Does the Parable of the Talents Teach Salvation by Works?
Christians who are trying to serve King Jesus do not need to fear that they will be found to have not done enough on the Last Day. We should work hard in response to the grace we have been shown, to be sure. But we are saved by Jesus and what He has done for us; what we do is only evidence that we know how great a gift we have been given.
The famous parable of the talents in Matthew 25 sounds a lot like it is teaching some kind of salvation by works. After all, three servants are given money to use. When the master returned, the two who used that money well were rewarded and welcomed into the master’s happiness. The one who did not use the money well was cast outside into the outer darkness. That sounds like those who serve God well enough get in while those who do not fail to make the cut.
That is what it seems to teach at a quick glance, but that’s not understanding the whole parable well.
All of the servants in the parable of the talents were servants to start with. Their status was not something that was earned by what they did. And they were given an incredible amount of wealth to manage right at the start. The starting point for everyone is the blessing of God; that is not something that we did something to deserve.
Related Posts:
You Might also like
-
Deacons: The Office & How to Decide
This is an important office given to the church and Paul takes care to describe the one who feels led to seek it…First Timothy chapter three and verses eight and nine contain five descriptions that either qualify or disqualify a person from serving as a deacon.
The office of deacon is an important one. In one sense the deacon or servant is not distinctive. Christ described himself as a servant in Mark 10:45 saying, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The word serve is the verb form of the noun. Followers of Christ must also serve. Paul describes himself and other ministers as servants (Ephesians 3:7, 6:21). Even the magistrate is a deacon of God (Romans 13:4). The role of servant is, shall we say, all encompassing.
However, the Lord gifted his church with gifted people. Again, this does not nullify the obligation enjoined on all believers to carry out their God given responsibilities. For example, all people are to give joyfully (II Corinthians 8:6-7) but some people have the gift of giving (Romans 12:8). Those not given to contribution should not withhold saying they simply aren’t gifted in that area. They must give. But the one gifted should exercise his gift liberally. Thus, all who belong to Christ are servants. But there is also the office of servant (deacon) with its accompanying gifts.
This is an important office given to the church and Paul takes care to describe the one who feels led to seek it. I simply want to look at some of the things Paul says about the one who might occupy that office in the church.
First Timothy chapter three and verses eight and nine contain five descriptions that either qualify or disqualify a person from serving as a deacon. First, a potential deacon must be dignified or worthy of respect. Their character must be stamped with virtue. It is a mistake when a church asks a lazy member to fill the role of deacon in order to motivate more participation! This is laughable but it sadly happens. The potential deacon must be an upright individual. Let me put it another way, if we were voting on a potential deacon we might ask ourselves a simple question, what sort of person am I voting for?
Read More -
“Believing” in John’s Gospel
John writes this gospel for us, so that we believe and continue to believe and know real life in his name. After all, this “faith,” Jude tells us, was delivered to the “saints” (Jude 1:3). So, do not rest on your believing as a past action. Continue to read the gospel story. Reflect. Rehearse. Marvel. Wonder. And believe.
Why does John place the story of “doubting Thomas” at the climax of his gospel? Because John’s whole purpose is to call people to believe in Jesus of Nazareth—his claims about himself, his ministry, his death for sin, and especially his resurrection from the dead—even though they have never seen him.
In fact, out of about 250 times the New Testament uses the verb “believe” (pisteuō), nearly 100 of them occur in John’s gospel alone. And what is even more interesting is that John never uses the noun form, “belief” or “faith” (pistis). For John, belief is always an active idea, a verbal idea.
But John is not merely interested in instilling belief in those who have not yet embraced the good news. He is just as interested in strengthening the belief of those who are already followers of Jesus as well.
We can see this emphasis in the Gospel of John through the way John emphasizes the faith of Jesus’s own disciples at the beginning of the gospel and later toward the end and climax of the gospel. The first person in the Gospel of John who believes is Jesus’s disciple Nathanael.
Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these” (John 1:49–50).
The next time believing is mentioned it is Jesus’s disciples who believe after the miracle of the water turned to wine.
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him (John 2:11).
Later, in John 2, after Jesus cleanses the temple and declares, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19), John forecasts the fact that Jesus’s disciples would later remember that he had said those words and believe:
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken (John 2:22).
After this passage, however, John’s Gospel turns away from the issue of the disciples believing, and gives attention solely to others believing—Nicodemus (John 3), the woman at the well (John 4), the Pharisees (John 5), the 5000 (John 6), the people at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7), the man born blind (John 9), Martha at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11), to name a few.
But after the people of Israel in general refuse to believe in him (John 12:37), John turns our attention once again to Jesus’s own disciples. Often in the private conversation that Jesus has with his disciples in John 13–16 the subject turns to their believing in him (e.g., John 14:1, 10–12; 16:25–33). Twice Jesus tells his disciples what is about to happen to him in his passion “so that” when it does happen they will remember what he told them and believe (John 13:19; 14:29). -
Pastoral Q & A: Does God Love Everybody?
It’s better to follow the approach of the apostles and early church in the book of Acts. They simply preached the gospel along with the call for people to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. The word “love” isn’t used at all in the book of Acts, and we certainly don’t hear the apostles telling unbelievers that God loves them. In his love, God does send his church out into the world to proclaim the gospel. But as we do that, we have to make it clear that the good news God sends in his love is only so good because the bad news is so bad: God is holy and just and he will not overlook sin.
A parishioner asked me whether God loves everyone. She was discussing this with a friend. The friend insisted that God doesn’t love everyone — he only loves believers. My parishioner’s gut reaction was to disagree. This was my response:
That’s a question I’ve been thinking about for many years. I used to agree with your friend. But through further study, I’ve come to a different view.
The problem is that there are Scripture passages which speak of God’s wrath and hatred towards the wicked — Psalm 11:5 comes to mind. But there are other passages which speak about God’s all-encompassing love for his creation — Psalm 145:9 is an example of that, also John 3:16.
Scripture tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Love is an attribute of God. All of God’s attributes are true of him eternally. But that raises a question: love always requires an object, so who did God love before creation? The answer is with the persons of the Trinity. Eternal, holy, infinite love existed between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When it comes to the love of God, that’s where we need to start. This intra-Trinitarian love is ultimate and primary.
When it comes to his creation, God does have a universal love for all that he has made in general. But we can also speak of a love that God has for all human beings in virtue of the fact that they are created in his image. John Calvin spoke about that in his Institutes. But just like a husband can love his neighbours while also having a special love for his wife, God loves elect human beings in a special way. They become beloved children of the Father, and part of the bride of Christ for which he died.
So what about what Scripture says about God’s wrath and hatred for the wicked in places like Psalm 11:5?
Read More