Unfair Grace – by Pastor Kobus Massyn
To understand unfair grace you need to understand the Kingdom of God.
There is no democracy in a kingdom and if the king decrees something, it is final. How amazing is it to be in the Kingdom of God, where all creation worships Him. And when He says that He loves you, that is an order of the King.
God told Peter:
Matthew 16:19 AMP – “I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven.”
The purpose of keys is to enable / authorise and give ownership. To give you the right to enter.
There are three times Peter used the keys:
Acts 2 – Salvation to the Jews
Acts 8 – Salvation to the Samaritans
Acts 10 – Salvation to the Gentiles
Receiving the keys to the Kingdom is like receiving the keys to a new house or motorbike. As soon as the keys are handed over, the deal has been sealed and signed. You’ve got ownership and the responsibility now.
Jesus never preached to the people about His crucifixion except to His disciples, but everywhere He went, He explained and described the Kingdom.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be in the Kingdom?
John 14:2 – My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
In the Kingdom, there is room for us all.
But what does it mean to have this unfair grace? Let us have a look at understanding and not understanding grace.
Jesus vs Jonah
There are a few similarities between Jesus and Jonah
God send both Jesus and Jonah to deliver a message. (Read the book of Jonah). Jonah was told to go to Nineveh to tell them that it is over and that God has had enough. Jonah did not want to and tried to flee the presence of God.
Both Jonah and Jesus died.
Jonah 2:1 & 6b – 1Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and said, “I called out of my trouble and distress to the Lord, And He answered me; Out of the belly of Sheol I cried for help, And You heard my voice. – 6Yet You have brought up my life from the pit (death), O Lord my God.
Jonah did not love the Ninivites, but eventually did what God wanted him to do and delivered the message to the people. The people repents to God, but Jonah was upset that God forgave them. He had the knowledge of God’s power but he did not have the understanding of grace.
Jesus was different.
Luke 4:16-30 – ‘So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah), Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy), to proclaim the favourable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favour of God abound greatly].”
Then He rolled up the scroll [having stopped in the middle of the verse], gave it back to the attendant and sat down [to teach]; and the eyes of all those in the synagogue were [attentively] fixed on Him. He began speaking to them: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.”
And [as He continued on] they all were speaking well of Him, and were in awe and were wondering about the words of grace which were coming from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” So He said to them, “You will no doubt quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal Yourself! Whatever [miracles] that we heard were done [by You] in Capernaum, do here in Your hometown as well.’ ”
Then He said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.
But in truth I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was closed up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was not sent [by the Lord] to a single one of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and not one of them was cleansed [by being healed] except Naaman the Syrian.”
As they heard these things [about God’s grace to these two Gentiles], the people in the synagogue were filled with a great rage; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to hurl Him down the cliff. But passing [miraculously] through the crowd, He went on His way. ‘
Jesus loved the people even if they did not want to hear it or except grace. Jesus understood the gift of grace
When Jesus spoke about the Kingdom, He spoke with reverence. There was no wondering of what was.
The good news is that we do not deserve grace, but the King declared it.
Grace is found in a Kingdom and given by a King.
Matthew 20:1-16 – ‘ “For the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out in the morning at dawn to hire workmen for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour (9:00 a.m.) and saw others standing idle in the market place; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right (an appropriate wage).’ And they went. He went out about the sixth hour (noon) and the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.), and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour (5:00 p.m.) he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They answered him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He told them, ‘You go into the vineyard also.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last [to be hired] and ending with the first [to be hired].’ Those who had been hired at the eleventh hour (5:00 p.m.) came and received a denarius each [a day’s wage]. Now when the first [to be hired] came, they thought they would get more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they protested and grumbled at the owner of the estate, saying, ‘These men who came last worked [only] one hour, and yet you have made them equal [in wages] to us who have carried [most of] the burden and [worked in] the scorching heat of the day.’ But the owner of the estate replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go, but I choose to give to this last man [hired] the same as I give to you. Am I not lawfully permitted to do what I choose with what is mine? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ So those who are last [in this world] shall be first [in the world to come], and those who are first, last.” ‘
The great commission is in our hands. Go out and make disciples and teach them. But are you going to do it like Jonah or Jesus?
When Jesus steps in, everything changes. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Because when you are in Christ and go through the doors, you are in the Kingdom of God.
The moment we step into the Kingdom we will understand the dimension where the Holy Spirit operates and manifest. Step into the understanding of the Kingdom.
If you are still trying to figure out what is fair, you are not understanding the Kingdom, for God says that His grace is enough.
Seek first the Kingdom of God.
