LUKE 18
There have been “days of the Son of man”, when the kingdom of God was presented in Him in the way of grace, and there will be “days of the Son of man” when all that is evil will be taken away at His coming again. Between the two comes the time of suffering and rejection (chapter 17: 25) in which God’s elect have their part. This gives character to the present time. Everything is morally judged in the light of the days of the Son of man. The expression suggests the blessedness which attached to every one of those days in contrast with succeeding days in which the wickedness of man would mature. Faith would contrast all that with what marked the days of the Son of man. It is good to contrast the days of Christ’s service here with the 1,260 days in Revelation 11. In the days of Christ here each one brought out some new feature of the grace of the heart of God. Now we have a new standard by which to judge everything far higher than that of the law and prophets.
In a time of rejection and suffering the great resource is prayer: “they should always pray and not faint”. It is a question here (verse 7) of suffering wrong without redress. There is a cry day and night while God bears long. It is a time of God’s forbearance, and He would educate His saints to bear long also. It is all before God for adjustment, but for the moment prayer, not retaliation, is our part. If an unjust judge who cares nothing for things morally would avenge to save himself annoyance, how much more God, who is so intensely interested in His elect, and so attentive to their cry! We see in verses 10 - 13 that the man who in self-humiliation casts himself on the compassions of God is justified. If there is a spirit of self-exaltation it only means that we shall be humbled. If we do anything in that spirit we shall be let down.
Nothing really humbles a man like the sense of sin. It is not pretending to be humble but true humbling. This is the way of divine exaltation — the reducing and pulling down of a man. We have to learn to make nothing of ourselves, and thus God would make something of us; justifying us first and then exalting us in the appreciation of God’s compassions in Christ. He is the great expression of divine compassion. The tax-gatherer says “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner”.
[p. 222] The only other instance where the word occurs is in Hebrews 2: 17: “that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest ... to make propitiation for the sins of the people”. It is a similar word in 1 John 2: 3 and chapter 4: 10, and another form of it is “mercy-seat” in Romans 3 and Hebrews 9. It has in it the thought of propitiation. So far as it was possible at that time the man in verse 13 of our chapter had laid hold of the thought of the death of Christ as the expression of divine compassion and therefore the removing of all sin according to divine glory. It is not the ordinary word for compassion, which suggests tender feelings of pity and kindness, but here there is distinct reference to propitiation for sin. This man comes in on the ground of the death of Christ and he goes to his house a justified and exalted man. Now this is to be maintained in our souls, so that we are never on any other ground with God as to ourselves. It is the true ground of peace, and it puts us in the place of infants whom Jesus can touch, and to whom He can give the kingdom of God. It is viewed here as something to be received first and then entered into. I take it that the justified and exalted man is seen in Romans 5: 1 - 11. But receiving the kingdom of God would be to come into the wealth of what is in another Man according to Romans 5: 12 - 21.
The infants are viewed as having nothing in themselves but receiving all by the touch of Jesus. They were brought to get all the virtue that was in Another — the grace of God and the free gift in grace. Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the free gift of righteousness reign in life. They are in the supremacy of life — dead to sin, dead to law, superior to the flesh, living in Christ Jesus as married to Him and being indwelt by the Spirit, nothing in themselves and all by the touch of Jesus. The doctrine of it is in Romans, the living illustration of it in the gospel. The gospel is preached (Acts), taught (Romans), and illustrated (Gospels). In this way we come to the reign of grace in the soul of the believer; it reigns through righteousness to eternal life. That is entering the kingdom to enjoy the true life of the kingdom.
Now the ruler in verse 18 had not gone that way at all. He came as one good man to another; he had not learnt to humble himself in the consciousness of sin like the publican, and he had no thought of receiving like the little child, and therefore he was not prepared at all for the test which the Lord put before him. The Lord refused to be approached thus. He [p. 223] was here to be the blessed witness of good in God for man. He would not even Himself take the place of being good, but rather of receiving all good from God (Psalm 16). He could dispense it as receiving it. The ruler was evidently attracted by His dispensing goodness, and came as one good man to learn something from another good man. Receiving had never entered his head; he had no sense that he needed to receive. The Lord had to lay bare to him the real state of his heart: he was not good though he thought he was. He had nothing which would be a sufficient motive to surrender. The motive for surrender is the kingdom of God and he knew nothing about it. He loved himself and his riches; he was not prepared to surrender. None of us will move on the line of surrender until we have an adequate motive in the kingdom of God.
The Lord speaks of leaving home, parents, brethren, wife, or children for the kingdom of God’s sake. You must see the value of the kingdom of God in order to be prepared to surrender here, and this man had never seen the value of the kingdom of God; he did not understand it. We need to understand what the gain of the kingdom is; it is a most advantageous thing, and it is something to be received. Little children receive it. If there is any self-importance with us we cannot receive it.
The Lord did not test this man by the commandments; He purposely avoided everything in the law that would expose him. The commandments he had kept had not really tested him on the line of surrender. “Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these things have I kept from my youth”. One might fulfil all these without any real surrender.
That is the third great principle of the kingdom. If you are after what is of God, are you prepared to give up anything for God? Is God worth anything to you? Have you such a wealth in knowing God that you are prepared to give up something? The young man was not prepared; he had done all those things which involved no surrender. Many people could say they have kept these things from their youth up. In this gospel the Lord brings out so constantly that things that are right in themselves can be a complete hindrance to the blessing of the soul. It is not here the question of positive sins, but things that are good and right in themselves that [p. 224] are a hindrance. If one is to have treasure in the heavens there must be surrender in some form here. Any kind of riches that a man may have which does not belong to the kingdom of God will hinder him from entering it; they naturally operate that way. The Lord does not contemplate bad things, but things in which one might be enriched even lawfully, which are not the kingdom of God. Such things give opportunity for surrender. Let us see if there is not with us room for a little surrender in connection with things which are legitimate but which are not the kingdom of God. We shall then receive “manifold more” now, and in the coming age life eternal, as the Lord said.
Eternal life is the proper life of the kingdom; when the kingdom is established publicly all who are in it will have eternal life — “in the coming age life eternal”, verse 30. Eternal life is a gift, but it is also a goal and prize. The way to it is along the road of surrender; it is not by human effort but by the powerful working of God in the soul. This is impossible with men but possible with God. When a man turns to God and wants the blessing of God he finds there is something he must give up. The test is whether we are prepared to give up what is legitimate, what we might retain without any trouble of conscience. It tests what value the kingdom of God has in our eyes. Is it worth giving anything up for? The disciples saw something in Jesus that made them willing to surrender; they left their boats and nets, and some of them left their father; they surrendered because of what they had got. They did not give up to get something, but they gave up because they realised the value of what was in Jesus.
This ruler was not under pressure; his difficulty was that he had too much and he loved it, and the Lord had to bring home to him that he was not good. He thought he had kept all the commandments and he was attracted by the dispensation of goodness in the hand of Jesus, but he had to learn a humbling lesson that he was not good at all, and it came about in this, that his own possessions were more to him than the display of goodness. We find out, if we are set to move in the ways of God, that there is something we have to surrender. A young convert finds it out from the first day of his new life, and if be does not move on that line he cannot go on with God. Paul on account of Christ suffered the loss of all things; he made complete surrender; he lost his reputation, his means [p. 225] and his friends. Everything was gone, but he says, “on account of Christ” — that was the motive.
As presented in Luke, the kingdom of God is all that system of grace which is embodied in the Lord Jesus. It is that reign of grace which has been set forth in Jesus so that those who receive it receive the gift of righteousness, abundance of grace, and eternal life, but it is all bound up in a Person — that is how the kingdom of God is presented in Luke. It must be seen and received first, then we can enter into it. Entering implies movement on our side. The Lord said to Nicodemus, If a man is not born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God. It requires new birth in order to see it, but then if it is seen there must be a move made to enter into it. I may see a beautiful garden, but it is another thing to enter it. The kingdom of God is seen first and then it has to be entered; we enter as we practically follow Jesus. It was only those who were subjects of the work of God who could see what was there in Jesus. It is just the same today; millions of people know something of Jesus, but they see nothing in Him that is worth making any surrender for.
The disciples say (verse 26) “Who can be saved?” Their natural thought was that the more riches a man had the more he was favoured by God, but the Lord brings out just the opposite here; He brings out that riches might hinder a man from getting the favour of God, so instead of being a proof of God’s blessing they might be a proof that one was far from God. The state of man was all wrong; he was lost, and he needed the divine salvation. He needed Christ, and the more he had that was not Christ the less likely he would be to receive Christ; practically this is always so. “Manifold more” at this time is not that which the natural man values at all.
God has taken matters into His own hands: that is the kingdom in a very simple way. He has provided in Jesus everything that would meet the need of man as a fallen and sinful creature; He has done it from His own side. All the rights of God have been maintained by Jesus; He has brought in the compassions of God; His goodness, His mercy and His salvation all subsist in Jesus, and when these are received a man is turned upside down. All His thoughts are changed about himself — the world, riches, and everything else. Man begins to live in the blessedness God has made known in Jesus. There is resource in the Lord and we can never get to [p. 226] the end of it. I have One who not only can save me from my sins and relieve me from fear of judgment, but He is a living resource, so that I can go to Him, commit everything to Him, and count upon Him — that is the kingdom.
The blessing of a soul, the entrance into the kingdom, and the possession of salvation, are impossibilities with man, but they are divine possibilities. We have to do with a whole system of things which are human impossibilities — that is the character of Christianity. In Christianity it is all a question of God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and everything that is an impossibility to man. When we come to God and Christ, things are available to all; it is not a question of the good or bad man, the rich or poor man, but it is a question of what God and Christ are for all men. It is also a question of the death of Christ, of which He begins to speak here to the disciples (verse 31). The disciples did not understand it, and I suppose there is nothing of which we know so little the meaning as the death of Christ.
The Lord had previously in this gospel (chapter 9: 22) told them of His being killed, and that He was to be delivered into men’s hands, and we are told that “they understood not this saying, and it was hidden from them that they should not perceive it”. They had discerned who He was as the Christ of God (chapter 9), but the necessity for His death they had never seen. I do not think it could be perceived apart from the Spirit. The death of Christ is so wonderful, and the depth in it so profound, that it does not appear that the disciples had taken it in at all, but this was not for want of God’s taking great pains to make it understood — the Scriptures are full of it.
The Son of man could only take up His place of universal supremacy on the ground of the suffering of death. He was to be the great Sufferer by the grace of God. This incident shows how much true appreciation of Christ there may be, and even preparedness to surrender for His sake, without understanding the necessity of His death. By the grace of God He was going to place everything on the footing of His death. He had indeed become Son of man for that purpose. The depth of it was beyond them; it could not be apprehended beforehand. The sufferings and death of the Son of man were an expression of the grace of God so wondrous, so deep, and so far-reaching in result that they could not be understood [p. 227] beforehand. The things written by the prophets were not understood by them, as Peter says.
The inability of the disciples to perceive these things is illustrated in the blind man. He had the faith of the Son of David and so had they, but they needed spiritual vision to see Jesus in the wider glory of the Son of man, and to see that He would take up all that belonged to man in God’s purposes and counsels on the ground of His own suffering and death. John’s blind man had his eyes opened to see the Son of God, but I believe Luke’s blind man had his sight to see the Son of man and to follow Him. He was “Jesus the Nazaraean” to the crowd, Son of David to the blind man, and in receiving sight he received, in figure, capacity to see and follow Him as Son of man. The Lord here refers to Himself as the Son of man (verse 31). He was seeking to engage their hearts and ours with all that is connected with Him as such. He was about to take up the inheritance assigned to the Son of man on the ground of His death, and because He had completely cleared it of everything that rested on it through man’s sin. The Son of man would be connected in the mind of the Jew with universal dominion according to Psalm 8; He was not only Son of David but Son of man. The Lord spoke of Himself very frequently as Son of man in the gospels; the title refers to Him as having universal rights of dominion, but the marvellous thing is that He is going to take it up on the ground of His own sufferings and death. He is going to relieve the inheritance of everything that has come in upon it through the sin of man.
It has often been illustrated by an estate heavily mortgaged, and the heir would clear the inheritance of every liability and encumbrance before entering upon it as supreme. Sin was there, suffering, cruelty, injustice, vanity, the bondage of corruption, death — a burden on the inheritance which none knew of or understood but the Heir, and the One who had designed from eternity that all should be His. The disciples did not understand how encumbered the inheritance was. They believed that Jesus was the Christ and was begotten of God. They saw He was able to meet in divine power all the evil that was here; they had seen samples of it every day, but they could not realise what a burden rested on the inheritance of the Son of man. All was His inheritance, but His own suffering and death alone could clear it of the encumbrance which rested upon it. This gives us a great thought of Jesus [p. 228] as Son of man. It needs peculiar spiritual vision to see the wide expanse of the inheritance of the Son of man, and to see the terrible nature of what has come in upon it by sin. According to the counsels of God the Heir has undertaken to clear the inheritance; He will not leave a single thing to encumber it, so that when He takes it up there will be no reproach left upon God in the universe. And the saints will be His joint-heirs. The disciples thought that the power they had seen exercised in beneficent goodness would suffice to bring in the kingdom, but they needed vision by the Spirit to see that suffering and death were the divine way to bring about what was in the mind of God. All is now accomplished, and the Son of man has risen again on the third day. Though the inheritance is not cleared publicly yet, the work is completed by which it will be cleared. In the meantime the joint-heirs are joint-sufferers, but they suffer in full view of the coming glory.
The opening of the eyes of the blind was a miracle reserved for the Messiah. Jericho brought before the Lord’s mind what had transpired there years before. There was something found for God even in Jericho; the work of God was there in the soul of Rahab. Wherever the Lord moved He brought to light the work of God in souls. Jericho was not only the stronghold of the enemy’s power, but it was the place of the work of God, and it is evident there was a work of God in both the blind beggar and in the rich publican. So it is today; as the Lord moves about in testimony it brings to light the work of God. The blind man here represents those who by the word of Jesus receive ability to discern the import of His sufferings and death.
The Lord in passing by brought to light the work of God in souls. In these two incidents at Jericho (chapters 18: 35 - 43 and 19: 1 - 10) we find a crowd. The Lord did not forbid the crowd to follow Him, but His eye was upon the individuals in whom there was a work of God. Faith was there in the blind beggar, but he wanted sight. The disciples knew Christ after the flesh; to the blind man He was the Son of David. But He was going into death to rise again; He was going to take up all in the dominion of the Son of man. Vision was needed for that. Saul was to see and be filled with the Holy Spirit, in Acts 9. If the Lord brought to light the work of God He never left things as He found them. The blind man [p. 229] had, no doubt, been told that the Messiah would open the eyes of the blind; “the eyes of the blind shall see”, Isaiah 29: 18.
The curse had been pronounced on Jericho, and, one might say, removed figuratively through Elisha’s action (1 Kings 2: 19 - 22). The waters were healed and there was to be no more barrenness; that was like the lifting of the curse. Elisha represented the grace of God; his name means the salvation of God, and if the salvation of God comes where the curse has been, the effect is to remove it. It is remarkable that Jericho has such a history of curse and blessing; but the great thing is to see that the work of God is there. It was there in Rahab, the blind man, and Zacchaeus. There was something working in their souls that was of God, and as the Lord moved about that came to light, just as now when the gospel is preached the work of God in souls comes to light and we find persons interested and attracted. In Jericho, the city of palm-trees, God secured His own victory; both the blind beggar and the rich publican became palm trees, and that place which spoke of all the power of the enemy and the curse of God became the scene of divine victory and triumph.
Jesus stands still (verse 40). There is a crowd, but His eye was on those who had divinely wrought exercises. Many come to the meetings, and the meetings may be like the crowd, with a certain interest in the Lord and His things, but no definite exercises; that is why we come and go and do not get anything. The Lord is always on the look-out for exercises in the heart, and if anyone comes to the meeting with real exercise the Lord is concerned with that one. He brings to light the work of God and never leaves that work where He finds it; He always adds something to it. If we have to do with the Lord with any genuine exercise, we may be quite sure He will add something to us. We do not believe how ready the Lord is; we seem to think we have to carry our burdens and work out our exercises, but He puts Himself at our disposal wherever there is room for Him to come in.
Nothing could be greater than that we should have the ability to see — spiritual vision. The power to see lies in the Spirit; it is by the Spirit we have vision. Vision is different from faith. This man had faith before he got sight; seeing is not believing — it is much greater. The prophet Elisha said, “Jehovah, open the young man’s eyes that he may see”. There was a most extraordinary assemblage of things actually [p. 230] present but unseen. We must have vision to see the wonderful character of the things that are now present. Paul speaks of these most marvellous things: “we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen” — he had ability to see the unseen things. I do not know any greater proof of divine favour than that we should be able to see God’s unseen wonders connected with the Son of man risen from the dead.
Ananias said to Saul, “Jesus ... has sent me ... that thou mightest see”. He was to see everything in a new way in company with the Holy Spirit. It is an entirely new faculty, and it is directly connected with the Spirit in John 14, when the Lord speaks of another Comforter and immediately says, “ye see me”. The result of the Spirit being given is ability to see an unseen Person. The gospels give illustrations of things that were not realised in power until after the death of the Lord and the descent of the Spirit, but they are presented in illustrations. To be able to see things is a very great privilege and a power conferred by God.
Scripture says, “Faith cometh by a report”. It is a very blessed thing to get a report concerning God and Christ and to believe it, but the result of believing it is that one receives the Holy Spirit, and then there is divine power to perceive things spiritual. It is not merely that you believe what you hear, but there is ability to perceive — that is an important distinction. There is a new universe in Psalm 8 which is the dominion of the Son of man; He is going to relieve the inheritance of every encumbrance and trace of unsuitability, so that it will be worthy of God and of the Heir. Now the saints who have the Spirit see it, so that that universe is greater and more real than all the present things in this world. This world goes down in the judgment of the cross; the cross ends this world in which we once lived and to which we once belonged. Now we have another world, things “which eye has not seen and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit”. Paul’s eyes were spiritually fixed on that unseen realm. We have not the universe of bliss yet, but we have the Person who is going to bring it in and fill it by the Spirit, and we are able to see Him. “We see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”. It is only those who have the Spirit who can see Him [p. 231] After Elijah was taken up, there were fifty men who wanted to help Elisha find Elijah. The sons of the prophets were doubtless very clever men, a kind of theological seminary, but they could not see; they were blind. They said that the Spirit of God had cast Elijah on some mountain or into some ravine — what a thought to have of God! He had been caught up and carried away to heaven, and they thought he was in some ditch somewhere and asked to go to find him! It is much the same today; people talk and discuss about Christ. The starting-point for us is, “we see Jesus”. If there was more vision there would be more power. Scripture says, “Because there is no vision the people perish”. Faith is not enough; we need power to see. If there is no vision, people have nothing but the letter of Scripture; but a whole system of things subsists, a blessed, spiritual world which stands in relation to the Son of man risen from the dead and glorified at the right hand of God. If one sees that, one has done with the religious world altogether. It is not that people have not the Bible today; they are being printed by the thousand every year, but to have vision one must have received the Spirit and give place to the Spirit, so that one is able to view things in the vision of the Spirit.
The Spirit gives vision of what is at the right hand of God. I have often said to people that if they want first information of what is going on, they must set their eyes on the right hand of God. The first move will be there. The Christian with his eyes on Christ at the right hand of God will be the first one to get information as to God’s movements down here. We are to look at the prophetic system in the light of the heavenly. It was said to John, “Come up here”; so to understand prophecy we must go to heaven and then look down. The Lord was going to Calvary, to suffer and die, and the blind man who received sight followed Him in that way. He was going out of the whole present system of this world in the company of Jesus.