If all things were not entirely out of course, if every principle of human nature were not astray from God, there would be no need on His part for all the painstaking of which we read in the Gospels -no need for these varied and assiduous efforts to recall people to Himself, which result, after all, in a manner so strange, so sorrowful. We might have supposed, as we sometimes see in the self-willed child on hearing the father's voice of love and entreaty, that instant obedience would be the result of God's bringing to mind the relationship that exists. But no; these constant efforts, this changing of the voice (Gal. 4:2020I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. (Galatians 4:20)) serve but to show that all sense of relationship between God and man is gone. That voice touches no spring; there is not a chord upon which it can act; the echo of the heart is gone.
In Matt. 21 we read: "When He was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto Him as He was teaching, and said, By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority?" v. 23. God comes into the world to do good, and man demands His authority! Jesus had previously been showing power in healing the blind and lame, and in cleansing the temple, but now He is quietly teaching there; and this entangling question is put by those who find their veil of hypocrisy drawn aside, their authority endangered, their unrighteous gains disturbed by that act wherewith Jesus sought to remove from God's house the reproach of merchandise, and to restore its character as "the house of prayer." The Lord might have replied by appealing to His many miracles, but He had another object in view.
"Jesus answered, and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell Me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; He will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? [for John bore testimony to Jesus]. But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet." That is, He at once, by means of the question which in divine wisdom He puts to them, brings out the real state of their conscience. The embarrassment into which they thought to throw Him falls on themselves. "They answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And He said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
Thus, at the very outset, the Lord puts this great truth before all: the conscience of man is bad in not submitting to the righteousness of God. And such is the case always. Man cannot deny that things come from heaven, but he will not believe. He may bring forth his hard questions, like those of old, but with no real desire after the truth. That which his conscience cannot deny, he will neither allow nor act upon. If pressed to the utmost (look at the extreme case of infidelity), men love darkness rather than light, just as it is said: "Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." Rom. 1:2828And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:28).
Having thus put to silence these men, the Lord now proceeds to depict their ways and thoughts in parables which their conscience, already stirred, could not fail to interpret, even when an application was not directly made to them.
"But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not; but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I will not; but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir; and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto Him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him."
In this parable the Lord makes most apparent the difference between formal righteousness and self-will followed by repentance; between the person who goes through the world decently, desiring to make a fair show, and the one who, acting against all the dictates of natural conscience, sins deliberately, but afterward repents.
We see described in the second son the general character of "decent" people. They go on quietly and in outward order, professing to own the will of God, and to serve God; they say, "I go, sir"; but after all, from morning to night, and night to morning, they do their own will, and nothing else.
In the other son there is avowed determination to disobey; just, alas! the description of the thorough willfulness of the human heart. With "/ will not," he delights in breaking through all the righteousness of filial relationship; but withal he is conscious of the violation, and afterward owns it with repentance.
There was no regard in the self-righteous Jew, notwithstanding all his profession, for the righteousness of God of which John bore witness, and therefore he believed him not. But the publicans and harlots who had no regard for the ordinances of God or for the commonest morality, on hearing the testimony of John, believed and repented. The Pharisee made clean the outside—owned God in ordinances, but not in heart and conscience. These others openly and outrageously sinned against God, but "repented and went." And their repentance was such as God owns; it consisted not merely in acknowledging acts of sin, but in recognizing Him as the One sinned against; thus it touched the root of all sin. Their condition necessitated this conclusion: that if God spoke, there was nothing they could say, nothing they could do except, indeed, adopt Job's confession, "I am vile," and then lay their hand upon their mouth. Such was their course, while the scribes and Pharisees, seeing it all, remained alike insensible to God's Word and to God's grace in its full operation.
Insensibility to truth when heard is a most hardening thing, and the Lord's caution, "Take heed... how ye hear," needs to be insisted upon again and again. For have we not now in abundance lip profession and routine observance—the "I go, sir," and a certain amount of eye-service—while the heart is cold, the conscience is stifled, and the desires of the heart or of the mind have their sway? There was no greater enemy to the truth—and therefore to Christ—than the Pharisee; and though the name is lost, the type remains in endless variety.