UK 14-15{While all who have tasted Grace, as set forth in the green pastures of the Scriptures, know and own the fifteenth of Luke as indeed affording; a bright expression of that Grace,-I have thought that the fullness of the contents of this blessed portion can be little understood if it be studied apart from chap. 14.
Chapter 15 contains a vivid, and I do not doubt, an intentional contrast to chap. 14. A few remarks will elucidate the truth of this.
In chap. 13 we see the putting forward, by the Lord, of His thoughts as to Judaism as it then existed around Him. In ver. 22, He was " journeying towards Jerusalem," " teaching," when the question was raised, " Are there few that be saved?" His answer was an exhortation to strive to enter at the straight gate, spite of its difficulties-and a solemn warning that " workers of iniquity" would be excluded, notwithstanding the place of privilege they might in this world have stood in; while those who, in this world, had not shared the same privileges might be found admitted from the east, west, north, and south (ver. 29). Hereupon (striking truth of what the Lord had been saying) a Pharisee (ver. 31) warns the Lord to beware of Herod, " Get thee out, and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee." The Lord's answer shows that the evil was not confined to Herod; the place of privilege, Jerusalem, was in question,-He gives its character and bids it a sort of farewell. " It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen cloth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
But if Jerusalem was, for its sin and wickedness, made manifest in then filling up its guilt by the rejection of Messiah,-about to be rejected; mercy could not be prevented. That mercy which would even have gathered the inhabitants of Jerusalem to itself-which turned not back from proclaiming mercy even to them, such as they were-must have some objects to vent itself upon, objects whose very blessing would be the expression of what it, in itself was, the mercy of the Living God. It was meet and right for the Lord to linger among Israel, the people of the Lord—the chosen race; but if they took this place of rejecting him, others there were none to whom he could speak as having an outward standing before God. Let Israel prove that it could not attain to blessing by its own obedience of works, and Christ would not present that truth to another people, but go on to show what the real ground and root of the matter of man's blessing was;-not in man himself, but in God.
In chap. 14 we have, then, a series of lessons laid down by our Lord, which naturally flowed out of His wisdom in the then divinely ordered series of incidences which occurred: all the instruction of which tends to this great point, that He could see nothing in man on which any confidence could be placed for salvation. The best things, in man and of man, get their expression in this chapter; and get their expression too most fairly. They express themselves towards Him the One who was about to be rejected by Jerusalem; but He knew what was in man; and he knew that there was nothing in man which could be, when placed in the light, an adequate resting point for the salvation which He had to give, nothing in man which could be an adequate ground for the flowing in of salvation. And He not only saw this, but willed that we should know that He, the Savior, saw it, and would that we also should see it and know it too.
Chapter 14 When religion is in fashion-and it was so was turning from Jerusalem, but vindicating God, mercy, and the principles of heaven (His own principles as the servant of heaven) to bring men there, and God's principles of preparing blessing for sinners in resurrection. What a time, what a good occasion, for a man to take part with him! We read of but one that did so. Struck by the blessedness of the truth he heard, and of the mind of Him from whom it flowed, there was one who practically committed himself to avowed fellowship with the Lord-with a "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"
Here was a simple putting forth, though but in an exclamation, of his taste for, his heart's joy in, what was so heavenly. Surely he that thus spake was a blessed man; but Christ's mind was fully set upon bringing out what the ground of blessing is, that on which it turns; at this time he was not occupied with the preciousness of the fruits in a man of being blessed (as in chap. 16) but of the ground of the plea for blessing and mercy's flowing forth—the WHY mercy must show itself. Christ, therefore, goes on with the thought he had broached before-not praising the man, but plainly showing that God's blessing will not be shared upon the ground that man has a taste for God, a will to share His blessedness, freely offered and presented before man, as it may be as a free gift.
" Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper,
and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and chewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."
How could the Lord more plainly and forcibly have set forth than He does here, the truth, that possession of a place in heaven is not to be any man's upon the ground of his willing, but only and solely upon the ground of God's showing mercy?
There was a mighty One who made a great feast, and bade many-marked his recognized circle by invitations; just as God had recognized a relationship with Israel in all that Christ and the prophets had said among them. It was no little thing to be so recognized of such a One. But when all is ready, all provided at the cost of the Inviter alone-and when the word reaches the bidden guests, " Come, for all things are now ready"-this made evident, alas! that there was no will, no taste, in the bidden, for the company, presence, or feast of their Inviter. Each turns to his own way; and so entirely do the things of self govern them, that they care not to dishonor and to expose themselves, if they can but have the indulgence of the lust of the moment. There is something too reckless in their course, for it to suit any save man-self-sufficient, self-complacent, self-exalting man. My piece of new ground, my new oxen, my recently married wife, sways more mightily on man's heart to turn him, if left to himself, from God, than the feast or the honor of being invited, than the place or the person of the Inviter, sways to incline man to go in. He must make them willing, or they will not come in. But when they all had made excuse-when none would go in upon the honorable plea, " I have been invited and go, as counting it an honor to be invited-when the mighty One had not His table furnished with guests of His select, recognized circle-He would not have His table dishonored; He sends out another invitation: any that need a meal may now come; and after that another mission goes forth, to compel all, of all sorts, to come in, for His table must be filled.
Marvelous and marked contrast between going to the feast as one who had been invited as worthy, and whose taste led him thither-and the going as one of the poor, maimed, halt, and blind, found in the streets and lanes, called by an insulted Lord; or as one compelled to come in that the house might be filled.
Man's will, man's (fallen man's) taste finds its lure, its bait (not in God, but) in the world, when "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life" have their answer.
But if man's getting into heavenly blessing is not of him that willeth, neither is it of him that runneth: this we see next.
"And there went great multitudes with Him: and He turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."
Was the mob following the Lord wrong? Most surely not, if they indeed had taken His yoke on them and were learning of Him. To take a step or two after Him, in one's own strength, for the sake of a few loaves and fishes, or as carried along in a stream of senseless popular excitement-this, man could do. Loaves and fish are baits attractive enough for man; man can be acted upon en masse by popular feeling. But how long would this last? How far would this carry man in the wake of Him whose energy was not that of brute force, but of self-renouncing obedience to the will of another, unto death, the death of the cross? He who had left the glory of the Father's bosom, for a pilgrimage through such a world as this to the cross, knew that man's energy was not enough to enable man to renounce the loves of the human heart, without which none could follow Him. He was going to give up not only what was in itself bad, but to give up, to yield up, what was most good-even that which He must, if indeed He were perfect, have willed to keep: " Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." His obedience in suffering was the expression of His strength: He had moral power over Himself: He knew man had not-that the heart of man was not above itself, sunk in sin as it was; and He warned that His path led where no human energy could suffice. Man has not power above himself. Blessing cannot come by man's running: first, because the course of the blessed One lay through death; but, secondly, because the work itself and the hinderers to its accomplishment are too many for human power or wisdom.
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."
If Israel found the walls of Jerusalem and its towers hard in themselves to be reared, and impossible for them to complete, whilst the adversary was unrebuked and his power set aside by special aid from God-the task in hand was more mighty far, the enemy more openly in the field to prevent. The refuge of eternal salvation who should build, who triumph over the tyranny of the old serpent? This was not work for man. Human resources, wisdom, energy, and action are as inefficient in such things as is man's will.
The process was now ended, and the judgment of Him who judges righteous judgment could be recorded in the hearing of those who were around him. The creature (as a creature of the Creator) is saltless salt, that has lost its savor-fit neither for the land nor yet for the dung-heap; but which men cast out. Who could gainsay the word? Who reverse the judgment I But if that was the just, natural judgment, as to what was fit to be done with the creature, looked at in relationship to its Creator (it having lost all its saltness), this could not prevent God having the right to pick up saltless salt, if He so willed. Not of him that runneth, nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy: He will have mercy on whom
He will have mercy, and compassion on whom He will have compassion. It is God that showed mercy, because He is the God of mercy; and it is meet that He should act worthily of Himself; and maintain his own prerogative of doing as seemeth Him right. Oh, the blessedness of such a basis for one's rest before God, ground that it would have been as presumptuous to have thought of as it would have been blasphemous to have said, " If I have sinned, God must bear the penalty "-though such was the free grace of God, that He willed to show mercy; willed to give His Son, that Just one, to bear the sins of us, the unjust. What sin never dared to suggest, Grace stooped to proclaim and to accomplish.
The effect of the pressing thus of man's incompetency and God's claims is remarkable. The poor publicans and sinners, who had no righteousness of their own, bowed to the truth and drew near to Him who was thus showing them what utterly condemned them; the scribes and pharisees (worse in themselves than the publicans and sinners-for they added self-righteousness and guile to the sin they had in common with all men) hardened themselves even to judge the Lord, the appointed Judge of all. They were not cut down in their own consciences, so as to become guilty before God, so they felt free to condemn Christ for such intercourse with sinners: "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them." But even such hardness could not hinder Him who saw how the springs of mercy were in God Himself'; and how Father, Son, and Holy Ghost had all and each their part in mercy; and how, if earth understood it not, heaven and they that had its mind delighted in it-from unfolding the real strength of Mercy. In the fourteenth chapter, he will allow nothing good to be in man; but sets aside every appearance of man's identifying himself with Him or with God: man is saltless salt, nor will, nor taste, nor power to keep or to get any place before God would Christ own in man. In the fifteenth chapter, in the presence of self-condemned sinners, in the teeth of judges, as self-righteous as they were self-constituted, Christ insists upon God and Heaven as being the grand plea for mercy. And it is this which is to me the distinctive point of chapter 15; it does not present the blessedness of the sinner saved by grace, which is the great aim of this chapter; but, on the contrary, a much higher and more important truth, namely, that while earth might not understand, a lost soul being found, heaven (in the highest range of it) did; for the Shepherd (true Shepherd of Israel) had those there that could: fully sympathize with him, in His joy in the fruit of the travail of his soul, in a lost one found. The One from whom all light flows (Spirit of Light) has, in Heaven, those who can sympathize with Him, as no angel can, in a lost thing found.
The joy (v. 10) is " in the presence of the angels of God," not in the angels in the presence of God, though that, of course, is true too; but here, it is said to be in the presence of the angels of God; that is, as I understand, in God, who is in their presence, and they are, through grace, in His. And thirdly, the depth of the spring of mercy is shown up in the third parable.
The thought of this chap. 15, then, seems to me to be rather that Heaven and God delight in mercy, that mercy is suited to Heaven and to God, than that the inhabitant of earth and the poor sinner may find mercy or that they that find it are blessed. Preciously true is this last statement; but it is one which may be known apart from the Divine, Eternal, and Heavenly fullness, which I think this chapter presents of the suitability of mercy to God Himself and to Heaven.