5) but spiritual self-improvement is both impossible and a sin against God’s grace. To rely on oneself is to exchange the righteousness of God for our own filthy rags:

And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. (Isaiah 64:6)

The idea of grace is so counter-intuitive as to seem unbelievable; so unbelievable that it is easily dismissed as untrue. Getting something for nothing seems to us neither fair nor just. So God puts “Mankind” to work not to save him for the kingdom but to save him from himself, and to allow him to do something. God knows that doing something is important to Man even if it risks the false belief that work leads to salvation. We are naturally inclined to work, and to do so on our own behalf. God wants us to work for others, passing on the grace, the living water that must flow lest it become stagnant and undrinkable.

How does the parable of the workers in the vineyard help us to understand the correct concept of work in the life of the Christian and in the context of the grace of God?

David: The passing on of grace implies work; it implies being proactive. If you have grace, you have a responsibility to pass it on. But the Daoist in me is troubled at the notion of being proactive. One can only accept grace (assuming it comes one’s Way) and by virtue then of being “grace-full” one will naturally but passively irradiate people around one with it, if not by loving them then at least by not seeking to hurt them. It seems to me that to be made responsible for proactively passing on grace is to be given an excuse for piety and its works!

Rimon: Accepting the grace that is given to us is a major step for us. By virtue of accepting it, we naturally pass it on. We cannot be full of grace and not pass it on. It’s not something we do; it’s something that just happens. If effort is involved then it is not really grace.

Donald: It’s hard to believe that God really cares for me. It’s hard to get one’s head around the notion that he died for us. Grace is a complex idea. So is work, so it needs definition. Is an activity “work” if we enjoy it? Is it work if it is intended to benefit someone in need? It is hard to think of an occupation more valuable than that of the physician, whose work is dedicated to meeting the needs of more or less helpless people who come to them for help, even to the extent of putting their lives in the physician’s hands. Is that work? Or is it a skill that amounts, in a sense, to grace? Is a guidance counselor working when listening to the stories and needs of clients in distress? Many feel joy at being able to help in this way—it does not feel like work.

And yet…. The Sabbath was intended as a day away from work, not a day away from grace!

Jay: True acceptance of, or perhaps just true belief in, God’s grace results in a natural outpouring of it to others. God pours out his grace freely to everyone, but people who don’t believe in grace—people who have no faith—cannot pass it on.

Michael: If grace is the cause, then the work of grace is the effect of that cause. But if work is itself the cause, it has effects of its own, and that is work for our own good, not for itself. It’s not part of grace.

David: The clause in the quote from Ephesians “For we are … created in Christ Jesus for good works” is difficult to understand. Does it mean that we were created to do good works? If so, then clearly work is important so long as it is “good”.

Don: It seems as if work is essential and even necessary, that we were created for it; but only if it is work on behalf of others in need. When we share grace, we are not the primary benefactor, we are only a conduit; and we are not the beneficiary—we are to be saved anyway, and don’t need grace for that.

Donald: We choose where we invest our time, and involve ourselves in making a contribution. Was Jesus working when he performed his miracles? When he blessed and healed and brought comfort to people in need? Was that work? I would think God would want us to reflect him in whatever it is we put our time into. We do have choices in how we invest our time, and they are not minor choices.

David: The Daoist would say don’t even try to choose—let the Way take its natural course (it will, anyway!) Don’t try to impose your will by choosing—just accept what is, accept things the way they are, accepting as guidance only that which comes from deep inside—from the inner light. We are incapable of choosing the right path . We cannot choose work on the basis that it is good because we don’t know what is good. We are incapable of making that choice.

Michael: It strikes me that passing on grace is active work, not just passive; but at the same time making the distinction between work of grace that is for the benefit of others or work that I choose for my own benefit is not easy because they can run very much in parallel and perhaps even be identical! It gets really confusing because it is so hard to separate them.

Jay: It was never intended that we would know the difference between good and evil. That was to have been strictly God’s prerogative. But in the Garden we chose to exercise our will over God’s and came to discover why he did not want us to know: Because it is impossible for us to distinguish with 100 percent accuracy between good and evil. The black and white of right and wrong was replaced by one big, messy, grey, area we call ethics. The difficulty Michael mentions is in distinguishing between ever-so-slightly-different shades of grey.

Even when the differences in shade are striking, it still leaves us with the possibility that what seems to us to be the shade that is on the side of light is not, and vice versa. There are many examples in the gospels: When Jesus was out performing his miracles there were people among his audience who disputed his right to do them. There were two very different interpretations of the work and motives of Jesus. Jesus was very explicit that distinguishing good from bad, and between who should be forgiven and who should not, was not for the non-divine to meddle in. If we try, it is likely to rebound on us with serious repercussions for our eternal souls.

David: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” seems to take us back to the Garden, where we walked with God in his creation and our only work was to tend to the flowers. There were no sick or poor to tend to as good Samaritans. It would be a contradiction in terms for paradise to house anyone with any unmet need.

Rimon: What we do on behalf of others affects the hearts and minds of others. The inner light will tell us whether these effects will be negative or positive.

Donald: The Creation story clearly suggests that after six days, God felt lonely and created Adam, then realized that Adam would be lonely so he created Eve. We do tend to care for the needs of our spouses, but I’m not sure that “care” is what is meant by “work”.

Michael: Jesus “worked” miracles on the Sabbath. Perhaps “work” that comes out of grace is in fact rest, not work at all.

Don: God “worked” for the Creation, and declared the results to be “good”. His “rest” from work on the seventh day could well have something to do with grace.

Chris: From a human point of view, work is usually selfish. It’s for a paycheck, or to improve the way my house looks. Grace is not about the things I do—it’s not a reward for my work. It’s a gift that is given to me. When I accept it, then “works” of selfless giving naturally ensue—yet they don’t feel like work, they feel restful. So the two types of work—work from grace and self-directed work—seem to me quite distinct.

David: Mother Theresa is revered through India and much of the world not for working to bring Christianity to people but for helping others. It seems to me that through that she probably succeeded in bringing God—Goodness—to many people. The religion, the sect, was immaterial.

Donald: It’s important to know what motivates us to do what we do. Is it selfishness? Is it goodness? Is the feeling of reward—perhaps it’s the feeling of grace—that comes from helping others a personal benefit and therefore selfish?

Ghada: If we help others so we can feel good about ourselves then surely that is kind of selfish?

David: A God who created heaven and Earth to feel better, to have companionship, and who took a day off because he was tired from all the work does not sound like God to me. I see a God whose purpose, indeed his whole Being, can be summed up in the condensed statement that he created good. And that, to me, is the fundamental purpose of our lives also. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Our work is simply to be good.

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