THE GOOD THINGS OF GOD'S HOUSE
THE GOOD THINGS OF GOD’S HOUSE
A point which struck me in the reading of this passage is the difference between light and enjoyment. Many do not realise the difference, and fail to see that enjoyment is dependent on the state which is wrought in me by the Holy Spirit. When the father ran and fell upon the prodigal’s neck and kissed him, the prodigal undoubtedly had light, and the effect of light is exhilarating, but the prodigal was not in a condition to fully enjoy the light until he had on the best robe, and the ring, and the shoes. Then he had power to enjoy the light.
There is a difference to be apprehended between the terms of the gospel and God’s thought in the gospel. When we apprehend the Father we get the light of God’s revelation of Himself, and the next thing is enjoyment. It is a wonderful privilege to enter into the enjoyment of God’s thought in the gospel; then it is that you have done with the world. No one could continue in the course of this world if he were in the light of God’s thought in the gospel.
In chapter 14 we had the great supper, and in chapter 15 we have the typical guest (as has been said). Now, when we go to a supper we do not carry with us our own provision, but we go to partake of the bounty of the host. This is the principle of divine grace; we go in to enjoy the bounty of the One who invites. The greatest thing in the ways of God here, the Supper, came in so silently and unobtrusively that people took little or no notice of it.
Now I desire to trace in chapter 15 the history of the guest and to show what it illustrates. The Supper is a remarkable unfolding of the celebration of grace. The fatted calf was something reserved for a great [p. 444] occasion; it was more than a kid. There is a great contrast between these two chapters (14 and 15) and chapter 10. The man who fell among thieves was not brought to a house, he was left to be taken care of in an inn. He was ministered to and supported and cared for so long as he required it; this is man’s side, but “compel them to come in that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23) is God’s side. When God compels people have to come in.
What the Lord is doing all through chapter 15 vindicating Himself as to His ways here. The accusation brought against Him in the beginning of the chapter by the scribes and Pharisees is, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them”, Luke 15:2. The truth is that the Lord’s words of grace were more suited to the ears of publicans and sinners than to those of the self-righteous Pharisees. The Lord’s vindication is virtually this: at any rate, I am in the mind of heaven, in being in the company of the publicans and sinners, for there repentance is possible. Christ was found in the company of those of whom there was hope of repentance, and in heaven “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”, Luke 15:10. And all this was right. There had been no satisfaction for God in man under law, therefore man has no reason to complain if God turns to grace.
The point in the chapter is this: that God, having tried man under law for fifteen hundred years without fruit, has now found His satisfaction in grace. The result under law was that the name of God had been blasphemed among the heathen through the Jews; a fact which proves that light, as light, never affected the practice of those who possessed it. The same is true in regard to philosophy. It is well known that the greatest philosopher that this country has ever produced was in his practice exceedingly corrupt. Israel had the light of law; all forms of evil were prohibited by it, but every one of the commandments [p. 445] was broken. God had thus no satisfaction in law, and the question arose, Can God now turn to grace, and that for His own satisfaction? In chapter 10 we find the satisfaction that man has in grace, but here we see the satisfaction of God in the fruits of His grace, which can only be entered into on our part in the power of the Holy Spirit. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. Law was not the revelation of God — grace is that which reveals God. There are two things which go together — God declared, and grace and truth come to pass; John 1:17,18.
Now in verse 20 we find that the father came out to meet the prodigal. “He ran”. This is the first principle of the gospel: God has come out; He has come out in grace. To know and acknowledge God as a Creator merely does not suit now. If we are to know God we must know Him as He has been pleased to reveal Himself. The prodigal when he returned from the far country knew the father in a way in which he had never known him before. The father came out, and that is really made good in the light of the gospel; the light of God is in it.
Now, as regards this revelation, the first sense we have to get of God is that of righteousness, but as revealed in grace; for God has no demand to make. A man has to get in his soul a sense of the righteousness of God, but that righteousness has been vindicated in the removal of sin, and therefore no demand remains to be made upon the believer. It comes to him as light. Righteousness thus becomes the moral foundation in our souls.
Then comes in the importance of faith as connecting a man’s soul with the God of resurrection and with “the world to come”, Hebrews 2:5. It was so from Abel downwards. There are two important points in this connection, namely, that the believer is justified in view of the world to come, and that Satan has no place [p. 446] in that world; Christ is supreme there. If we really believe in God, we believe in the God who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, and under Him the world to come is put. The Lord Jesus Christ is now the object of faith, for in believing in Him your soul is brought into contact with the God of resurrection. Now, this is the light of God which the gospel brings. The God of resurrection could bring to pass a scene in which Satan has no place, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the One under whom all is put, and we are justified in view of that scene.
Now, this is light and is what the prodigal, in figure, came into when he came into his father’s presence. It is light for us, but it is hardly yet enjoyment, for enjoyment is by the Spirit. Light refreshes and gladdens the heart, but to have the power for enjoyment one must have received the Spirit. But what are we to enjoy? Well, I believe it is the celebration of grace — to enjoy the victory which God has gained, and to sing the song of triumph. We are to rejoice in God as “a man of war” (Exodus 15:3), who has annulled the foe. God entered into conflict with the enemy, and has completely defeated him. “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea .... Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy,... they sank as lead in the mighty waters”, Exodus 15. Satan will fall as lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18), and then be cast into the abyss before the world to come is brought in. This victory is what we are called to enjoy. God has taken every right out of the hand of the enemy; his power is broken, and we are liberated.
The next thing that we know is favour, and we “rejoice in hope”, Romans 5:2. We know peace before favour, and favour is accompanied by hope; and to crown all, and above all, God makes Himself known to us in what He is in His own blessed nature. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us” Romans 5:5. And what is the effect of that?
[p. 447] You begin to love God, and then “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2:9. This is illimitable; there is no bound to it. Then we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5:11.
All these blessings are individual, and not exactly collective. The highest christian privileges, such as the holiest, belong to us collectively. Here it is the celebration of grace, and we have the picture of a saint in the enjoyment of it, but there must necessarily be state for enjoyment. For one thing, we need deliverance to be in the enjoyment of the good things of God’s house. We have to be delivered from sin, the bitter waters of Marah have been a great reality to us; and we need to be delivered from legality. When we are thus free we come into the enjoyment of the house. But much depends upon deliverance, and we find out (and that is involved in the thought of the best robe), that the christian has another spring in him besides the flesh. If something evil comes athwart you, it is likely that the first thing touched by it is the flesh. That is natural, but wait a moment and you will find that there is another spring, and that is the Spirit of life. When the Spirit of God works in us we are consciously in the presence of God, in His light. When we are affected by the flesh we are in the presence of man.
We have seen thus how we are prepared for entering into the enjoyment of the good things of God’s house, namely, by deliverance from sin and from legality, and by the consciousness of a new spring within, “a well of water” (John 4:14) which springs up into life eternal. May God give us to know the reality of these things.