(Luke 15:29-3229And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. (Luke 15:29‑32).)
I is the center, me the subject, and my the circle of the human heart. Self and its interests in a word. And nowhere does this come out more plainly than in the self-righteous. Note this elder son. How does he address himself to his father—“Father, I have sinned?” Far otherwise, “And he answering, said to his father, Lo these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.” If in the younger son we have a divinely drawn portrait of the sinner—such as “drew near unto him.... for to hear him” (ver. 1); in the elder son we have as unmistakably the portrait of the murmuring Pharisees and scribes. (Ver. 2.) “But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots” (he murmured) “thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.” (Vs. 30.) There is nothing which self-righteousness resents so much as grace, for grace gives it no place. His father had never rewarded the many years of self-imposed and self-extolled service of this elder son with so much as a kid, and now, “as soon as this thy son”—as if he was not his own brother—“is come, who has utterly disgraced the family name, and dissipated its resources,” he would say, “thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.” How galling to his self-esteem. “As soon,” without waiting to take my merits into consideration, “as your harlot-associate of a son came, you killed for him the best beast in the stall”—that always reserved for an honored guest. Share it with his father in such company “he would not.” No, it was not his father’s company, and what gave him pleasure that he cared for, any more than the younger son had done when he betook himself to the far country, and to the lowest of company to be found even there. His words—“Thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends”—show it. Though he was “ever with his father” as to position, his heart was as far away from his father as was the younger son’s in the far country, and much more difficult to recover.
And thus it ever is with the formalist. He uses religion as a means of benefiting himself, and to enable him to go on at a distance from God, while his religion quiets his conscience.
The writer’s mother once, in giving away tracts, offered one to a Catholic priest, not having noticed what he was in the passing stream. The priest drew back, exclaiming, “I have a religion.” “Thank God, I have Christ!” was her reply. And, thank God, the young priest found Him too; for coming up to my mother some years after, he reminded her of the above brief conversation, and told her he had never been able to shake off the effect of her words, till he had sought and found Christ too.
How great a contrast to the mere formalist is the true Christian. His language is—“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).) When the soul has tasted that the Lord is gracious, it can say, “the Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me,” then only it can say, and that with joy, “not I, but Christ,” and finds in Him its object, lives “by the faith of the Son of God,” that is, finds its center in Him, its subject in His love (“Who loved me and gave himself for me”), and finds its circle in His interests, responds to His call, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”
“It was meet that we should make merry and be glad.” Thus closes this wonderful scene—the most wonderful picture that was ever painted. What, is its subject, do you ask? God laying Himself out to recover wanderers—those that are at a distance from Himself, either in immorality, or in cold self-satisfied morality. “Yet cloth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him.” (2 Sam. 14:1414For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. (2 Samuel 14:14).) And if it were not so “we must needs die,” die in our sins, die in our ruin and wretchedness, in our lost condition, and distant position. That position of distance to be fixed for all eternity, as it will be for those who hold out to the last against all His endeavors and entreaties, as we read in chapter xvi. in the case of the “rich man.” Yes, my reader, it is solemnly and sadly true, that if you refuse to go into the house, like the elder son in chapter 15, you will have to be turned into the hell so graphically but terribly described in chapter 16. For “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
And are you of the sect of modern Sadducees, or of their dupes who deny that there is such a place as hell? Allow me to ask you who knows best, they or you, or the Son of God? The One who came from the unseen world into ours that He might lift its curtain for us, and make us know the certainty of heaven and hell, the end of good and evil; and that He might deliver us, at the cost of bearing our judgment from the hand of a holy God; that He might deliver us from the torment of the one, and introduce us into the bliss of the other. “A picture,” do you say? with the short-sighted logic of all such cavilers. Granted; but a picture of what? “Eastern imagery?” Granted; but of what? Pictures portray something. Imagery represents something real, not that which has no existence. And the picture of Luke 16:19-3119There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. (Luke 16:19‑31) portrays an awful and endless reality, that we might escape it. Oh, be warned! Thank God you are not yet in that state of torment, where so much as a drop of water to cool your tongue will be denied. (Ver. 24.) You may be where you are perishing with hunger (chap. 15:17), and thank God if you feel it. But you are still where the fullness of the Father’s house is offered, bread enough and to spare even for a hired servant. “The fatted calf” with “music and dancing,” all the delights of heaven for a prodigal or professor; and the best robe, the ring, the shoes, to fit you for the house, to remind you of your Father’s love, and to give you a standing in His favor, as well as His embrace and kiss.
And not only is Luke 15 a picture of God’s grace in recovering the sinner, but of His joy in receiving him.
What a drama is being enacted on the vast stage of this world. And the chief actors—who are they? Wonder of wonders, God in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all engaged in the work of each individual sinners salvation and reception. And what a scene is that on which the curtain falls at the close. (Vers. 25-32.) On God entreating and man refusing—self-righteous man, too. And soon, how soon, the curtain will fall on this vast drama—God still beseeching (2 Cor. 5:2020Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)), man still refusing. Christ coming again from heaven will close it; all neglectors, refusers, and rejectors being forever shut out. (Luke 13:2530.) And the last word is, “It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.” W. G. B.