The Fruit of the Vine: Grace and Works

Don: If we are saved by grace, what is the purpose of works? Scripture appears conflicted over the matter:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Romans and Galatians repeat this view of Paul’s, whereas James seems to emphasize works:

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?  (James 2:17-20)

Revelation also says that we shall be judged by our works. How is it then that we can be saved by grace yet be judged by our works? Some people think one cannot be saved by one’s works but can be lost by them. Could the “I am the vine” explanation given by Jesus be about grace rather than works? Over and over, especially in the parables, he talked about the hoarding of grace. The Parable of the Talents seems to explain best how grace and works relate to one another:

“For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

“Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

“And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’

“But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’

“For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (Matthew 25:14-30)

The key element is that the talents were given out of the generosity of the master, who attached no conditions. In Luke, there were ten servants, each of whom were given the same number of talents. This slightly different twist may give some insight into the concept of grace. First, we don’t all get the same amount of grace; we get what we need. This is borne out in the Exodus, where manna is a metaphor for grace:

Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, for He hears your grumblings against the Lord; and what are we, that you grumble against us?” (Exodus 16:1-7)

But this story suggests that even if we got the same amounts, the same results are not expected. In the story as told by Luke, the return on the talents was not identical. This is similar to the return of the sower in the parable of the seed: Even when he sowed good seed on good soil, the crop yield was not the same everywhere. Why is that? The answer might give us a clue to the relationship between grace and works. All of us are the recipients of God’s grace but not necessarily in equal amounts; rather in amounts just enough for our individual needs. The key question is: What do we do with the grace that is given to us?

The Parable of the Talents is followed immediately by the story of judgment in Matthew 25, which gives us an insight in what we expected to do with the grace that is given to us. It must be passed on. It must not be hoarded, buried, or put to idle use. Hoarded grace becomes toxic: The judgment question is: Did you act as a conduit for the grace that was given to you? Did you pass it on? Our sharing of our grace with others is in proportion to our receipt of it. We are not called upon to be at work for God in every circumstance, at all times, in all places. Many of us have been raised to feel that we are, but the teaching of Jesus suggests otherwise.

God has given each of a toolbox of grace for our individual journey through life. For some of us, the toolbox is pretty full, but not for others:

From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. (Luke 12:48)

Those who travel through life with a nearly empty toolbox of grace. But the judgment made clear in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that we are all, at some point, given the opportunity to pass on such grace as we have in our toolbox. Sometimes we are unable to respond, but we are not expected to respond if our toolbox is not equipped for it. Sometimes we may encounter people who need enormous emotional support but our toolbox may not contain a sufficient reserve of emotional support to meet that need. Ditto for financial support. We are not required to give more than we’ve got. However, all of us will at some point in our lives encounter someone who needs help that our toolbox is equipped to supply. The judgment question is: Did we, at that point, use our toolbox to help the other in need? This is the connection between work and grace. Work allows one to be the conduit for God’s grace.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

In other words, we didn’t generate the light but we are responsible for ensuring it is not covered under a bushel; that it flows through us without being obscured. The light—the grace—is given to us so that we might pass it on whole.

What happens to a vine whose fruit is not picked? What happens to the fruit? It becomes engorged, withered, and toxic. A vine whose fruit is never picked is liable to disease and death. Hence, fruits seems more akin to grace than to works. The fruit does not really propagate itself—it is a product of other forces and if it is not picked and eaten for nourishment by others than it is toxic and useless.

John: When Jesus was in judgment and front of Pilate, where was the grace between him (who found no fault in Jesus) and the accusers trying to besmirch Jesus’s character? Pilate eventually caved in from the pressure. Evidently, no grace passed between them. Is Pilate to be judged for that?

Kiran: What if we don’t have the tools in our toolbox but we have the potential to acquire them? Will we be judged if we do not try? I have taken on tasks for which I was unprepared in order to help others. What does that count for?

Donna: God gives you more and more grace to help others. If you hoard it, then he is going to shrink you. A lot of people don’t take time to recognize the grace God has given them.

Dave: I think you acquire tools along the way; that God continues to build us up, to test you, to build your character, to build your skillset, your toolbox, in order to share grace with other people. Sometimes the tools are acquired as a means to help people and sometimes in situations where you have failed. For instance, a drug addict who becomes a Christian is going to be much better suited for helping other drug addicts come to the Lord than perhaps someone who has not gone through that. Those tools—the grace—that God gave that person to help guide them out of their addiction are the same tools that the recovering addict can then use to help other addicts.

Donna: The best way to know where God wants you to go is to see where you were. God can give you the tools to prune but if you fail he shrinks you back, he prunes you back. Sometimes there is that dry season when you feel you don’t have the grace to give, and sometimes God just prunes it back and lets you get the abilities again and then he will give you the grace to reach out again. That’s our experience.

Lloyd: It’s good to be reminded that we are not all things for all people. But all of us have been given some measure of grace. If we are willing to use whatever God has given to us at the time that God will honor that, so that whoever we are trying to help will be helped in some manner. Maybe I don’t know how to serve the drug addict or empathize with the cancer sufferer, because I haven’t been there. But there is a measure of ministry that you can give from what you have. But the flip side is: Is there a time when we should not minister, for fear of doing harm because we lack something? An old adage says: “Sometimes we are so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good”! Do we sometimes err in taking on a role to minister to someone?

John: Elton John is so lost, he is never going to come back. So let him be. You don’t want to shun people, but you don’t want to waste your tools on people who can’t be helped.

Lloyd: We shouldn’t judge, and until someone is in the grave there is always hope for them.

Robin: The thief on the cross was an example.

Alice: I relate the toolbox to the seed—the word of God or perhaps the grace of God—that God planted everywhere, all over the field. The good soil—the “people who are in good heart” according to Luke—turned the seed into good crops, whereas the stony soil did not. Without the seed within us, it is impossible to produce fruit. In the end, any fruit we produce is not of our making. All that matters is the seed and a good heart. If the soil is stony or thorny, it cannot absorb and nurture the seed.

Chris: Grace manifested and shared through our reciprocal relationship with God and the fruits of the spirit. I define grace as love. joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we share it, we are not only doing what God wants and commands us to do but also doing what is needed by our fellow wo/man. The fruit we share—the tools in our toolbox—may be at different stages of ripeness/readiness. A relationship with Christ helps the fruit ripen and be ready at the appropriate time. When it is not harvested and shared, it falls off the plant and may be eaten, along with the seeds it contains, and spread by animals through their dung, which fertilizes the seed so it can grow into a new vine. In that sense the fruit it is shared. Some of my fruit may be ripe and ready for picking and use, but some may still be sour and not ready.

Jay: Fruit is really about the propagation of the vine. The vine—Jesus, the essence, the grace, the goodness of God—is propagated through the production of fruit. Works are about the propagation of grace. The good works are impossible without grace. Works are not about “doing” but about the transfer of grace from God, through me, to someone else. So as Lloyd asked, what about the times when I can nothing? When my fruit is not ripe yet? Jesus said (Luke 14) that to be his disciple one must hate one’s mother and brother and father and give up all one’s possessions. I think he knew those were impossible demands and made them in order to focus our minds on what followed: That we must calculate the true cost of discipleship, and that we must assess whether we have what it takes to succeed. Don’t try to build a tower if you can’t afford to lay the foundation (or vice versa), and choose diplomacy over war if your forces are weak.

There is a slippery slope aspect to this, of course; that is, using it as an excuse to do nothing rather than as a reasoned assessment that doing nothing is the best thing to do in the circumstances.

Donna: So what could we do if we sense that someone has a need but we don’t really at this time know how to serve them as well as they need? Is the next step to refer them to someone else?

John: Anyone who has ever been truly shunned by Man experiences an unbelievably intense connection with God. Perhaps that explains Jesus’s advice to hate one’s mother and father. And with that connection comes a grace that overpowers all hatred and makes one care for people. You have to experience total loss to achieve total gain. You can’t gain that grace by running around doing works.

Lloyd: I think we should recognize that we are short on grace but use the little we have to seek out others. I am currently praying for a man whose daughter has shunned her family. I have some similar experience with a family member so am able to share my understanding and put him in touch with my family member as a means hopefully of understanding his own situation better. All of us have been given a measure that can help even if it is not a total solution.

Jay: The servant who hid the talent he was given did not intend to steal it—he wanted to make sure he could return it to the master when he returned. The problem was that this was not what the master wanted. Jesus said that more would be given to those who already have a lot. That’s because those who use their lot to meet the needs of their fellow Man will achieve more with more, whereas giving more to those who do not use it would be a waste.

Dave: We are given grace not by works, but God expects us to develop our tools based on what we’ve been given to multiply that. That means we need to seek out ways to serve and not just be the fruit that’s sitting there waiting for some opportunity to come along. I think we are called to develop and go out and try to multiply that.

Don: In the Judgment as described by Jesus, everybody is surprised: Those judged worthy by God wondered what they had done to be worthy, while those judged unworthy wondered the opposite. It suggests that the sharing of grace is a passive, not a volitional, act.

Jay: None of them understands that grace is not about one’s relationship with God but about one’s relationship with one’s fellow Man. Jesus explained this, with examples, immediately following the Parable of the Talents. We are the conduit of the grace. We are branches that share the vine with Jesus: “You abide in me, and I in you.” Grace flows through the conduit and makes good fruit.

Chris: When the branch ceases to conduct grace, the fruit stops growing and there is nothing to be shared.

Jay: …And there is no propagation of Goodness.

Chris: Being a conduit is a passive function. A branch does not need to “do” something to be a conduit—it is a conduit by nature.

Donna: Grace is not to be shared but to be given wholly. When people do graceful things or go on mission trips and so on they hold on to a little bit of their grace, so their mission may not be as blest or productive as a result. It’s tempting to hold onto a piece of the apple but then one misses the fullness of the blessing. The grace is not ours to own.

Kiran: Whenever the biblical greats thought they would win a battle they inevitably lost it. When Moses thought he was powerful enough to deliver the Israelites, he failed. They achieved their greatest successes when they considered themselves nobodies. But is this really a matter of grace? It seems to have a chilling effect on the idea of works. If we think we have the tools to do something, the message from the greats is to think again!

David: John’s experience of grace seems to me, intuitively and on the basis of the Sermon on the Mount, to be the nub of the issue. It is movingly summed up in the words of the song “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (as most movingly sung by Roberta Flack): God’s grace is what you get in spades when you are down and out. God’s grace is God’s presence. I see it not as a tool but as a quality. A young Catholic priest who discovered—when trying to deal with the grief of a family that had just lost a child—that the toolbox he thought seminary had prepared for him was empty. But his greater discovery by far was that the family was comforted simply by his presence—that the grace, the presence, of God was conveyed to them through him. If grace is a tool, it is essentially just a sign saying “I am here. (Signed: God)” Grace is the presence of God, shared. I agree that the vine and its branches are just a conduit for the production of fruit, and that the fruit is Goodness propagated; it is the reaffirmation of the presence of God.

Lloyd: Just being there is sometimes all we can do.

John: When I was on the road driving heavy loads down icy hills and wondering whether my life was totally irrelevant I heard the voice of a famous actor on the radio saying that he too had felt that way but had found God and was now an Adventist. He was sharing God’s grace with me, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Robin: The Good Samaritan did not stay with the victim—he had other things to do. But before leaving he made sure the victim was in good hands of someone who could take it from there. He did what he could.

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