(2) THE CELEBRATION OF GRACE
([p. 79] 2) THE CELEBRATION OF GRACE
Luke 14: 15 - 24; Luke 15: 11 - 32
There are certain parables which are peculiar to this gospel, just as there are those which are peculiar to Matthew; if you were to transplant any of these parables to another gospel, you would find that they would not fit in. If you were to take the parables in Matthew and attempt to transplant them into this gospel, they would not fit, though they have their place there just as these have here. I allude particularly to the four parables I have mentioned on a previous occasion, in which it is not difficult to apprehend a progress in the unfolding of the truth. One was the parable of the creditor and the two debtors, in the seventh chapter; then the parable of the good Samaritan in the tenth chapter; now we have the parable of the supper in the fourteenth, and still another in the fifteenth; that is the succession of parables peculiar to Luke. My point was to view these parables in the light in which Christ is presented to us in Luke. Luke specially presents to us the service of Christ as the anointed Man. I illustrated that in the parable of the good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite, official representatives of the old covenant, passed by on the other side; but they passed by to make room for the true Priest, the anointed Man. I quite admit that Christ would not be a priest if He were upon earth; but I have no doubt that many things which the Lord did when He was on earth were anticipative of what He is doing at the present time; they illustrate it. We have to take into account where Christ now is, at the right hand of God, a [p. 80] Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Many things brought before us in this gospel will help us to understand the character of the service which Christ carries on in regard to us now. When you read the gospels, you should read them in the light of where Christ is now. It is not that they present Him where He is now; but if you read them in that light, it will help you to understand them. In Luke we get Christ a real Babe, born into the world, made of a woman — a Child, then a Man; then we have His death and resurrection; but all is leading on to what is brought out in the last chapter, Christ going up to heaven and communicating the promise of the Father. It is in the light of priestly service that Christ is presented in the gospel of Luke. Even in the account given to us of the sufferings of Christ, what comes before us is the offering priest rather than the victim.
Now the point in these parables is that we get the instruction of Christ; the anointed Man is the Instructor. I referred to a passage in Malachi 2: 7, “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth”: you never get that verified except in Christ. Throughout this gospel you have the Lord as the anointed Man, waiting upon man, to bring home to him that which He knew. The knowledge of God was perfect there: in fact, He was God; but looking at the Lord as Man, the knowledge of God was perfect, and He was attending upon men to lead them into the knowledge of the suitability of God to man down here. When a man is awakened to know anything, the first principle and element of the knowledge of God is to apprehend the attitude of God toward man; that is, not imputing trespasses, not calling men to a reckoning; His disposition toward man is forgiveness. You get that coming out at the close of this gospel: “Thus it behoved Christ to suffer,
[p. 81] and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations”. That could never have been preached had it not been in the pleasure of God. Then in the parable of the good Samaritan we saw the true Priest, leading man into the knowledge of God, in the suitability of God to man, in his need down here. He poured in the oil and the wine, set him on his own beast, and took care of him so long as he needed care. That is what the knowledge of God means to us. It is the one thing that we have; our mainstay, and if you have not that, you have not very much. A christian is to find his comfort, his stay and support, in the knowledge of the way in which God can adapt Himself to man in man’s weakness down here. It is a wonderful thing to think that God will care for a man’s soul — for his body, too, for the matter of that — but for his soul so long as he is in need of care.
Now I pass on to the two remaining parables; they complete the series. My point is that we still have the Lord before us as Instructor. Teaching properly belongs to the priest; I do not think anyone could teach if he were not a priest. Suppose I had the capacity to teach: where did I get it from? No one can teach a christian except as he himself knows God; and if I know God, that is priestly. The fact of knowing God and having access to Him is priestly, and that is one’s only capability to teach. I often feel half-afraid to take the place of teacher, feeling that one’s knowledge of God is so limited that one is very little able to teach others.
People have thought they could be teachers because they had a great acquaintance with Scripture. It is not the amount of Scripture which can be stored up in the mind, which makes a man capable of teaching others. No man is capable of teaching beyond what he is as priest. We get that initiated in the [p. 82] Lord Himself. He was the anointed Man, ever with God, and therefore competent to teach man; and the substance of what He taught was the knowledge of God.
Now these two parables, that of the supper and that of the prodigal, give to us another side of the truth. It is not giving man the knowledge of God in its suitability to him, but His thought and purpose here is to lead man into God’s things. It is one thing to understand how suitable God is in His grace to me here; it is another thing for God to instruct me in His things, the things in which He can delight; that is the point we get now. We see that in the parable of the supper. I call your attention to the terms of the invitation: “Come; for all things are now ready”. They are all ready on the part of God. It is not God attending to man’s wants, it is an invitation to man to come into God’s things. The One who provides the supper says, “Come; for all things are now ready”. And what do you think they are ready for? So far as I understand it, they are all ready, morally, for the great day of display. The day of display has not yet come; it may not come just yet, but it will come; and the point of the present moment is that all things are ready. In Old Testament times this could not have been said, and for two reasons; the first, that the ground was not there. There was not the ground of resurrection; redemption was not accomplished. Then another reason was that the Man had not yet come who could bear the burden of all things, who should be the Centre on which all might hang; then, in order that others might have part in that, there must be redemption as the basis, and in connection with redemption, the ground of resurrection. Christianity brings into view a Man, the anointed Man, and at the same time redemption accomplished; the ground of [p. 83] resurrection is there. All things are ready on the part of God. The apostle could say to the Hebrews, “Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God”. Everything for God is established in Christ, in One who is capable of upholding the pillars of the universe. Everything in the world is out of course; all is lawless; but Christ bears up the pillars of the moral universe; the Man is there on whom all this depends. If He were not great enough for that, things could not hold together. “All things subsist together by him”; in Him all are held together. But it is extremely important that He has brought in resurrection as a footing on which man can be with God.
Did you ever consider what the supper meant? Evidently a supper is for the honour of the one who gives it. If I give a supper or a dinner I give it on my own account; it is an occasion for me. So it is in regard of God. He invites the guests, and they come in, but it is an occasion for God, and therefore He will have His house filled. If a man makes a supper, and has laid his table and provided seats for a certain number of guests, he does not care to see half the seats unoccupied; he would like to see his table filled. “Compel them to come in”: there was a deficiency, because there were those who had been bidden but would not come, who had some engagement more important in their own eyes; they made a gap in the company; but God wants His house filled. I understand the supper to be the celebration of righteousness, and therefore it appears to me that the thought of resurrection must enter into the supper, because resurrection is the real celebration of righteousness. I think Christ would lead us, by the Spirit, into the apprehension of the force of resurrection, that is, of His resurrection. If you get an apprehension of the power and meaning of the resurrection of [p. 84] Christ, you can understand what it is to be at the great supper, and you will see that the supper is the celebration of righteousness. I refer to two scriptures, Philippians 3: 9, 10, Colossians 2: 11, 12. In the one passage we get the power of His resurrection spoken of, and in the other, the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. Evidently the resurrection of Christ is a point of the greatest possible moment on the part of God. “The power of his resurrection” is a remarkable expression, and again the “operation of God”. It is the energetic working of the power of God that raised Him from the dead. So the apostle prays in Ephesians 1, that the saints might know “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead”. All these passages confirm me in putting forth the thought that the resurrection is the celebration of righteousness. The truth is that righteousness was accomplished in the death of Christ. What I understand by righteousness is redemption. Every right of God was taken up in the death of Christ and maintained; the right of mercy was declared, every liability under which man lay was met by redemption, and so the death of Christ was the accomplishment of righteousness. But we have not only the accomplishment of righteousness, but the celebration of righteousness. Righteousness is established and celebrated in a Man. Hence the expression used prophetically in regard to Christ, “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings”; righteousness involves healing.
That is what I think the great supper means; it is man coming in mind to that great celebration, and entering into it. At the beginning of Genesis God ordered a world out of nothing; but we apprehend [p. 85] in the resurrection of Christ the power and ability of God to bring to pass a universe out of death. The morning of the resurrection was the greatest that ever was; it was, morally, a morning without clouds. Everything had been dark in the death of Christ; all evil had culminated there; but the morning of His resurrection was the brightest possible morning, because, in principle, God there brought a universe out of death. That is what I understand by the operation of God that raised Him from the dead. We are accustomed to look at the resurrection of Christ as a simple fact; but we want to see the import of it. At the great supper we learn the import of the fact. Hundreds can repeat as a creed, ‘I believe in the resurrection of the dead’; but the point is to apprehend the import of the resurrection of Christ, that is, the ability of God to bring a universe out of death. In the world to come everything is brought out of death. The Old Testament saints, Israel, the church, are all in one way or another brought out of death. The dry bones, in Ezekiel’s vision, are breathed upon and made to live; so with the nations it is life from the dead, everything is put on the ground of resurrection. That is the ground on which God establishes everything in the world to come. I will illustrate it in Elijah and Elisha. The two prophets came close together: one preceded the other. In Elijah, Israel in a sense died; he went through Jordan, and in his passing away, Israel, according to their existence under law, died. But Elisha comes back into Israel through Jordan, the right way, into the land, to Jericho. Elisha represents the revival of Israel in Christ; hence, in connection with Elisha, you will find the power of resurrection. I refer to one incident in connection with his ministry, the case of the Shunamite. God gave her a child on account of her attention to the prophet. But the [p. 86] child dies; then the prophet comes in, and the effect is, the child is revived. The child was revived through Elisha having been identified with its death. The child probably points on to what will come to pass in the revival of Israel in connection with the One of whom Elisha was the type. Even in that day there was the thought of the power of God to revive Israel, and to place it on the footing of resurrection. Nationally they are buried in the dust of the earth at the present time, but the Lord will revive Israel, as He revived the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue.
It would be a great thing if we were true to our baptism, and had ceased to live in spirit in the course of this world, and were really in mind risen with Christ. But, in the first instance, we want to get the good of the great supper, to learn the power of God’s operation, His capability to bring to pass a universe of bliss — the womb of which is the death of Christ, and the pledge and beginning of it the resurrection of Christ. All, as far as man goes, was lost in the death of Christ, but in His resurrection everything is revived. Christians may go on a long time in this world, and have their part in the life of the world, but as sure as possible they have to come to the truth of their baptism. Then you can go a point farther; you learn that you are risen with Him.
I pass on to chapter 15, verses 21 - 23. What this parable brings before us is the complacency of the Father in the prodigal. It is not so much a question of what the prodigal got; the point is what the Father got; just as in the supper, the supper was for the man who made it. The Father had complete complacency in the prodigal. He says, “Let us eat, and be merry”. I lay great stress upon what was put upon the prodigal. It has been said, and truly enough, that what was put upon [p. 87] the prodigal formed no portion of his first inheritance. I regard that as being a most important point. What he got never belonged to man as man. What the elder brother claimed, in a way, belonged to man as man, but what the prodigal got did not. The prodigal had had his inheritance; he had no claim to anything; but he comes back to the Father, and gets what formed no part of his first inheritance. The great point is, these things were with the Father; the ring, the shoes, the best robe. The Father could not have commanded the servants to put these things on the son if they had not been there. The prodigal was there; he had repented, so that he was not there unsuitably; but the point was, that he might be there with nothing unsuitable for the Father’s eye. I think Ephesians 1: 5, 6 gives you the idea. “Having marked us out beforehand for adoption [sonship] through Jesus Christ to himself”. Sonship formed no part of our first outfit. Then it adds, “Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved”. It is evident that the Beloved was ever with God. The best robe was ever with the Father, and now He has made us accepted in the Beloved. The reason we are made accepted in the Beloved is that we may be under the eye of God for His pleasure, and that we may be the witnesses of the riches of His grace. The parable of the prodigal is the climax of these parables; you cannot get beyond it; you could not have a greater place with the Father than to be made accepted in the Beloved, and it brings to pass the great testimony of God, the riches of His grace. It is a great thing to be made accepted in the Beloved; but one could not talk about it unless conscious of it. The best robe, the ring, the shoes, were put upon the prodigal; he was conscious of what was conferred upon him by the Father. I quite admit it is the thought of God for every christian that he should [p. 88] be accepted in the Beloved; but I really could not speak of that being true of anyone unless there is a corresponding work of God in that person. You may depend upon it the principle is true, that what is true of you in the ways of God is true in you; and if this were not the case, there would be a measure of unreality with people. They would claim — and have claimed — a great many things as true of them which are not true in them. I do not think it can be God’s way to sanction or promote unreality in any way. What is true of you is by a corresponding work of God made true in you. If you are accepted in the Beloved, there is a corresponding consciousness wrought in you by the Spirit of God. Now that is what I understand by having on the best robe. You cannot have it on without knowing it. The work of the Spirit in you makes you conscious that God has brought you before Himself in such a fashion as that He can have complacency in you. That is what I should call the climax of grace. It is not only to know the power of the resurrection of Christ, but the knowledge of acceptability in the Beloved in the eye of God, in the One who was ever with the Father, but who became Man, and died, and rose, and who has become a covering to us, that we may be before God for His complacency.
I do not think that we are made accepted in the Beloved simply by faith. You have on the best robe, the ring, and the shoes by the Spirit, and are there inside in order that the eye of God may be upon you in complete and entire complacency. In the ages to come the church will be the witness to the universe of the exceeding riches of God’s grace.
I press upon all that Christ is the Teacher. He has given us an unction, that we may know all things; He is the priestly Teacher, to lead us into [p. 89] the knowledge of God, and of those resources which God ever had with Him, which have now become a covering for man. You may depend upon it that the teaching of Christ is effective teaching. If He makes good the great supper, it is that you may understand the character of the celebration, the character and power of Christ’s resurrection. No one can make any progress unless they appreciate the meaning and power of the resurrection of Christ, and see how God could bring a universe of bliss out of the death of Christ.
The parable of the prodigal is most beautiful; but it is much more beautiful when you look at it on the divine side. We can take it home to ourselves; though, as a matter of fact, it was spoken to a company of Pharisees. Most of the parables were spoken to unbelieving people, tempters, or emotional people; but the point is that Christ is the Expositor, and by the teaching of Christ we can understand the parables which He spoke.