In the state of Washington the strawberries begin to ripen in the month of June. Many people like to go to the fields where they are grown to pick and fill their own boxes with the delicious juicy berries. Then they take them home and enjoy making jam and pies, or eating them fresh with sugar and cream.
One June our family went to the U-Pick field to pick berries. After the people have finished picking all they want, the field owner weighs their boxes and charges them by the pound for the berries they have picked. We had picked about 75 pounds that day and carried them to the weighing shed to pay for them. As we waited our turn, we noticed the two girls ahead of us having their berries weighed. One of them asked the owner, “How much do we get?”
The owner replied in surprise, “I don’t pay you... you pay me!”
The girls had made a big mistake! They thought they were working for someone who would pay them for picking the strawberries. They had not talked to the owner first to find out if they could earn money by picking berries for them. This reminds us of people who think they can do good things for God to earn their way to heaven. They don’t bother to find out first if that is what God asks them to do. If they would read the Bible, which is God’s Word, they would learn that God plainly says that it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5). Another Bible verse says that “all our righteousnesses [good works] are as filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6). It’s plain to see that we cannot earn our way to heaven!
So what can we do?
There is nothing we can do-it has already been done for us. The Lord Jesus died on the cross to pay the debt of our sins, so all that is left for us to do is accept Him by faith as our Saviour. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9).
The girls soon realized their mistake. What could they do? They had no money to pay for the berries they had picked. The owner said to them, “You should have asked first. How would you like it if somebody went into your yard and dug it up and then expected you to pay them for doing it?”
The owner finally had them sit down and pick the stems off the berries and then paid them what they would have paid their hired pickers who worked in the commercial field.
The girls were very embarrassed, but they did as they were told and got the money and went home. People who are trying to work for God to earn their salvation will someday be worse than embarrassed. They will be speechless before the great white throne of God’s judgment, which we read about in Revelation 20:1111And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. (Revelation 20:11). All the trouble the girls had could have been avoided if they had just asked the owner, and we can escape the judgment of God by doing what He tells us in His Word, the Bible.
Salvation is a gift, and a gift is not earned. Have you accepted God’s gift of salvation?
ML-06/02/1991