"We are unworthy servants..." (Luke 17:10)
What is your posture before God? As Christians, do we have the posture of a trembling, undeserving, unworthy sinner before God, no matter how hard we have faithfully worked, served and sacrificed for our church and for others?
This is a very, very painful and bitter thought: God can never ever credit any of my good works to me.
Why is my good works not being credited to me so painful and bitter? Even if we mentally acknowledge that this is true (Eph 2:8-9), we often do not feel or act accordingly. We all get upset if we think that others do not appreciate our efforts or our faithfulness. Why is this biblical truth so hard to swallow? It is because all of life suggests otherwise: If we study hard we get good grades. If we do what our boss/leader expects, he is pleased. But it doesn't work like this with God. Why not?
- Our best efforts fall short of God’s requirements (Rom 3:10-12,23).
- Our hearts are deceptively faulty and deceitful (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9).
- Before God’s eyes of perfection, there is nothing good in us (Rom 7:18,23-24).
Was this hard for Martin Luther? The 16th century German Reformer Martin Luther understood how "exceedingly bitter" it is that God loves us only through our faith and by his grace alone, and never though our good works. Luther wrote,
"Even though we (Christians) are now in faith ... the heart is always ready to boast of itself before God and say: After all I have preached so long and lived so well and done so much, surely he will take this into account ... But it cannot be done. Let anybody try this and he will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter it is ... I myself have been preaching and cultivating it (the message of grace) ... for almost 20 years and still I feel the old clinging dirt of wanting to deal so with God that I may contribute something, so that he will have to give me his grace in exchange for my holiness. And still I cannot get it into my head that I should surrender myself completely to sheer grace; yet (I know that) this is what I should and must do."
What do I believe and what do I feel? Even if I believe what the Bible says about undeserved grace, it is still so easy to feel that God owes me his favor for my holy living and faithful service. No matter how long we have been a Christian we default to our work righteousness. We subconsciously relate to God on the basis of my attempts at holy living. Sadly, we also relate to other Christians (and non-Christians) on the basis of their performance of Christian duties (or on their living morally and rightly).
Do you truly feel like an unworthy servant? To illustrate that God is not obligated to us by our good works, Jesus told a very unpleasant and painful parable about an ungrateful and unappreciative landowner (Luke 17:7-10), who seems to care less about his servants. He overworks them all day in the fields. He does not care if they are tired, hungry, sick, or discouraged. He seems concerned only about how well his own fields and flocks are doing, and about being served for his own comfort and convenience. Why does Jesus suggest that God is like this unsympathetic and nasty landowner?
A way that this parable should NEVER be taught is to tell our fellow Christians that no matter how hard you work, serve or sacrifice, you should just be thankful and not to expect anything from God or others (even though this is true). What shouldn't we do this? It is because we are not God or Jesus! We are all equally fellow servants and fellow beggars of his grace.
What is the secret of being thankful? Jesus simply wants his disciples to know that God is a God of grace. Just as our sins do not stop God from loving us, our good works do not obligate God to give us his blessing. That our gracious God loves us fully despite our sin also implies that God does not account our good works as the reason that he must show us his affection.
This is the secret of being thankful. If I think that I earned or deserve something from God or others, I will never truly thankful, because I am just getting what I think I deserve. But if I truly and deeply know that I have received everything only by the grace of Jesus, then I can be genuinely thankful for his marvelous undeserved grace that is greater than all my sins.
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