Bible Passage:  Matthew 22-24

Whenever I read this parable about the feast of the King, I’m reminded of how I cannot take the grace of God in vain.

A preacher once said, the grace of God is freely given, but it is not cheap; it comes with a price…

For years when I’m a child to teenager, I had been taught about how we are Gentiles grafted onto the original branch that has been cut off. It seems that we were never meant to be the children of God. However, the New Testament reveals that God had chosen us before the foundation of the world. So God always knew that His chosen people will turn away from Him. However He started with a chosen race, exclusive and unopened. Now I realise that God probably went through the entire process to teach us that He had used various ways to bring man back to Him, and these are not what some understood as God having changed or adapting His methods based on man’s history. Rather, He knows what man would do and He used different methods in different times to save those who are willing to be saved, and showed to us through history His mercy.

Sometimes I wonder how to consider the anger of God. Some people claim that since God knows man will do things against His will, He should not be angry since He knew long before man did it. However, the wrath of God is not the same as the wrath of man. His wrath is not impulsive, not acting on emotions or for the moment. His righteousness is executed when His wrath is aroused.

Instead of condemning the Israelites for what they did to Jesus, I ask myself what would I have done if I were in their shoes.

In the prayer that I received His precious Holy Spirit, I had imagined myself to be one of those who called out “crucify Jesus!”

No matter how many great works God has done in our lives, man can be capable of being the most ungrateful being and sin against God.

But when His first method of preserving a race turned against His own Son, He opened the doors to everyone on the street. However, let us not be mistaken that we can come before Him proudly with all our sins, expecting Him to accept whatever we come in. Jesus taught His disciples that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. Today we abide by a greater law.

The man without a wedding garment was thrown out of the banquet, for he had trampled upon the grace of God.

The grace of God is great, but let us never use it as an excuse to sin and think we may come before Him unabashed.