The Robe and the Ring Came Before the Probation That Never Came

The first time somebody asked me to do something in a church after all of it, I said no, and I said it fast, and I was quite proud of saying it.

It was nothing. It was helping with something on a Wednesday. And I said no because I had a whole architecture in my head about what a man like me should be doing for a period of time before being trusted with anything, and I had set the period myself, and it was long, and nobody else knew about it.

I thought that was humility. I have since worked out that it was a way of staying in charge of the thing.

Because a man on his own probation is still holding the paperwork. He decides the sentence, he decides the release date, and he never has to sit in the very uncomfortable position of being handed something he has not earned.

There is a moment in the most famous parable Jesus told that dismantles that whole arrangement, and it happens in about four seconds, at a gate, before anybody has said anything sensible.

Count what he gives, and count when

Here is the line.

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. (Luke 15:22, King James Version)

Three things. And the timing matters more than the items: this is said immediately after the son's speech is cut off, before any conversation, before any explanation, before anybody has discussed terms.

The best robe. Not a robe. The best one, which in that household would have been the father's own or the one kept for a guest of honor. It is a status garment.

A ring on his hand. In that culture a ring was a signet. It was how a man sealed a document. Handing a son a ring is handing him the authority to act in the family's name and commit the family's resources.

Shoes on his feet. Servants in that house were barefoot. Shoes are the difference between a hired man and a son, and the boy had specifically asked to be a hired man.

So the father answers the request to be made a servant by giving him, in order, honor, authority and status, and he does it before the boy has demonstrated one single thing.

You have been handed things that come before evidence rather than after it. Luke 15:22 gives a robe, a ring and shoes with no interval for proof, and it is the same Spirit, Romans 8:15 called the Spirit of adoption, who makes an unearned handover survivable for somebody who wanted to earn it.

The same scene in Zechariah, with the accuser present

There is an older version of this and it is more legal and, in a way, more brutal.

Joshua the high priest is standing in filthy garments with an accuser at his right hand, and God does this:

And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. (Zechariah 3:4)

I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. Past tense, and it is God's own action, and it happens in front of the one bringing the charge.

The accuser in that scene is not answered with an argument. He is answered with a wardrobe change, and then the man is put straight back into his job in the next verse, with a charge over God's house.

No probation. No interval. The reinstatement happens in the same scene as the cleaning, and the accuser has to stand there while it does.

You are reinstated in the same scene as the cleaning, and Scripture puts no interval between them. Zechariah 3:4 has the change of raiment and the charge over the house in the same passage. It is the Spirit of God, whom Zechariah 4:6 names in not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, who does what a probation period never accomplishes.

Paul says why he was put to work, and it is not what you expect

If anybody had grounds for a long probation it was Paul, and he says out loud what happened instead.

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. (1 Timothy 1:12-13)

Counted me faithful. Not: found me faithful after a review. Counted, which is a word about a decision being made about somebody rather than a fact being discovered.

And notice the order of the sentence. He is put into the ministry, and then the description of what he had been follows it. Paul writes his own resume backwards on purpose.

The point he is making, which he states two verses later, is that he is the pattern. If it happened that way for him, the arrangement is not exceptional, it is the standard shape.

You have been counted rather than assessed, and Paul writes his own case as the pattern. 1 Timothy 1:16 says he obtained mercy as a pattern to them which should hereafter believe. It is His Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:11 dividing to every man severally as he will, who does the placing that no review board has ever done.

Why the probation is attractive, and what it actually costs

I want to be honest about why a person does this, because "it is humility" is the cover story and it is not the reason.

A self imposed probation is comfortable. It keeps the ledger in your hands. It means nothing has to be received, and receiving is the genuinely difficult thing, far harder than working.

Paul names the alternative in a sentence that gives no room to negotiate:

For 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 2:8-9)

It is the gift of God. A gift has one correct response and it is not a payment plan.

And the cost of the probation is not abstract. Every month a person spends on it is a month of not being where they were put. The son who insists on the hired servant arrangement is a son who does not eat at the table, and there is nothing noble about an empty chair.

You are holding a gift rather than an invoice, and Scripture names it as a gift twice in one sentence. Ephesians 2:8 says it is the gift of God, not of works, and it is the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:5 shedding the love of God abroad in the heart, who makes receiving possible for somebody who would much rather work.