‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.’
We don't earn salvation by our works.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (see Ephesians 2:8-9).
The trouble is that we do tend to start to think of our works as earning favor with God. We think that by them we can prove our worth, to justify our value. Jesus cautions us against the attitude of entitlement where we believe that we deserve what we receive because we somehow earned it.
What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (see First Corinthians 4:7).
The fallen parts of us insist that for us to be valuable we must somehow create that value for ourselves. But revelation teaches that our value, along with all that we have and are, is a gift from God. On one level this is easy to accept. But it is harder to live. We still don't know how we would motivate ourselves to do good, especially when doing it is a real challenge, without a life and death necessity compelling us, if our value in God's eyes is already a given. But God wants us to move beyond this mentality. He wants us to receive the good we do as a gift, the good works prepared for us in advance (see Ephesians 2:10) by him, the fruit of his Holy Spirit in our lives (see Galatians 5:22). Apart from him we can do nothing (see John 15:5). But we can do all things through him who strengthens us (see Philippians 4:13).
Because Jesus insists that we harbor no illusions about what we deserve, what he actually gives us can come as the shockingly unguessed surprise it should be.
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
What kind of master would serve his servants first? Jesus is the master who does exactly this. He came not to be served but to serve (see Matthew 20:28). He himself, the master, washed the feet of the disciples at table (see John 13:14). We are not meant to think, 'Well, that's nice', or 'Of course he did.' We are rather meant to marvel. He wants us to understand just how great is his love for us.
It is the appearance unearned grace from Jesus that made salvation possible. And it is only in response to it that we can learn to "reject godless ways and worldly desires". We can "temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age" because we wait for something better than anything we could ever earn or prepare for ourselves.
as we await the blessed hope,
the appearance of the glory of the great God
and of our savior Jesus Christ,
It is because we are his own that we become "eager to do what is good."
The just shall possess the land
and dwell in it forever.
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