What if you were given a job and upon arriving for your first day of work, the foreman said, "The first thing we are all going to do is rest. You are going to sit there and listen as I tell you what all this company is going to do for you; how we will pay you good wages, take care of your medical bills, give you job security and never work you unfairly or overly hard." Wouldn't that make you thankful for the job, and beholding to your employer? Wouldn't that make you want to go out and do a good days work for those who are so good to you? Only a fool would not receive these terms.
Under the law, the people were told they were entitled to rest after they had worked six days. Under the covenant of grace, the child of God is told to rest first, then go to work. This is what salvation by grace says: Rest in Christ, believe Him, trust Him ... His Person and His works (not your own), receive the free gift of mercy and grace and give Him all credit for it. Then in gratitude and thanksgiving, do your best in honor to Him. Eternal life is a free gift. It is not earned. And the works we are called to do are to be done out of gratitude, not duty, and are never meritorious... Besides, whatever we are called upon to do is our reasonable service and the very least we could do for One Who has done so much for us...One Who has loved us (the unlovely), and given eternal life to us (the undeserving), and washed us from our sins in His own blood!
How could anyone reject free grace...and how could anyone not want to work because of it?
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