In Luke 5 we have a poor palsied man let down through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. The moment Jesus looked at him He said, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” How magnificent! The same condescension that comes down to a weak faith (the leper) delights in a bold faith. When the blind beggar in Luke 18 met Him, his bold faith commanded Christ. “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” Does not such a picture of Jesus suit you? It is worthy of Him, but it suits you. If you approach Him with a bold, unclouded faith, He will delight in it.
In Luke 6 we find after the choosing of the twelve, He came down into the plain and great multitudes came to Him, and He healed all their diseases. He was a divine visitor to this world—a heavenly stranger among men—a divine visitor to men. He had not where to lay His head while He was visiting their necessities with all the resources of God. This is the ideal for a saint of God—to be independent of all that the world can give, while, with open heart and lavish hand, bestowing upon it all the benefits and blessing of God.
In Luke 7 we find the Lord in company with the centurion. Two needy ones crossed the path of our Lord here—the widow of Nain and the centurion. The centurion took his place as a Gentile at once, and he pleads through the Jews—a beautiful instance of the intelligence of faith. He approached by the right door and the Lord went.
Then next we have the widow of Nain, and the Spirit presents the deep loneliness of her condition. The dead man was “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.” The heart of Jesus was arrested, and then He arrested the bier of the dead young man. His compassions always went before His mercies—as it is commonly said that the heart moves the hand. Do you not prize a blessing that comes to you that way? Salvation gushes forth from the heart of Christ.
“And He delivered him to his mother.” Let me be bold and say, The Lord does not save you that you may serve Him. To suggest the thought would be to qualify the beauty of grace. He did not say, I give you life that you may spend it for Me. Let His love constrain you to spend and be spent for Him. Yet you and I tend to go back to the world and seek to make ourselves happy and important in it. Ah, throw the cords of love around your heart and keep it fast by Jesus!
J. G. Bellett (adapted from Notes on the Gospel of Luke)