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Transforming Grace

Discussion Guide, Chapter 3:  Does God Have a Right?

Notes:

• BK means "Book"—Transforming Grace
• SG means "Study Guide"—the companion to Transforming Grace
• SGD means "Study Guide, Going Deeper Section"

Roadmap:

• Biblically demonstrate the "attitude of entitlement."
• Premise #1: We cannot earn blessings because even when we perfectly obey, we’ve only done what we were supposed to do anyway.
• Premise #2: Everything we have has been given to us by God.
• Therefore
• God really does have the right to do what He wants.
• We have no grounds for having an attitude of entitlement.
• We have no grounds for discontentment and complaining.
• We have no grounds for comparing our blessings with those of others.
• God promises us His blessings on the basis of Christ alone.
• Now we are in a position to fully lean on the Risen Lord for our blessings.

Warm-up question: Suppose you are among a group of students who work hard in school, and there is another group of students in your class who goof off, never study, and have consistently failed all their tests. How does it make you feel when you discover that the teacher has decided to give everybody in the class an "A" for the class?

• Read Mt 20:1-16. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
• SG #1.a: Assuming the landowner represents God, what do we learn about the character of God in this story?
• God Takes the Initiative. Several times, it speaks of the landowner "going out" to find the workers. God goes out to find His people. He doesn’t wait for them to come to Him.
• God Satisfies. We are the ones with the need, and God is the one who can satisfy our need. God doesn’t need us.
• God is Sovereign. God does what He pleases with His riches, because He owns the "rights" to them at all times.
• God is Different. God doesn’t do things the way the world does things. The world is on a system of performance, while God is on a system of grace. ("The last will be first, and the first will be last.")
• God is Compassionate and Abundantly Good. God makes a point of blessing the helpless and giving grace to the needy. God has a special place in His heart for the destitute. God reaches down where no man will reach.
• SG #1.b: What do we learn about human nature and how people tend to respond to the good fortune of others?
• We tend to draw a direct correlation between our hard work (obedient living) and our expected earnings (God’s favor and blessings).
• We tend to think that we can obligate God into blessing us.
• We tend to compare our blessings to others and wonder why they get more.
• SG #1.d: Do you see the landowner as unfair, or generous? How does you answer to that question indicate which set of workers you identify with?
• Draw illustration of the worker’s timeline.
• If you tend to see the landowner as unfair, that’s probably because you are identifying with the all-day worker.
• If you tend to see the landowner as generous, that’s probably because you are identifying with the eleventh-hour worker.
• Read Mt 19:27. Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?
• Which group of workers do you think Peter identified with?
• SGD #2: In today’s society, we tend to have high expectations and a strong sense of self-rights and entitlement. What are some examples of these attitudes? How could they be harmful?
• SG #1.e: So what does this parable teach us about the what God’s grace really means?
• God’s grace is entirely free. We cannot obligate God at all.
• God’s grace is dispensed on the basis of our need, not our abilities to impress or incline God’s favor toward us.
• Quote (BK, pages 62-63): "Why do so many people stumble over this parable and consider the land-owner to be unfair? I believe it is because we Christians instinctively identify with the workers who had worked all day. We place ourselves in their shoes instead of the shoes of those who worked only one hour. We look at society around us, instead of at Jesus Christ, and we begin to feel pretty good about ourselves. We consider ourselves to be twelve-hour workers, and we expect to be rewarded accordingly. That is the way Peter felt and that is the way many people feel today. I was talking one day with a man whose mother, a faithful servant of God for over forty years, was dying of painful cancer. He said, "After all she’s done for God, this is the thanks she gets." Such a statement sounds irreverent to us, but the man didn’t intend it to be that way. He simply thought God owed his mother a better life. He only verbalized what many people feel in their hearts."
• Read Lk 7:1-10. When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
• SG #2.a: On what basis did the Jewish elders appeal to Jesus to heal the centurion’s servant? (See vs 4-5)
• SG #2.b: What was the centurion’s perspective of what he deserved? (See vs 6-7)
• Do you think the centurion would identify with the eleventh-hour worker, or the all-day worker?
• The centurion has every reason (worldly speaking) to identify with the all-day worker. He was an upstanding, self-sacrificing person who stood up for principles.
• But the centurion knew he could not base his confidence on his own abilities, but only on the authority of Christ alone ("say the word, and my servant will be healed").

• Starting today, suppose you completely stop sinning, and you don’t sin any more for the rest of your life. Do you think God would be obligated to reward you because of your dutiful obedience?
• Starting today, suppose you perfectly obey all the traffic laws while driving. You never speed; you always make complete stops, and you always use your turn signal when you should. Do you think the state would be obligated to reward you because of your dutiful obedience to the traffic laws?
• Read Lk 17:10. So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'
• SG #3.a: What should our attitudes be concerning our obedience?
• How does this verse prevent us from thinking that we can obligate God in some way?
• Read Job 41:11 and Rom 11:35-36.
• Job 41:11. Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
• Rom 11:35-36. Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
• SGD #1: What do these verses say about our right to demand anything from God?

• So how should we view our giving to God? Is it possible give God anything that He hasn’t already given us?
• Read Acts 17:25. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
• Read Js 1:17. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
• Read 1Chr 29:14. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.
• What can we learn from this verse in our own giving?
• The writer is actually thanking God for the privilege of being able to generously give that which God has already given him.

• So far, we’ve seen that even perfect obedience can’t obligate God, and that everything we give to God has already been given to us from God Himself. Where does that leave us in the parable of the landowner and the workers?
• Quote (BK, page 66): "It leaves us in the blessed position of being eleventh-hour workers in God’s Kingdom," and not the all-day workers. We can only view God as generous, not unfair, and we can only be thankful for His unwarranted provisions. It completely destroys any foundation for my attitude of entitlement.
• Where does that leave us in the parable of the centurion?
• It leaves us in the position of the humble centurion instead of the self-righteous elder. It forces us to put our confidence in the spoken word of Jesus, not our achievements.

• SG #4: Why is a content heart evidence that a person identifies himself as the eleventh-hour worker in God’s Kingdom?
• Contentment is linked to expectation. We are content when we receive more than we think we are entitled to. Therefore, if we eliminate our attitude of entitlement, we can be content with very little.
• Side Note: There are two kinds of contentment:
• Merit-based contentment (opposite of covetousness): based on "entitled expectation." This kind of contentment good, but is virtually impossible to realize because of the human slippery-slope tendency to feel he is worth more than he really is. Too much is never enough.
• Promise-based contentment (opposite of hunger for God): based on "promised, but not entitled expectation." This kind of contentment is bad, because it demonstrates that we are settling for the "mud pies of the world," rather than striving to acquire that which God promises us in Jesus Christ.
• Read 1 Tim 6:3-10. If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
• SG #4: According to this passage, where is the "gain" (or reward) of godliness to be found?
• In vs 5, Paul is talking about people who think that the "gain" of godliness is found in God’s material blessings to His children.
• In vs 6, Paul says that actually, the "gain" of godliness is found in the contentment that comes with God’s material blessings to His children.
• Do you link the gain of godliness to God’s blessings in and of themselves, or do you link the gain of godliness to contentment with God’s blessings? How does this make a difference in your attitude toward the blessings that God has given you?
• In light of this truth, where is there room for complaining?
• Quote (BK, Page 67): "Contentment with what we have—whether it is possessions, or station in life, or mental or physical abilities—is wroth far, far more than all the things we don’t have."

• Why can God "get away with" bestowing more blessings on some than others without being considered unfair?
• Because we can’t incur obligation on His part, and God is completely sovereign.
• In fact, many times, God seems to bestow the most blessing on those that are most unworthy.
• How does this truth make a difference in my attitude toward others who have be "blessed" more than me?
• Put another way, We rejoice in the generosity of God’s grace as long as it is directed toward us, or toward our family or friends. But how do we feel when someone whom we think does not deserve it is blessed by God?
• Quote (BK, page 69): "The workers who labored all day did not grumble because they received too little pay, but because less deserving workers received the same as they [did]."
• Quote (BK, page 70): "We cannot enjoy grace when there is an attitude of comparing. William Arnot has some helpful words on the perils of comparing. He wrote, ‘See the two groups of labourers as they severally wend their way home that evening. As to amount of money in their pockets, they are all equal: but as to amount of content in their spirits there is a great difference. The last go home each with a penny in his pocket, and astonished glad gratitude in his heart: their reward accordingly is a penny, and more. The first, on the contrary, go home, each with a penny in his pocket, and corroding discontent in his soul: their reward accordingly is less than a penny.’"

• Read 2 Cor 1:20. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
• SG #6.a: What does this verse tell you about the basis, or reason, God is able to promise His blessings on sinners?
• God is able to say "Yes" to His promises of blessing (especially salvation) because of the righteousness of Christ alone. Otherwise, He would not be able to say "Yes."
• How does eliminating our attitude of entitlement change our attitude of how we view the promised blessings of God?
• It takes the dependence of bestowed blessings off of us (who are frail and unstable) and moves them to God (who is steadfast and faithful). This gives me a certain freedom from myself.
• When I fully realize that I am not entitled to any blessings of God, several things happen:
• I can more clearly see the love and grace of God.
• I can more fully appreciate the gifts that God has given me.
• I have a basis for the certainty of my future hope in my salvation.

• Biblically demonstrate the "attitude of entitlement."
• Premise #1: We cannot earn blessings because even when we perfectly obey, we’ve only done what we were supposed to do anyway.
• Premise #2: Everything we have has been given to us by God.
• Therefore
• God really does have the right to do what He wants.
• We have no grounds for having an attitude of entitlement.
• We have no grounds for discontentment and complaining.
• We have no grounds for comparing our blessings with those of others.
• God promises us His blessings on the basis of Christ alone.
• Now we are in a position to fully lean on the Risen Lord for our blessings.
• We are able to pray expectantly on the basis of Christ instead of ourselves. (Therefore, we should make sure that the things we pray for are things that are actually "in Christ")

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This page was last edited on 19 Dec 1999.