LUKE 20
This chapter continues the subject of teaching in the temple, and connects it with the preaching of the glad tidings. “It came to pass on one of the days, as he was teaching the people in the temple, and announcing the glad tidings..”.. All temple teaching has the glad tidings character, because it always brings some increase in the knowledge of what there is in God for us, so that the light is never taken up in legality. We are never set to make bricks without straw. All teaching necessitates enlargement in the knowledge of God in His grace and in His love to men. If light came with a sense of obligation only, we should be overweighted, but it brings an increase in the knowledge of God, so that there is a sufficient supply to answer to the light given.
The teaching, if effective, must be imbued with glad tidings character. The teaching of 2 Corinthians — the new covenant and reconciliation — is connected with the gospel, but as needed by the saints so that they might be strengthened to sustain what is worthy of God in testimony, and so that the temple character might be maintained. Paul told the Corinthians in the first epistle that they were the temple of God and that the [p. 246] temple was not to be contaminated by human thoughts; it concerns divine Persons. The preacher ought to know, not only to whom he has come — wretched, needy sinners — but from whom he has come, the blessed God; the glad tidings concern His Son and are never to be left behind. Mr. Darby said, when asked if he did not find it necessary to go back to first principles, No, I never leave them.
It is important also that we should have this element of authority, which the Lord is set to maintain. Nothing is more needed than authority; the general weakness is that there is so little sense of divine authority. Lawlessness is the outcome of giving up the thought of authority. The Lord would impress on us in His temple that authority is here, but it is here in lowliness. He was here as the lowly King, not assertive in the sense of bearing down everything before Him, but authority was there. The priests and scribes and elders all felt it, for they said, “Who gave thee this authority?” They confessed it was there. It was not assertive, but felt. Peter says, “If any one speak — as oracles of God”, 1 Peter 4: 11, Those who do not regard authority are manifested as being lawless. It is an authority not subjected to interrogation of men; it only recognised moral conditions which were entirely absent in these people. They had never repented; they had never submitted to the searching character of John’s teaching, so they were morally out of court. The Lord would not stand at their bar for a moment.
It is becoming more and more a characteristic of religious teaching that things are all suppositional and only what men think, but that is not the mind of God. If we come to the temple we have the mind of God, and according to it things are authoritative; they cannot be gainsaid, but must be obeyed. “If anyone think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37. Paul would have them recognise the commandment of the Lord. What is said or done with divine authority stands. People may seem to be able to disregard it and trifle with it, but it stands. I would not care to say or do things that are thought to stand in man’s universe, but it is blessed to be able to say and do things that stand in the moral universe so that they can never be undone. It is an authority connected with meekness and gentleness. Paul besought the Corinthians by the meekness and gentleness [p. 247] of Christ; personally he was prepared to take the lowliest place in service, even to go down to the feet of the saints, but he never forgot that he had authority.
There is no temple in the city in Revelation 21, for the whole city has temple character. It is no longer a question of a particular shrine in the city, but the light of God and the Lamb pervades the whole city. The overcomer in Philadelphia will be made a pillar in the temple, and he will never go out from the sphere of the mind of God. In Ephesians 2 we are said to be growing to a holy temple in the Lord — God is preparing that at the present time. It distinctly shows that we have not reached finality yet. When the temple is complete there will be finality; the mind of God will be seen in its completeness. We have to take account of the mind of God as well as of the heart of God. The mind of God would stand over against all merely human thought. In the temple we are apart from human thoughts, and have God’s thoughts. Paul tells the Corinthians that they are the temple of God. He speaks of them as a shrine, a very intimate word, expressing the holy character that attaches to the saints in the mind of God.
In the light of all this we can see in the parable of the vineyard how what is due to God is secured. The fruits were due to God. We do not read this parable as referring only to the prophets of old and Christ coming and being refused, but the great point of the parable as far as we are concerned is that He has given the vineyard to others, and we are the others. There is a great deal more committed to us than was ever committed to Israel: they never knew a glorified Christ and they had not the Spirit. There is now the possibility of yielding to God what is due to Him. God will not allow what is due to Him to lapse. Are we set that God shall have all that is due to Him? That is the ultimate object of every servant sent to us and of the ministry. We are apt to think that God sends His servants to help us and minister to us, and we let it stop there. The great object of levitical service is that all that is due to God may be rendered. The Levites were scattered through Israel to keep the people always in mind of what was due to God.
The vineyard represents what will give pleasure; wine “cheers the heart of God and man” (Judges 9:13; Psalm 104:15). God introduced in His early dealings with Abraham and his seed elements that were calculated to bring forth everything pleasurable to God. What a wonderful system of blessing and favour God introduced!
[p. 248] He revealed Himself to them in redemption; He brought a vine out of Egypt. He brought them to the wilderness and dwelt among them. He gave them manna from heaven, water from the rock, and a heavenly system put down in their midst — the tabernacle — all after the pattern of things in heaven. He brought them into the land, and promised them wonderful things. It was in that way He planted the vineyard, and then He put it into their hands to see what they would make of it, It was all calculated to bring forth such fruit as would be delightful to God; they should never have ceased praising Him for redemption, or giving Him thanks for His wonders in the wilderness and for bringing them into the land. There should have been perpetual praise for the way in which God has made Himself known.
The vineyard suggests to me a system of blessing and divine favour that is altogether of God. It actually came in the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and it worked out in the ways of God with His people. You cannot see any part of God’s ways with His people that was not exceedingly favourable. His government came in when they were naughty, but that was not what He proposed. Planting the vineyard does not suggest the legal principle; there was something far greater in the mind of God than that. The legal system is interwoven with the most wonderful display of divine favour and goodness, calculated to bring forth fruit that will please God. There is everything in the vineyard that could produce fruit, and God gives it to the husbandmen. Is it our great pleasure to render what is due to God? God would put that question to every one of us. He has provided everything, and His grace is sufficient. Are we willing to render what is due to Him? It all rests there. “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land”. Just for a brief moment Israel did render fruit; Israel was fruitful and pleasant to God when the offerings for the tabernacle were brought.
There is a great danger of our looking at spiritual good as something for ourselves, and forgetting that all spiritual good must necessitate what is due to God. It came out so beautifully in connection with the tabernacle and the system of sacrifices. They had a lovely opportunity of bringing what was due to God by His gracious favour to them, and they did not respond to it. If you study the characters of the Old Testament from Moses onwards you will see that every servant was concerned [p. 249] that there should be something for God. I believe that is still true; the burning desire of every servant God sends is that there should be something for Him. We can be very thankful if there is something of that when we come together. What characterises assembly prayer is that there should be something for divine Persons. Romans leads up to our bodies being presented to God as a living sacrifice and that we should “with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, Romans 15: 6. Peter tells us that we are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God — that is, something for God. If it is a question of ministry, he says, “If any man speak — as oracles of God ... that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ”. Paul gives the climax in Ephesians: “to him be glory in the assembly” — a vessel where everything is for God.
If I am not yielding what is due to God in connection with His grace in which He has revealed Himself to man, I am worthless. The Lord says, “Every one falling on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder”, verse 18. If Christ is rejected nothing is left for man but judgment. Christ becomes a stumbling stone; people fall over it and also it will grind them to powder — both are judgment. If the will of man is at work, Christ becomes a stumbling stone; Peter tells us He is that to the disobedient. The rejected Heir becomes the corner-stone, and everything is now tested by Christ; all the rights of God, all that is due to Him, are now set forth in relation to Christ.
The corner-stone is still connected with the temple. Peter speaks of it in that way, that there is a structure that derives all its glory and value from Christ. “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”, 1 Peter 2: 7. Christ is the corner-stone, elect, and precious; the temple derives its character now from the prominence of Christ. People ought to discern when they come amongst us that Christ is prominent with us, and that we exalt Him and boast in Him. He is Head of the corner. Christ is the Heir of all that is due to God. God receives His due through Christ. He sets forth His rights in Christ and receives His due through Christ. If we honour the Son, we honour the Father who sent Him. If Christ is magnified and glorified, God is magnified and glorified. So what marks the spiritual house, the temple, is that Christ is honoured.
[p. 250] There is a peculiar touch of grace in verse 13, “I will send my beloved Son: perhaps when they see him they will respect him”, suggesting that such an expression of favour could not be resisted. It is touching that the Lord should put it in this way, as much as to say that God has gone to the extreme limit and surely men’s hearts will be touched. It is solemn to see that these people were quite conscious that they had not rendered what was due to God. “They knew he had spoken this parable of them”.
The next section (verses 20 - 26) introduces the great question of God’s government in the world and how we stand in relation to it. We have to recognise Caesar and what is due to him, but the Lord says also, “pay ... what is God’s to God”. We are always to be governed by the thought of what is due to God.
The Lord maintained what was due to the authority that then existed, but also what was due to God. We have to do with an authority that is set up in the world, and we have a certain obligation in regard to it, paying to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but what is God’s is to be paid; it is a debt. These things are not left to free-will; there is every liberty afforded for free-will offerings, but certain things are not for free-will; they are obligatory, due to God. The principle of “O, what a debt we owe” is spiritually and morally right, and all is the fruit of His grace. If I do not pay my debts I am dishonest, as Malachi says, “Will a man rob God?” The recognition of obligation is an important temple lesson.
Nothing else is right but to render what is due to man and to God. Caesar has a place in the world and he is to have his due, and it is due to all men to treat them with respect and honour. If I do not, I am not righteous. Scripture tells us to honour all men; it is not optional. If anyone by reason of his person or office deserves any special honour, I must give him his due. And certain things are due to the brethren — am I giving them their due? If I am not rendering it to them I am an unrighteous person. Then there is what is due to God. Romans is the great epistle of righteousness. There is no spirituality apart from righteousness; it is a fixed principle. The Lord loves righteousness and hates lawlessness; He loves what is right, and lawlessness is just the opposite of what is right.
The Lord spoke of Caesar first because He was answering [p. 251] their question. They came to catch Him. If He had said it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar He was up against all the national feelings of the Jews, and if He had said it was not lawful He would have been handed over as a seditious person to the government, but the Lord answers in wisdom and silences them.
What is due to God would be that the immense obligation that His grace and love have revealed to us in Christ and made good to us in our hearts by the Spirit should have a suitable response. It is really connected with the service of God. Paul speaks of Christ singing to God among the Gentiles (Romans 15: 9). Christ is giving to God what is due, and it is the privilege of the Gentiles now to join in singing to God, rendering what is due.
The next lesson in the temple (verses 27 - 40) is the supreme importance of spiritual and eternal relationships; this can only be on the basis of righteousness. We come now to a subject of the deepest interest, that of resurrection, and the character of life which belongs to the resurrection world. The Sadducees’ thoughts were all formed according to the pattern of “this world”, but the Lord brings before us the spiritual character of “that world”; this world is marked by the natural and that world by the spiritual, and nothing goes into that world but what is spiritual. The Lord goes on to contrast the transitory character of the present age with the spiritual and abiding character of the coming age. It is good for us to accustom ourselves now to cultivate what belongs to the coming age and that is spirituality. There is nothing but what is spiritual in God’s resurrection world. There are two worlds, the world of the natural and the world of the spiritual. The Sadducees asked a very foolish question, and only showed that their outlook on things was purely natural, but the Lord over-ruled this to give us precious teaching as to resurrection. Not only will what is unrighteous or wrong not go into the spiritual world, but what is natural will not go in. Even Adam if he had not sinned would not have gone in, because he was a natural man and as such could never have gone into the sphere of resurrection. The Lord in the temple would impress on us the supreme importance of the spiritual, and we should take great account of His words. We should think of what is going to be carried through to the spiritual world; natural relationships will not be carried through, and we should be [p. 252] exercised to be well furnished with that which will be carried through.
The natural is but for a moment; death comes in upon it, but resurrection will introduce those who are counted worthy to what is spiritual and permanent — to a state equal to angels, a permanent state of holiness and incorruptibility — as sons of God, sons of the resurrection.
The Lord speaks about being “counted worthy to have part in that world”. There is a fitness about such persons for part in a spiritual world. What an exercise this raises in the heart of everyone who has the light and faith of resurrection! The natural gave no worthiness for that world; it is only as having spiritual features that we can be worthy to obtain part in a spiritual world. Scripture always presents the matter thus: see John 5: 29, Romans 2: 7, Philippians 3: 11, 2 Thessalonians 1: 5 - 7. There will be no one in that world who is not counted worthy to be there. The malefactor of Calvary will be counted worthy, for he judged himself, he vindicated Christ, and he owned that all the right of the kingdom belonged to Him. God could not leave that out of His spiritual world.
The Lord would lead us in spirit outside the natural into that world where there is no death, and where we shall be equal to angels, beings who have been preserved by God’s electing love and power in an unfallen state. They are holy beings and they are fellow-bondmen of ours (Revelation 22: 9), the obedient and delighted servants of God and of Jesus, unjealous witnesses of God’s marvellous grace to men. They are spirits, beings of a spiritual order who are taken into divine confidence. “Equal to angels” is a very high and holy state of being.
Though our true Christian position is greater than that of angels, our present condition is not greater. It has pleased God to have a certain order of beings in whom everything is spiritual — “He maketh his angels spirits” — they are not and never have been natural; they always have been spiritual, and if we do not become equal to angels we shall never know sonship in its fulness. The natural world is marked by marriage; everything in this world depends on marriage, but there is another condition and that is spiritual.
In the actual history of the world God appears to have lost all that He brought in, even Christ, but He secures everything for His pleasure in resurrection. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob represent the calling, the promises and power, and the disciplinary [p. 253] ways of God, but all died. But hundreds of years afterwards they could be spoken of by the Lord as living; all live for God. All will come up in resurrection unencumbered by the natural, in all the spiritual features in which they live for God. The Lord speaks of the sons of God and the sons of the resurrection; nothing will come out in resurrection but what is spiritual. We may carry what is natural and carnal to the grave, but nothing will come out but what is spiritual — “it is raised a spiritual body” — what a blessed reality! In that world there is nothing but the spiritual. Let us challenge ourselves as to what we have that will come out in that world. Abraham had a great deal, Isaac had, Jacob had; these men will come out magnificently. God was not ashamed to be called their God; there were such spiritual features in them that God could not possibly leave them out of His world.
The spirits of Abraham, Isaac, David and many others will be perfected in resurrection, and that will not be one minute before we are. These men live for God. They have been buried, but it is a necessity that they shall be raised; if they live for God they must be raised. They are waiting to be introduced by divine power, even as to their bodies, to a spiritual sphere.
The point of all this is that we should cultivate the spiritual; that is part of the temple teaching. I may be a great man in this world and have many gifts, but nothing will go into the resurrection world but what is spiritual. The natural is a perishing order, but the spiritual is going to abide. Sonship is purely spiritual and only to be taken up by spiritual persons; it is a conferred dignity but it means nothing to an unspiritual man.