The Christian walk is a life full of paradoxes, and it's not because our beliefs contradict themselves.
One of those paradoxes is what a mentor once told me about our calling in Christ: to be children of God but workers of the kingdom. What does it mean to be both, and why is it important to have both identities in us?
Jesus spoke two parables that shed light on this paradox—the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16).
You've probably heard first parable—the lost son—over and over again. It's the story of two lost sons, one being lavishly rebellious and the other being extremely self-righteous. In our fallen state, we are either of both. We are children of God, nonetheless, but still fallen in nature, either taking God's grace out of place or for granted.
That's why understanding the second parable yields an equally important truth: That we are workers in the vineyard at the same time. The parable talks about two batches of workers who started at different times but received the same wage. Of course those who worked first started to grumble because they believed they deserved bigger wages.
All characters in both parables have one common problem that persists today: an overt emphasis on the blessings of God over God Himself. So many times, we're like the lost sons or the workers who only focus on the wages, the inheritance, the things that we get from God, completely forgetting who God is.
Who is God? God is He who graciously gave up His own Son Jesus Christ so that we now have the privilege to be both children and workers of God's kingdom.
Our birthright and wages from God are not our just rights. Our just right is eternal separation from God. But in His grace, God gives us the privilege we don't deserve: to be with Him and to work with Him in advancing His kingdom.
We are children—sons and daughters—but also labourers for God's kingdom. We need a solid grasp of both to understand that it's not about what we get from God, but the relationship we have with Him that we never truly deserved but were blessed with anyway.
When we grasp the revelation of us being children, we will look to God as the Father, openly receiving His abundant blessing. And when we grasp the revelation of us being workers, we will be grateful for the wages we receive regardless of the size because we deserved nothing from God.
We need both identities to truly get a grasp of this one truth that it's not who we are but of who God is and what we consequently are now through Christ. It's not about what we've done for God, but about what Jesus has done for us and what we now have the privilege of being through Him—His children and workers.
