We have seen the grace which both cleanses and forgives. The soul needs both. God is “faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But now it will be found, that it is not only grace which characterizes the power of God, but the direction in which it works. The cleansing and forgiving might have been solely within Jewish precincts. It is true that the latter of the two—the forgiving—is tied to the person of the Son of man (“The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins"), and that the title of Son of man supposes His rejection as Messiah. This, therefore, at length, opens the way for His working in grace among men as such—not merely in Israel. But all comes out far more distinctly in the new scene.
“And after these things he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me.”
The Jews had an especial horror of tax-gatherers. They were their own countrymen; and yet they made themselves the instruments of their Gentile masters in gathering the taxes. Their position constantly gave occasion to the improper exercise of their authority, to oppressing the Jews and to extorting money on false pretenses or to an unlawful amount.
Hence, as a class, the publicans were peculiarly in disfavor.
But when grace acts, it calls the evil as well as those that men would count good. It goes out to the unjust no less than to persons just as far as men could see. The Lord calls the tax-gatherer Levi (who is named by himself Matthew, the inspired writer of the first gospel). He was called as it were in the very act, “sitting at the receipt of custom.” We hear nothing of any antecedent process. There may have been: but nothing is revealed. All we know is that, from the midst of this work, naturally odious in the eye of an Israelite, Levi was called to follow Jesus. This was a very significant token of grace going out even to what was most offensive in the eyes of the chosen people. When God acted in grace, it was necessarily from Himself and for Himself, entirely above the creature; there was no ground in man why such favor should be shown him. If there were any reason in man, it would altogether cease to be the grace of God. Grace means the divine favor, absolutely without motive save in God Himself, to a good-for-nothing creature, miserable and lost; and the moment that you come down to that which is utterly ruined, what difference does it make what may be the nature of the ruin, or what the means of it? If people are needy and ruined, this is enough for the grace of God in Christ, who calls such that they may be saved and follow Him.
Thus Levi quits all for Jesus: “He left all, rose up, and followed him.” But more than this: his heart, gladdened by such undeserved and unlooked-for grace, goes out to others. He “made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and others that sat down with them.” This was a further carrying out of the same grand truth. God was displaying Himself in Jesus after a sort entirely unexpected by man. It is difficult for us to conceive the light in which the Jews regarded the publicans. But here was a great company of them, and of those who were associated with them; and, wonderful to say, Jesus the Holy One of God, sits down with these publicans and sinners. Jesus was now making known the grace of God. Man never understands this—never appreciates it. On the contrary, he charges grace (implicitly at least) with being indifferent to sin. The truth is, that self-righteousness covers sin, and is always as malignant as it is hypocritical, imputing its own evil to others, especially to grace. There is nothing so holy as grace; nothing which supposes sin to be so very evil. Nevertheless there is a power in grace which calls and raises entirely above the conventionalities of men. It supposes total guilt and ruin when it comes to deliver; and if it comes to deliver, why should it not work among the neediest and the worst? Were it human, the effort would be unavailing. But it is the revelation of God Himself, and therefore it is efficacious by the gift and in the cross of Christ.
Man, however, objects. “Their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” They had not the honesty to complain to Jesus, but vented their spleen against His disciples. But the Lord answers for His people: “Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health need not a physician; but they that are sick” —a simple but most satisfactory and impressive answer. Grace always enables even a man, a believer, to speak the whole truth; it is the only thing that does. How much more did He, who was full of grace, speak in the power of truth! Granted that they were sick; they were just the persons for the physician. It is not even said that they were conscious of their sickness. At least God knows the need, and God seeks the needy, and Jesus was God Himself as man presented in grace. As He said, “I came not to call righteous men, but sinners to repentance."
Then comes in another truth of immense importance. In reply to the question, “Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?” “He said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?” They were ignorant of the glory of the person of Him who was present, as much as of His grace. Had they known the singular dignity of Jesus, they would have seen how incongruous it would have been to fast in His presence. At ordinary times, in view of the evil of the first man, in the sad experience of his rebellion against God, to fast would be appropriate. But how strange would be His people's fastings in presence of their longed-for King! His very birth was announced by angels as good tidings of great joy, and the heavenly host praised God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards men.” Certainly, then, His disciples should act in consistency with the presence of such a glorious person, with such a spring of joy to heaven and earth. Would a fast be in keeping with the circumstances? The Lord therefore answers,” Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?” Gladness of heart suits both the grace and the glory of the Lord. “But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.” The Lord had the full consciousness of what was at hand—of man's fatal, suicidal opposition to God, and to God above all manifest in His person. His rejection would soon come, and sorrow of heart for the disciples. “And then shall they fast in those days.”
But He furnishes more light than this. He points out the impossibility of making the principles of grace coalesce with the old system. This He sets forth by two similes. The first is the garment: “No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.” There can be no harmony between the old thing and the new law and grace will never mix. But next, He sets it forth under the figure of the new wine. “No man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But the new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved.” He shows that there is an energy in the new thing which is destructive to the old. Just as the new wine would burst the old skins and thus the liquor would be lost and the bottles perish, so would fare that which Christ in the gospel introduces. Where there is the attempt to connect grace with anything of the law, the old no longer retains its true use and the new completely evaporates. “New wine must be put into new bottles.” Christianity has not only an inner principle peculiar to itself, as flowing from the revelation of God in Christ, but also it claims and creates forms adapted to its own nature. It is not a mere system of ordinances and prescriptions. It has living power, and that power makes new vehicles for itself. But man does not like it.
Accordingly the Lord adds what we have at the close of the chapter, and what is peculiar to this gospel, the general maxim, “No man also, having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new; for he saith, The old is better.” The legal system is far more suited to the fallen nature of man; it gives importance to himself and it claims his obedience, and falls in with his reason. Even a natural conscience owns the rightness of the law; but grace is supernatural. Though faith sees how perfectly suitable grace is to God as well as to the new man, and how it is the only hope for a sinful man who repents towards God; nevertheless it is wholly above the reasonings of man, and it is constantly suspected by those who know not its value and power. Man's nature cleaves to its old habits of prejudices, and distrusts the intervention of grace.