Is Grace Fair?

There are some things in life that are simply not fair. Someone gets the promotion that you have been wanting. Someone gets the job you applied for even though you are more qualified than the person was hired. Someone gets away with committing a crime with all the evidence against that individual.

I am sure as a kid, you told your mom and dad that they were being unfair in a decision they have made regarding discipline or allowing an older sibling to do things past your bed time. We see things all around us that are unfair. We evil men get away with murder, we know there is a Judge that will hold them to account in the end. When people mistreat us, we know of One who will be in our defense in the end.

We also know of men and women, who have been sinful for number of years, repent of their sins and trust in Christ as their Savior. Whether it was in their jail cell during a life sentence or on their death bed, God grants them mercy and gives them His grace.

Now here comes the question, is grace fair? Let us considered this parable of Jesus:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

Now 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 and saw others standing idle in the marketplace;

and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.

Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’

They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

“Now when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ 

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.

And when those hired first came, they supposed that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 

Now when they received it, they were grumbling at the landowner,

saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?

Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’

So the last shall be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20:1-16, LSB)

In this parable, which is known as the Parable of the Vineyard, the owner of the vineyard paid everyone the same amount of money for their work regardless of when they started. Those who were first hired thought they were going to more, but they did not. What did they do? They grumbled at the landowner.

This parable is a picture of God's grace for true believers in Christ. When come to faith in Christ, we receive His grace. No one gets more grace because they received Jesus at a young age and no gets less grace because they received Christ later in life especially on their death bed. 

Think about the thief on the cross who rebuked the other thief and gave a request to Jesus:

And one of the criminals hanging there was blaspheming Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”

But the other answered, and rebuking him said “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 

And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we have done; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”

And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43, LSB)

Jesus told this man who was being executed next to Him that he will be in Paradise with Him. That sounds like the men who were hired at the last hour to work the vineyard. They got the same wage as everyone else. The thief on the cross got the same measure of grace and mercy as one would even they come to faith early in life.

Now the question that is asked, is grace fair? Grace has been understood as getting what we do not deserve where mercy has been simply defined as not getting what you deserve. Grace is God's unmerited favor meaning we do not earn it by working our way to it. 

We are all sinners that deserve judgment. God is obligated by His holiness to smite us because of our sin. It would be fair to give us what we do deserve, but it is not fair because we deserve punishment from God. 

So, is grace fair? No. Praise God it is not.