So sometimes you have to look at things in a new way to learn something new. As was the case last night, as we sat down for family devotional time for the first time in awhile. Mathew 20 is where we opened the bible too. That chapter contains the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. I read through the story, stopping to ask questions, and discuss along the way.
We covered what is most of the time covered with this passage:
- God is the vineyard owner
- The day’s pay represents our salvation
- We are the workers
- Everyone’s salvation is the same, regardless of when they put Faith in Chris
All pretty standard stuff, it was a good new start back into the family devotional time. Then as I was wrapping up I Saw this: Matt 20:2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
How had I not seen the order of this sentence before? The fact that one short verse points to the assurance of salvation. I do not think it was an accident that the agreement for pay(salvation), came before the work. We do not work and then find out what our pay is. We are guaranteed our salvation first and then we go to work for the Master of the Vineyard.
Not that the concept of saved by Grace and not works is new to me. That I understand… What is new is the subtlety of the ordering of the sentence. Makes me wonder what new things I have missed about Christ by not looking to him a new?
