One of the more arrogant Christian teachings when I was growing up was “Outside the Church there is no salvation.”
That statement reeks of a gatekeeper mentality – that the church should decide who gets saved and who doesn’t. This embarrassing teaching has softened in recent years, as formal clergy have lost power in most Christian churches. A more modern and appropriate rendition is “Salvation can only come from the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ.”
However bluntly or elegantly the problem is put, the issue of salvation for good people who are not professing Christians remains.
How can a just God deny people with a gratitude mindset? Those who follow the Golden Rule out of innate decency, and treat others as they would like to be treated. Positive people who unfortunately never connect with Christianity due to geography, culture or upbringing?
If you read the gospels, you will quickly see that trashing good people is not on the Messiah’s agenda. My favorite parable from Jesus on this issue is the one about the day laborers hired to work in the vineyard.
The Parable of the Vineyard Workers
“The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them to work on his property.
Going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. To them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard gave orders to his foreman. ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’
When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house. ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’Matthew 20:1-16
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Yes, we are all sinners unworthy of a perfect God on our merits. Yes, the only way to salvation is by the forgiveness won for us on the cross, by Jesus Christ’s blood. But……
The vineyard owner’s question to the protesting worker holds the key to this parable.
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?
Jesus never delegated the distribution of His infinite, forgiving grace to any church. We will all stand before Him, individually. I know I will only pass His judgment because of His love and mercy, applying the grace He won on the cross to cover my sins.
For others, I take comfort in Jesus’ all-wise, all-knowing judgment – for good men and women everywhere, from any time.
God the Father allows His Son to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him. For every person who ever lived, Christ will apply or withhold His own forgiving grace with the perfect balance of mercy and justice. Fortunately for all of us, as in the Parable of the Vineyard Workers, our Messiah’s inclination is towards generosity.
