This servant represents those who invest what God has given them, the knowledge he has put before our minds, the wonderful truths of the gospel and of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had understood he was a sinner, and that God is holy. He had understood his need of forgiveness. He had concern for his soul, and he had sought out the plan of salvation. In response to everything he heard from God’s word, he had said, ‘That is what I need. I need the forgiveness of God. I hear what Christ has done and how he has paid the price to secure salvation for those who are forgiven. I discover the plan of salvation. I grasp what happened on Calvary.’ So too each one of us says, ‘That is for me.’ I am applying what I hear. I see my sinfulness and so I say, ‘Lord, forgive me. I have been a fool and a rebel. Pardon and forgive me all my sin. I plead for mercy and for life.’ I say, ‘Lord, you have said that if I come and if I trust in what Christ has done, I may be forgiven. I repent of my sin. I ask for life.’ When I invest, as it were, by responding and coming, I receive a new life. I know I am changed. I have a new nature given me. My heart is filled with love for God. I know he has forgiven me. I know I am different. My old sins don't run riot through me as they did. I have a new and lively conscience, new understanding, new desires, new aspirations. God has done a wonderful thing for me and I love him, and I now live to serve him and to discover more about him, to obey him and to do his bidding, to call upon him in prayer and experience the joy of his interventions in my life and his answers. By investing that knowledge, by believing and responding and calling upon him and repenting and going to him, there came to me a great reward, a great blessing.
We need to note carefully that what the servant says. ‘Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.’ He doesn’t say, ‘Lord, I have gained ten pounds’, but he says, ‘Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.’ What you told me, Lord; what Jesus Christ did for me, Lord; what I heard about, this has done it. All I did was invest it. All I did was fall at his feet and say, ‘Lord, forgive me.’ I believe this message. I believe there is a God in heaven. I believe he is holy. I believe I am a sinner and therefore cannot approach him. I believe there is a Saviour who suffered and died. I simply believe it and call upon him and yield my life to him. The message does it. I cannot change myself. I cannot secure my forgiveness. The power of the Spirit does it all. God has done a wonderful thing for me and I love him, and I now live to serve him and to discover more about him. I obey him and to do his bidding and to call upon him in prayer and experience the joy of his interventions in my life. By investing that knowledge, by believing and responding and going to him, there came to me a great reward, a great blessing.
What does the pound represent? Some interpret the parable as if the pound stands for our natural gifts. By exercising our natural gifts, such as our intellects, our skills, and by using these to serve the Lord, we are investing the pound that has been given to each one of us. But the Scripture nowhere teaches that we are saved by exercising our natural gifts. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, and is beyond our ability to deserve or earn. The pound cannot represent our natural gifts, even though it is true that these come from God. It can only represent something in the gospel, something we earns us not merit when we make use of it. The clear distinction between works and faith, between merit and grace, must be maintained in the interpretation of this parable.