Late yesterday, I wrote a post (3,629) that sunk the worldly, socialist and carnal rust bucket of a ship called "social justice", to which many professing Christians here obviously subscribe. Many here believe that if God doesn't treat everyone equally, then He's unjust, unfair, unrighteous, thereby buying into this dark world's idea of justice. But the bible teaches that justice is served when righteous retribution is made toward the unrighteous or when a sinner repents and is acquitted of all wrongdoing through justification by God's grace through Christ's substitutionary death whereby He paid the sinner's sin debt on the Cross. This is true justice! The Cross is a vivid demonstration of God's justice (Rom 3:25). For both sinner and saint alike receive what they deserve: the former based on his personal sins and the latter solely on the merits of what Christ earned on his behalf.
The Parable of The Workers focuses on another aspect of Justice in addition to the aspect of Promise: The Rights of the Righteous King of this universe who owns everything in it. Here's the parable:
Matt 20:1-16
20:1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5 So they went.
"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
7 "'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
9 "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
NIV
Verse 15 says it all! Cannot the landowner do as he sees fit with his own money? Since Jesus clearly said he did, then how is it that you FWers contradict the Savior and claim that God cannot give HIS grace to whomever He wishes, for such an act would make him unfair? Of course, the answer to my question here is found in "b" part of this verse. You FWers are envious of the Father's magnanimous generosity.
Next, notice carefully how this "social justice for all" drivel truly works out in the real world. The workers who were hired first complained against the landowner. They expected to be paid more for working longer hours, completely forgetting that they didn't deserve more since they had already agreed to the wages the owner originally offered. Therefore, the landowner was not unjust since he paid them what he had promised, which rendered the first workers' complaint not only uncalled for but entirely unrighteous! But at the same time he certainly was exceedingly generous with his money with the other workers who worked far fewer hours.
This parable is a great illustration of the truth taught in Isa 55:8-9. God truly does not think or act the way we mere finite, fallible creatures do.
Also, ponder the thief on the cross and his last hour "confession of faith" and compare him with Christians who were saved and served the Lord for many years before they died. But isn't the thief in the same place as this latter group?
In closing then, in order for God to be unjust in electing a sinner unto reprobation, God would have to break a promise to that sinner, or the sinner must be worthy of God's grace which God refused to acknowledge and honor.
