Grace Alone Save: So Don't Give God the Stink-Eye

Septuagesima – The Third Sunday before Lent
February 13^th, A+D 2022
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Grace Alone Saves: So Don’t Give God the Stink-Eye

Stanzas 1 and 2 of Hymn 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives

     Being hired into the vineyard is to be brought into the Kingdom of God, made a citizen, a member of God’s people, living under God’s rule and reign.  This hiring is a decision and act taken by the Master, the Owner of the Vineyard, the Lord God Almighty, without any merit or worthiness in us, shiftless types, idling around in the town square.  A sinner being hired into the Vineyard is what we are scheduled to witness next Sunday, with little James Oaklee, at his Baptism.  Nothing helps us see God’s grace in action better than the Baptism of an infant. 

     The works that God has planned for James Oaklee are already prepared, and they are very important to the Lord.  But they are not why God chooses him, or any of us.  His works are not part of the reason God saves him.  Salvation is pure grace, God’s free gift.  Little Oaklee will be just as much a member of God’s Kingdom as the most famous saint.  For all of us are by nature sinful, and are totally dependent on God’s generous heart for our salvation.   A humble, dependent, but eternally blessed way to live.     

Stanzas 3 and 4 of Hymn 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives

     Martin Luther and CFW Walther have drilled into generations of LCMS pastors that we are to preach Law first and then Gospel.  We are to preach repentance before we preach free forgiveness.  Then, after proclaiming God’s free gift, we are not to bind people under the Law again.  We are not to imply that our salvation depends on us obeying the Law, after we are saved.  God’s Law is good and we should obey it with all our might.  But all our might cannot keep the Law without sin.  So, in this life, God’s Law always points out our sin, even when it is guiding us in Christian living.  Only the Gospel, only the Good News of free forgiveness in the blood of Christ, can save.  We want people to leave Church confident of their salvation, for the sake of eternity, and so that they will be moved to freely do good works.  So preaching Law first and then Gospel is wise, for us poor miserable sinners called to preach here on earth, so that we don’t mix up God’s Law and Gospel, and so damage the faith of our hearers. 

   But it is interesting how often Jesus doesn’t feel bound by this rule.  Which of course He isn’t, since He can actually see into men’s hearts and knows just exactly what we need to hear at any moment.

     For example, Jesus ends today’s parable with Law, with a warning to the early arriving workers, who thought they deserved more for all their contributions to the vineyard than the workers who came at the last hour.  “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”   This is a stern warning to Christians against thinking that we are better than others, against thinking we have deserved or have earned what we have received from God.  The proper response of faith to the superabundant grace of God is humility and thankfulness, not pride and possessiveness.  We need grace for ourselves, every day, and we rejoice when it reaches another.    

     The original language of Jesus’ warning is actually much stronger than our translation.  A literal translation of the master’s question would be:  Is your eye evil, because I am good?  In less formal speak, the Master says to the grumbling worker, “Are you giving me the stink-eye because I’m generous, with my own money?”

     Don’t talk to God like that!  Don’t even think like that!  The Law must be preached against human pride and greed, including, indeed especially in the area of salvation, throughout the life of every Christian.  As sinners, we naturally look for some way to take credit, to put ourselves ahead of others, to avoid admitting every day that our status in the Kingdom of God is always a matter of undeserved grace.  Such thinking is an insult to God, and a threat to your salvation. 

     Our works, apart from Christ, remain as filthy rags.  But God in His grace clothes you again and again in the pure white righteousness of Jesus, who died and who lives, to bless you.  Every time you are brought to repentance and bring your sins to the Father, He forgives and restores you, for Jesus’ sake. 

     This is the Divine Liturgy, God’s saving work of service to dying sinners.   Our Divine Service, our liturgy on the page, (or screen), seeks to faithfully reflect and deliver what God has done and continues to do for you.  God grant that we revel in His service, rely only on His grace, and rest joyfully in the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and which keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting, Amen.     

Stanzas 5 and 6 of Hymn 602, The Gifts Christ Freely Gives