The kingdom of heaven is nothing like the earthly realm we live in. The two operate on totally different principles. If we try to relate to God with earthly, temporal thinking, then we set ourselves up for a frustrating life at best.

In Ephesians 1, Paul tells us we’ve been “blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Twice in the next few verses, Paul credits God’s grace for our blessings and standing before Him and tells us God’s grace was freely given and lavished on us.

In Matthew 20, Jesus is telling a parable and begins with, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” He then tells the story of the generous landowner who hires men to go work in his fields. Through the course of the day, he continues to hire more workers. With very little time left in the work day, he hires still more workers.

Naturally, the men who worked all day expect they will receive more pay than those who worked less, especially those who worked only for an hour. Of course, that’s not what happens.

The landowner begins distributing the wages to the workers. Those who only worked for an hour still received a full day’s pay. So do the workers who only worked half the day. And finally, the men who worked all day received their wages, which were the same amount everyone else got.

It’s not fair is it? The guys who worked all day should have received more than those who worked only part of the day. Sure, they got what had been promised to them, but the whole thing just isn’t right.

Of course, it “just isn’t right”, if you put yourself in the position of the guys who worked all day. If you are one of the guys who worked only an hour, then you’re thrilled. Here’s the thing–we’re much more like the guys who only worked for an hour. We just don’t deserve what we receive from God. That’s the way grace is.

To understand the parable, we must realize Jesus is not talking about salary administration. He began the story with these words, “The kingdom of heaven is like…”

In other words, in the kingdom of heaven, the fundamental operating principle is grace, not performance. We don’t earn God’s love and favor and blessing by what we do or don’t do. Everything we receive from God is totally undeserved. It’s all by grace. And since God owns everything and we exist for His pleasure, He is free to dispense His blessings however He desires.

Your best works cannot obligate God to bless you. Even if you perfectly obeyed day after day after day, you’ve only done what was required of you. You have not placed God in your debt. He owes you nothing.

This is great news! If we got what we really deserved, Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that it would be death. That’s not what God gives us though. He chooses, through the Son, to bless us by grace.

Don’t be tempted to bring our earthly sense of fairness into the heavenly realm. “Fair” would mean death for us. What we really need to do is learn to rest in and enjoy the grace He has lavished on us.