Understanding Grace

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

I want to give us an illustration to help us appreciate not only what grace does for us, but especially what it makes us.

Imagine you are an orphan who is destitute and with nothing to your name. You happen to live next to a vast farm that you hope will employ you when you grow up.

The owner of that farm knows of your existence and decides to educate you for no reason, at least according to you. He also allows you to run errands around the farm ‘to earn your keep’, or so you think.

When you complete your education, you realize that he has transferred this whole farm to you. Why he chose you is beyond your comprehension.

The farm is a great enterprise containing everything, from farm machinery to factories for its products. It also had very able managers that run the entire operation, giving the owner a tidy profit constantly.

You have all over a sudden changed from a penniless orphan to a wealthy one.

What will you do to run this new thing? Incidentally what you do will determine how you and the farm will come out.

Suppose you decide that since the managers know their jobs you will go on a permanent vacation and wait for money to be deposited in your now fat account? What do you expect will happen?

The farm will simply run down and eventually collapse.

You see, the managers may be feeling overlooked. Why were they bypassed when their boss was leaving? How did he choose someone who had done nothing for him and leave out the ones who had made that farm what it was.

But even if they decided not to harbor negative emotions, do you think they can work without supervision?

That is what grace can be equated to.

We have been given something we do not deserve. What we do with it demonstrates our appreciation of the same.

Though you know that the farm is now in your name, you will not leave the farm to run itself. You will at all times be thinking what you would like the former owner find it if he visited.

I am sure that even if you had no interest in farming or any prior knowledge about the same you will delve into farming with a zeal that is most consuming. You will want to make the farm better than it was when it became yours.

Will this mean that you are working to earn the farm?

It simply shows that you have accepted the farm. You are more committed because the farm is yours.

… but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. (1Corinthians 9:27 WEB)

It has nothing to do with striving to impress the one who gave you though you would really be impressed if he visited and found it in good shape. And not that he could take it back if he found it otherwise.

Grace leads to effort, not entitlement or surrender. And grace gives wings to that effort.

Grace is what makes it possible for our righteousness to exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes. It means that it makes us to operate under extremely higher standards.

We are not only justified, but our justification leads us to pursue holiness, because we already can access it through grace.