READING IN LUKE 10
READING IN LUKE 10
The lawyer’s question leads to the inquiry as to what the Old Testament teaches as to eternal life; the lawyer’s thought of it would, no doubt, be more or less formed according to what is presented there.
It is spoken of first as commanded on mount Zion. “There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”, Psalm 133. Then we have it in Daniel as that to which some “awake”. The former involves the will of God, which is for blessing; the latter speaks of His power in resurrection, by which the blessing is secured to men. The Lord took the lawyer up on the ground of doing, for the law had promised that he who kept it should live; but [p. 53] in result this was but the flaming sword of the cherubim which kept the way of the tree of life, for no one could keep the law, and hence the curse fell upon all. Entrance into life, therefore, must be on other grounds than that of doing; and the references to eternal life mentioned above, which were long after the law, should have led the lawyer to understand this. Commanding eternal life is very different from commanding men to work for it!
In the New Testament the Lord defines eternal life, saying, “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent”, John 17. We have to consider this carefully. It is not simply that divine Persons are to be known; they are to be known relatively; that is, in relation to what exists around us in the world, and what we are by nature.
“The only true God” stands in contrast to idolatry. The knowledge of the true God delivers from all false gods. Idolatry is prevalent in the world, and hence the primary importance of the soul of man being set in the light of the one true Object of worship. God has been fully revealed in Christ. The knowledge of the one true God is a fundamental feature of Christianity. Unity flows from it. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord”, Deuteronomy 6:4. That was the principle of the Old Testament. Israel had the true God in contrast to the nations. In Christianity we have the additional thought of Father — “to us there is one God, the Father;” 1 Corinthians 8: 6. Existing conditions around us in Christendom are a denial of this. Unity flows from the knowledge of God, for God is one, but Christendom is divided. The assembly primarily was the great testimony to God; the saints knew the only true God, and this worked out in practical unity.
The essence of Christianity is unity in affection,
[p. 54] and this is the outcome of the knowledge of what God is. It may be true that the doctrine of the one God is held generally, but of what value is this if it be denied in practice? James says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble”. You would not charge people with idolatry in the gross sense, but the fact remains that the Lord Jesus has fully revealed the only true God, and the spirit of division now marks Christendom, and other objects than He command, in the main, the hearts of those who form it. The idea of the true God and eternal life go together. In John’s epistle Christ is said to be the true God and eternal life; and following upon this we have: “Children, keep yourselves from idols”.
Besides knowing the only true God, we are to know Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. This involves that the Son was here as Man in obedience. The knowledge of the true God is one point; then we are to know the Son as here in obedience. Christ was here in man’s place to carry out God’s will, and we have to learn what this means. The truth is that life was lost by disobedience in man, but it has been secured by obedience in man; in God’s Son, the sent One. Christ’s position as man here involved the conditions in connection with which life eternal is found. In Him the true God is made known, and man in infinite perfection, in obedience, is seen in all His ways. In Him man, according to what he should be before God, is fully set forth. Eternal life was thus there in Him, and He has opened up the way into it for us through death.
It was due to God morally that life should be introduced on the principle of obedience in man, because it was lost through disobedience. But eternal life is greater than the life Adam forfeited, and greater, too, than that proposed in the law. The Lord did not say,’This do, and thou shalt have eternal life’, but “this do, and thou shalt live”, Luke 10: 28. Eternal life is found later than the law in Scripture, and it is spoken of as a sphere and order of blessing established here on earth; and, as unfolded in the New Testament, it comes to light that it was God’s eternal purpose, as we read, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;” Titus 1: 2. But it has been introduced and established on the ground of obedience in Man. Romans 5 shows what the disobedient man brought in, and the contrast in the obedient Man.
Eternal life clearly involves a sphere of blessing. Both in the Old and New Testaments we have the thought of passing into it. Among the saints now normally there is the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent; thus eternal life is realised there. “Justification of life”, Romans 5: 18, contemplates life to which sin cannot be imputed or attached. In the assembly now we enjoy anticipatively the millennial blessing; but individually we must eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood for this. But the assembly’s blessing and privileges go beyond this, for she is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. This chapter, Luke 10, indicates this. The disciples were to rejoice, not because the devils were subject to them, but because their names were written in heaven.
The parable in Luke 10: 25 - 37 is remarkable as showing who man’s neighbour was. Literally the Lord was regarded as a Samaritan by the Jews; and in reading through the Acts we see how this was maintained in spite of the wonderful testimony of the gospel; but Christ accepts the term of reproach, but all the same He was man’s true neighbour; only He had the heart and the means to relieve the man in need. The priest and the Levite here speak of the utter impotency of the old economy.
[p. 56] It is remarkable that the Samaritan had what the man needed, the oil and wine, and he “set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him”. We have to note that the parable does not deal with assembly privileges; it is a question of the compassion and care expended by Christ on men as such; those whom He befriends during the present gospel period. But, as usual with Luke, the parable is laid so as to draw the contrast between the Jewish system and what the gospel proposed.
The “two pence” represent adequate means of support until the Lord returns. An inn is not exactly a home, but it provides sufficient comfort during the interval, and the man is not there on sufferance or charity, but at the Lord’s expense. The inn, no doubt, refers to the assembly, but we have to remember that what comfort or blessing we enjoy now in it are provisional. It is not thought to work out the details of a parable minutely; what we would seek to gather is its general bearing. The point here is the great care and forethought shown by the Samaritan in looking after the interests of the man who had fallen among thieves. He not only provides for his present needs, but for all future ones, pending His return; and then, if the innkeeper should have been at extra expense, this He would repay. Such is the picture presented here of the Lord’s wonderful interest in man.