Passage Read: Matthew 21-22
Meditation Verses: 21:31-32
Thought
This is such a great illustration of what God is looking for, what counts as true salvation. It is not the appearance of obedience and honor that saves, but the actual act of doing what we're told. The son who refused to go and serve his father, but then repented and did what his father wanted, that's what God is looking for. Not the initial refusal, but the eventual humbling and submission. That's the tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes who have turned from their evil ways and are now walking in obedience and honor to God. But the religious leaders and experts who are doing right by their own account but not by God's, these are like the son who agrees to work for his father, but never goes and does what the father asks! They think mere assent shows a good heart, but a good heart is actually shown by submission and obedience to the will of the Father, not to their own idea of righteousness. The repentant sinners show the way better than the "spiritual" experts who teach their own brand of "righteousness" instead of just doing what God asks.
Application
"It is not those who hear the law" and agree that it is good "who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous," as Paul writes. It is not those who hear the Gospel and appreciate its good message that will be found righteous in God's sight, but it is those who recognize what the Gospel means and respond in humility and submission and treat Jesus as God and Lord who will be declared righteous by God. If there is no response of obedience, complete obedience not a picking-and-choosing obedience, then salvation has not yet come. To rejoice over the dramatic transformation of former sinners yet not understand the dramatic transformation required of us nowhere-near-as-bad people is to miss God's point completely. Whether we begin further from God's ideal or nearer, we should all end up with the same awe and complete abandonment to Christ and His will! Whatever God desires of me, that's what I need to give Him. That's the mark of genuine salvation: humility, brokenness and a diligence to become pleasing in His sight.