The Life Of Jesus Christ In Its Historical Connexion

Here, also, belongs the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, which opposes all assertion of one's own merits, and all anxiety for rank and rewards among the servants of the kingdom of God. This parable admits of many and various applications; but, in order to understand it correctly, we must consider it by itself, apart from the introductory and concluding passages. [645]

The prominent idea of the parable is, that all who faithfully obey their call, who are. truly converted, and labour diligently after their conversion, whether it occur at an earlier or later period, whether the term of their new life is long or short, are made partakers of the same blessedness in the kingdom of God. The question is not what they were before their conversion, but what they become after it. All who have reached this point have the same thing in common; for all receive the principle of the higher life, with which, where it really exists, is also presupposed the entire new moral creation that proceeds from it; although this latter may yet be far from complete, and can only be fully realized in the future. No one is entitled to ask more than his fellow receives; there being no human merit in the case, all that is given is of God's free grace and mercy in redemption. And it applies not only to the relations of nations (e.g., the later called heathen, to the Jews), but also of individuals.

But how important a thing it is for us that a parable exhibiting the doctrine of free and unmerited grace, so strongly put forth by Paul, has been preserved to us! Taken in connexion with that of the talents (pounds), it forms a complete whole (the two parables being mutually complementary to each other) of Christ's truth; on the one hand, that the gifts of grace are equally bestowed, and are to be received by all alike in humility of heart; and. on the other, that there are various stages of Christian progress, depending upon the use that is made of the grace given: on the one hand, the humble receiving of grace is contrasted with the asserting of one's own merits; and, on the other a self-active zeal is opposed to slothful inactivity