Followed By Mercy

From Servants To Sons: Why Performance Can’t Earn Grace

• W. Austin Gardner

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What if the answer isn’t more faith, but a better object for your faith? In this episode, we open Luke 17 and listen as Jesus redirects His disciples from measuring their belief to resting in the power and character of God. The mustard seed isn’t a quota to hit; it’s a picture of trust placed in Someone great. Then comes the parable of the unprofitable servant, a jarring reminder that even perfect duty can’t earn God’s favor, because grace isn’t a paycheck. It’s a gift. That truth dismantles legalism, eases anxiety, and silences the endless chase for spiritual validation.

We walk through the logic of the passage and the real struggles believers face when they keep asking, “Do I have enough faith?” Instead of raising the bar, Jesus removes the ladder. Romans 4:4, Galatians 4:7, and 1 Corinthians 15:10 reveal a better way: shifting from the mindset of servants trying to earn approval to that of sons and daughters living in acceptance. Grace doesn’t make us lazy; it frees us. Obedience becomes a joyful response to love, not a desperate attempt to earn it.

If you’ve been stuck in performance mode, trying harder to prove your faith or fearing you’ll never measure up, this conversation offers relief. We discuss why perfect obedience can’t earn what the cross has already secured, how small trust in a great God moves mountains, and what it looks like to live as the beloved rather than the evaluated.

Short Summary:

 Luke 17 reveals that faith isn’t about size but focus. Jesus shifts us from performance to grace, showing that small trust in a great Savior is enough, and that sonship, not striving, defines the life of faith.

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Austin Gardner:

Welcome back to Followed by Mercy. I am with my co-host Robert Canfield. Robert, I really appreciate what you've been doing and how you've helped us all this week. Well, it's my privilege.

Robert Canfield:

Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. Anytime I can work alongside you, I very much enjoyed it.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I don't know about all that, but I sure appreciate it. And so today we're in an interesting story that Jesus told. He tells a story about a lazy, faithless servant, you know, in other places, but here it's a really a faithful guy doing everything he's supposed to do. And so it's kind of a shocking story, a little bit, isn't it, Robert? It is.

Robert Canfield:

And it seems really weird where it's placed at, too. In Luke 17, that's where we're at. But yeah, it just it it's a it's a it's a passage that I probably used. I know I've used.

Austin Gardner:

I have misused this passage after we've studied it and thought about it. I misused this passage more than I'd ever like to admit.

Robert Canfield:

Well, me too.

Austin Gardner:

I mean, you probably use it more because you've been on this earth a lot longer than I have, but I probably messed it up worse than you have just because of how old I am. I'll give that to you. You can have that crown. That's not something I was looking for, but I'll take it. How about that? Well, tell the story. Well, it starts off.

Robert Canfield:

It's in Luke 17. Luke 17, it starts off in verse number five, that Jesus' disciples, they're speaking to Jesus. And they said, Lord, increase our faith. They're speaking to Jesus, and they said, increase, add to our faith. And isn't that what we like to think a lot of times? Lord, increase my faith. Let me have a little bit more faith. Our last podcast, we talked about security and we were talking about faith and how we often wonder, do I have enough faith? Did I did I have the right faith? Did I really do believe? And I think that's what the apostles, the ones that were walking with Jesus, I think that's what they're asking. Jesus, here. Lord, add to our faith. Increase our faith.

Austin Gardner:

We did want them to increase their faith because the Lord had just told them they had to forgive people. They're like, oh Lord, help us.

Robert Canfield:

We're gonna need more faith if you want me to forgive people. Give me more faith to do this thing right. And Jesus made a statement right after that. He said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say, you know the story, you could say to the sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be planted in the seed, and it should obey you. So you don't need much faith. That's what I think that's passage. It seems like passage is telling us that faith, but it's not the increase.

Austin Gardner:

Because that's what he's talking about. He says, uh man, are you telling me if they if they trespass against me seven times in a day, I'm supposed to say I forgive you? Yeah. Oh God, God give us more faith.

Robert Canfield:

Give me more faith. I can't do that. Increase it. They are focused in on themselves. Performance.

Austin Gardner:

There you go. That's where we like to focus. What do I have to do? It's always about us. It's an insidious legalism. It is.

Robert Canfield:

And Jesus was saying it's not, it's not about the size of your faith. It's not about the the it's not about your faith. It's where your faith's with the object's at. That's what it comes down to. It's not faith in myself. It's not faith in my what I can do. It's not faith that for me. It's not even faith that I had enough faith. Exactly. It's where my faith, it's what I'm trusting in. It's the object of my faith. And that's what really what comes down to it. You look at, you look around the world, you travel around the world, you see a lot of people, and a lot of people have faith. They have great faith. It seems like they have great faith, but they don't have it in the right person.

Austin Gardner:

Well, you know, there's faith in only a third of the world even remotely claims to be Christian. And so there's faith in Buddha and faith in Confucius. You know, faith in even in animal spirits.

Robert Canfield:

You you look at some of the people and the actions that they do, how people would even be martyrs, right? For their God, right? Quote unquote. That's a faith that sometimes we look at, like, I don't know if I could, I don't know if I believe that much. And I think Jesus is pointing, Jesus is stating, well, he is pointing out this. It's not the size of the faith. That's right. And then he goes into a story and he says, Which of you having a servant, and he's out there plowing and he's feeding the cattle, will he say to him, by and by, when he's coming from the field, go sit down, get something to eat. Would he not rather say unto him, Why don't you go make ready my supper? Is the master gonna say, after the after the servant's done working and he's he's he's he's he's out there plowing, hey, sit down, I got you a meal. No, no. The master will look at the servant and say, Why don't you get up? Make my supper. You can serve myself, serve me. And when I'm done, then you can go and wash the dishes, right? And then he goes, then what's the big deal? You ain't done nothing. Yeah. And he says, What have you done extra? Does he think? That means, does this guy have a reason to is there some credit to the servant that gets because he did everything that he commanded him? He says, I think not.

Austin Gardner:

I troll not. You know, I have preached that so many times with like, do all you're supposed to do and do some extra. Because if you do what you're supposed to, then enough. Well, that is that is because I am so stuck on performance. That's right. And a servant mentality.

Robert Canfield:

And Jesus is trying to teach that to his disciples, is he not? Yep. And he says, so likewise, when ye have done all those things which you commanded or which command which are commanded you, say, we are unpraiseworthy servants. We have done that which is our duty to do.

Austin Gardner:

We're worthless or useless. It's really saying, you know, all you've done is what you're supposed to do. Unprofitable. That's what's what's a big deal. Why would you think I would say thank you to you when all you've done is what you if if all you're gonna be is a servant, if everything you do is based on performance, it's based on obeying, it's based on the law. Yeah.

Robert Canfield:

If you want to go to this route of saying, God, I need myself to be increased. I need myself, but what I have to be able to be increased. He says, the the the what you get at the end is this there's no praise for you.

Austin Gardner:

Well, why would why would the servant who's doing what a servant is supposed to do expect to be thanked? He didn't, he didn't earn extra. It was unprofitable. Even when you do everything right, you still don't earn anything from God.

Robert Canfield:

If you think, think about this in the logical sense. If I kept the law to a T and I did no wrong, would there be any room or any way for me to get praise?

Austin Gardner:

Perfect obedience cannot earn grace. It can't. Perfect obedience cannot earn what grace freely gives us. God is focused on what he gives. We're focused on what we earn.

Robert Canfield:

That's right. And if we just look, if we look at ourselves and say, if I just obeyed it to a T, if I just had perfect in this and I had great faith, and I had this, this, and this, and this, at the end of the day, God's like, that's what you're supposed to do. That's your duty. Am I supposed to praise you for doing what you're supposed to do?

Austin Gardner:

So, like, if you could keep the law and keep all the law, you wouldn't need grace. And but but you can't. You can't, that's right. And so so what happens is people are still in the mentality of do and do. But here's the big lesson. It's in the middle of this is Jesus isn't dealing with us as servants, he's dealing with us as sons.

Robert Canfield:

We know because we've got we we we see what Jesus says to the to the disciples. He's like, I don't just call you servants, I call you friends, right? I mean, we see what what Christ creates us to be. We're co-heirs, right? We see the New Testament, the rest, the spread, the spread of the rest of the New Testament. We are sons, we are beloved. We we we are glorified in him. He get, we get, they start the angels praise and they worship because of what God's done in and through us. And you look at that and you're like, how did that happen? Was it because we did a whole bunch of good stuff? Was it because we we kept the law, we kept someone's list of stuff? No, we only get that because of what Jesus and what God's done in and through us. It's that inheritance that He's given us, it's that incorruption, that's that praiseworthy stuff that he's done through us.

Austin Gardner:

And I'm afraid that too often we live with a God will accept me if I do enough. Yeah. And that's what this servant is. Like this servant's, and you know, I I've always read that, and I've been like, I just, why don't he say thank you? Yeah. But the whole deal is it's a slave that's owned by a master. And he's like, you don't get thanks when you're a slave. That's right. But you're not slaves, and you're not trying to earn it or gain it. No matter how much you serve, that doesn't make you a son.

Robert Canfield:

I've oh, he's already told us what he does with his sons, even the son that that doesn't even serve him that goes away and squanders all that he gets. He's already showed us what he does with that guy.

Austin Gardner:

And this guy, this servant here, he doesn't know that he's loved. He doesn't know that he's appreciated, and we kind of live our lives acting like this servant, and God never called us to be that one. We're to we're to live with him knowing he does love us. This servant's working out of duty based. Uh you can do all you're told to do, and that still won't make you righteous. You can fulfill every commandment, Jesus is saying, but you still don't know me. And so we are insulting grace when we try to earn it.

Robert Canfield:

And a verse that just popped up in my mind when you're saying that. Doesn't at the end of time there's people that stand before him and say, Lord, Lord, have we not? That's right. I was almost gonna preach on that last night. He says, Have we not done this? Have we not done that? And his response during that day, which he offers the day, this right now is the day of salvation, but there is coming a day of judgment when he's he's he's he harvests and he is separating the wheat from the tares. And there are many people that are just resting in what they've done and said, Lord, Lord, have we done this? Have we done this? And he said, I never knew you. There was no relationship there. And this this this this seeming servant what the disciples start off saying, God, just increase our faith. Give us more faith. We need we need more faith. And Jesus is like, You don't need more faith. You don't need more faith. You don't understand what you have already. Exactly. If you keep looking, if you keep going down this road, it's unpraiseworthy. It's unprofitable. You're the unprofitable servant that just does things out of duty. But when you get to know Jesus, this is where it gets crazy. He's the one that does the work in and through us. There's no denying it. If you read the scriptures, you can't argue that at all. That's what Paul says. I am what I am by the grace of God. It's God's grace. He said, Hey, I labored more than all of them. It's actually God's grace working through me. That's how he finishes it. Was it 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10? If I might be getting that mistaken, but that's what he's that's what he states.

Austin Gardner:

It's always a work of God. So I would call you to Romans 4.4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If you don't, if you think it's your works, you owe it. Like a servant. And we're not servants. Galatians 4 7 says, We are not servants, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. That's who we are. So grace doesn't make us better servants. It births sons. That's good.

Robert Canfield:

You know, we talked about that unprofitable servant. My mind went to, was it Romans chapter 3, verse 12? He says they are gone out of the way, and they are together become unprofitable. Good point. When he he spews out, he says, as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. And then he goes through all the list of stuff. One of the things he says, you're gone out of your way, you're unprofitable. There is none good, no, not one. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. That's what he says at the end. That unprofitable thing is not, it's not, it's not to boost our our our ego and say, Yeah, we're unprofitable servants. We just need to keep on doing our duty. That's not that in this light of the scripture, that's not, it's not a good light. That's right.

Austin Gardner:

Well, you know, the servant here is worried about being punished. He has to keep working. But a son, he does all the same obedience because he's loved.

Robert Canfield:

I'm getting some verses up on the pro on on cross references and stuff like that. This one is so good. When Paul's writing to Philemon about Onesimus, he said in times past he was unprofitable. But now it's profitable. That's right. We look at this unprofitable thing and I think we deify it, we glorify it way too much. And the reality is this is there's nothing that we can do duty-based that will make us profitable. But when Christ comes into our life, and the only way we get him into our life is by grace, through faith, not by works, not by works, but trusting in him and who he is. You know, he said, Come and I give you rest. Yeah.

Austin Gardner:

And he's he's the one that makes us profitable. And he's the one that does the work through us. There's the glory. And which you already mentioned that.

Robert Canfield:

Yeah. Well, we like to have stuff to say that we can look back on and say, This is what I did.

Austin Gardner:

We don't have to be approved anymore. We are approved. We don't have to work to be accepted. We work from the fact that we are accepted. Amen.

Robert Canfield:

So many times in in in in legalistic religion, people are looking for things to boast in.

Austin Gardner:

And what Jesus was saying is if you do it all. This is what turns it from good news to guilty news. Because we read that sermon. I read that and preached it like we got to keep busting our rear ends. I remember. And if you don't bust your end, look at that. And I was wrong. That's wrong to preach that. I should have looked at that and realized he was he was almost mocking them and saying, guys, you can never do enough. That's right. If you do it all right, then there's no praise. Yeah, and if you do it all right, what's the big deal? It's what your duty is. It's what you're supposed to do.

Robert Canfield:

And and that and I preach that so wrong. But so many times, even the apostles, even the apostles, the ones that are following them, they fall in trap to it because they think that if I can just increase, if I can just get a little bit more, if I could just get a little bit more, and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not the amount of faith. It's just a small little faith. It's just a small little faith. It's just a trusting in him and his work.

Austin Gardner:

It's pretty wild, isn't it? Is it not? And I'll tell you what's really bad is you know, the Holy Spirit has taken, I'm a slow student, and it has taken him a long time to teach me so much about grace. Stop thinking about Austin, stop thinking about the servant, realize you're a son, focus on Jesus, let him do a work. Quit thinking about how you measure up, quit thinking about earning brownie points. Quit thinking about how others view you. That's what I get I get falled into.

Robert Canfield:

Oh, that's a big one for me. Like, what do they say about me? But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what they say because they could be wrong.

Austin Gardner:

Because that, well, the one that matters is the Lord, isn't it? He's already said it. That's right. He's already, he's already made his judgment about all of us. Yeah, he has. Well, what would you what else would you like to add to this one? I don't I don't think I can add anything to this. Well, I think that it has it's a life-changing thought to think about what we've gone over today. So know this. If you do all that you could do, it still won't be anything special. Jesus did everything, so except his free gift of grace.

Robert Canfield:

I'd say this. For you out there struggling with wondering whether your faith was enough. Don't worry about the size of your faith. What about the size of your God? Yeah. If your faith was in him, it's enough. Because he says, even a little bit of faith, even if it was just a little bit of inkling, that little faith that you'd even know, like maybe that part, like maybe it was 50% or 75%, I don't know, but poor faith. But then you had just 25% good faith. He says you still you still can do some great stuff with that. That's right.

Austin Gardner:

So don't worry. It's not the size of your faith, it's the size of God. Amen. We've turned we've twisted things so much. Well, thank you all for listening. I hope it's a blessing. If it is, share it with somebody, and we'll be back with more. God bless you.

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Austin Gardner

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