DRIVEN BY WORKS TO GRACE TO JESUS

By Robert Jakes (FFT Subscriber)

A man named Bill had been a lukewarm Christian for a long time and knew it. Doing nothing for years, he grew very guilty.

One day an unusual opportunity to do evangelism with others fell into his lap. He said yes.

He had a lot to overcome - lack of knowledge, bad attitudes, and bitterness. But he worked at it. The day came when he baptized the first convert he had ever taught. He worked harder and harder. He was serious about worming himself back into God's good graces after years of neglect. His schedule kept increasing. There was a continual stream of people, doctrinal conflicts, classes, and work.

Time went by. One day while praying, he broke down in tears of exhaustion and said to God, "I can't do it anymore. This burden is killing me."

Immediately, a huge pack of stones fell off Bill's back and vaporized in a cloud of smoke. He was able to straighten up for the first time in years. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. God said to him, "Bill, I think a teachable moment for you has finally arrived. Study Jesus and grace. We'll talk again."

For a couple of weeks, Bill read and thought. He began to perceive he had misunderstood something fundamental. God said to him, "Feeling better?"

"Yes I am, and thank you, Lord, so very much. The grace Jesus offers is a marvelous and freeing thing, but what rules should I be observing?"

"Do you want your stones back ?", God asked.

"No sir," came the humble reply.

"Good. Then stop trying to put me in your debt and earn your salvation. You do not have to 'worm your way back into my favor'. I'm not like that. Submit to my grace and rely on me, not yourself. Watch and follow Jesus."

"Yes sir. But, to tell the truth, I'm, well, sort of uncomfortable with this."

God smiled. "I compliment you on your honesty. Tell me, what problems did the one talent man have ?."

"He was lazy," Bill replied.

"Are you lazy ?" God asked.

"No sir!"

"Indeed, you are not lazy. What other problems did he have ?"

"He was afraid."

"Are you afraid ?"

The conversation was beginning to make Bill nervous. He, however, had always prided himself on his honesty. So he answered, "Yes."

And God answered, "You do well to be in awe of me. While some of your fear is uncalled for, that alone is not what is making you uncomfortable. What other problems did the one talent man have ?"

By now Bill's pride had begun to reassert itself. So he asked, partly to stall for time and partly to try to redirect the conversation, "Are you telling me that I'm a one talent man ?"

God smiled again. "No, that's not my point at all. I well know you are talented. Don't be paranoid, don't be defensive, and don't change the subject. What other problem did the one talent man have?"

Bill began to be conscious of sweat running down his back. His mind was racing in desperation to remember the details of the parable. What was God after ? Then he remembered and said, "The one talent man said you were a hard man, taking up what you did not lay down and reaping where you did not sow."

"Do you believe that ?" God asked.

Terrified, Bill said, "No, he lied about you. You hold people to account for themselves, but you do not reap where you have not sown." "Then why did the one talent man believe a lie about me ?", God asked.

Bill was at the end of his rope. He still did not know where the conversation was going. Fighting hard to keep his fear from paralyzing him, he simply answered, "I don't know."

"Bill," God said, "listen to me carefully. The one talent man had a tiny heart. Because his heart was hard and small, he assumed mine was too. He projected his own pettiness onto me. He could not see me as I am because he measured me by his own smallness.

"Bill, do you trust me ?" God asked.

At this question, sadness, shame, and some defiance started to mix with Bill's fear. "Not a whole lot," he answered.

"Do you love me ?" God asked. Sometimes self-knowledge comes hard.

Bill whispered, "I don't know."

"Then do you believe that I love you ?" God asked. Bill heard a tenderness he did not expect in God's tone, mixed with a grief-filled, wistful patience. Bill was stunned to realize that the conversation had become painful to God, too.

So tears filled his eyes and he said, "I know you sent Jesus to die for us. I don't know what more you could do, and I don't know why it so hard for me to feel loved by you."