In Luke 5:1-11, we find there is nothing in works to save a man; in Mark 5:22-34, there is nothing to give him life; in Luke 7:40-48 both Simon and the woman in his house were in the same condition, deeply involved in debt, and had nothing wherewith to pay; and in John 15:5, the Saviour says, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” It is Christ the Lord all through. We cannot get salvation by works; we cannot get it by human instrumentality; we are bankrupt before God, and have nothing wherewith, to pay; and if it is a question of doing anything for the Lord, it is necessary to know Him.
It is a very quiet, interesting scene in Luke 5. A lake, called the Sea of Galilee, and by the shore two fishing boats. But the men are not in the boats, but washing their nets. And we see on the shore One Who is the Lord of glory, and much people pressing in a crowd upon Him to hear the word of God. And the Lord asks one of the fishermen to thrust out a little from the shore; and entering the boat, He teaches the people from it. Oh, the simplicity, beauty, and quietness of that scene! And then the Lord says, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft.” But Simon says, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing!” Night is the time when fish are mostly caught, but all that night’s work had been without result. “Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net.” There was a reliance, a trust in that word; and Peter goes back to those very waters where all night they had caught nothing, and lets down the net. “And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes; and their net broke.” They beckoned to their partners, and filled both boats, till they began to sink! This was a revelation to Peter that he was in the presence of One Who was more than man, One Who had control over the fishes of the sea the Creator His Maker, his., God! And drawn by irresistible grace to that Person, “he fell down at Jesus’ knees, and said, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” The revelation of that Presence to Peter’s conscience showed him he was unworthy of it, and yet grace had drawn him there! God always works in these two ways. His light reveals the sinner’s condition, and His grace draws the convicted one into His Own blessed presence. The people pressed on Him to hear the word of God: Peter not only heard it, but obeyed it; and the effect was, he and his companions “forsook all and followed Him.”
In the next case in Mark 5, the Lord is on a journey to heal the daughter of Jairus, and again “much people followed Him.” His miracles attracted many; all there had needs, yet only in one ease was the need met; and it was met on the ground of faith (vv. 25, 26). She had spent all she had on physicians, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse (v., 26); but she heard of Jesus, and that He was drawing near. She says, “If I may but touch His clothes I shall be whole”; and she goes to Him; she touches His clothes; there is living contact with Him. She had not to wait for the morrow, but “straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, and” (after she touched, not before) “she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague.”
In Luke 7 we have another “nothing.” Simon the Pharisee invited the Lord into his house, but did not give Him the common courtesies a host should give. And there stole into the room a woman, a noted character, known as a sinner, and a dissolute one. And He, the holy, spotless One, the Stranger from heaven, yet the Friend of sinners, is sitting there. She knows she is a sinner, but she knows He knows all about her, and she has confidence to come to His feet. Simon remarks, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who, and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him; for she is a sinner.” Oh, it is a grand thing when the sinner touches the Saviour! And a wonderful thing when the Saviour touches the sinner! The Lord tells Simon of two men who were debtors; one owing 500 pence, the other 50. But both were debtors. And Simon and the woman were both indebted to God; both were sinners, though one was religious and the other profligate; yet both were lost. There might be a difference in the amount of debt; but both were alike in this they had nothing to pay. Both were in debt, and both were bankrupt. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” it matters not how far short. But the Lord says, “He frankly forgave them both.” That is God’s attitude today; He would frankly forgive. But the Pharisee would not bow down to receive such a gift; the woman did, and she got the blessing.
Oh, how blessed to know a God of love Who has frankly forgiven us, because the Lord Jesus Christ has taken our debts on the cross, and the work is finished! What a wonderful pardoning God we have! The woman loved most, because most forgiven. The one who has taken his place as a debtor, and knows the One Who paid it all, and has forgiven all, must return such love, and seek to do something to show that return. And the expression of it is seen by fruitbearing and life; as in John 15. But “without Me ye can do nothing,” and if we want to do anything that is well done in the annals of heaven, we must be in communion with Him.
QUARTUS