(A reply to a Correspondent.)
“Delta,” Bradford.
We judge you will do well to study a little more closely and profoundly, the narrative of the ten lepers in Luke 17. Assuredly the Samaritan was acting according to the mind of Christ, and in the energy of faith, in coming back to give glory to God by bowing at the feet of Jesus.
It is obviously a very grave mistake for anyone to assert that “When the Lord told the ten lepers to go show themselves to the priests, He did not intend them to do so.” Our Lord spoke according to the truth of their dispensational position, at the moment “He was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God.” The Jewish system was still existing, and He would, as far as was possible recognize it. But that did not in any case, prevent the exercise of a faith which could rise above all dispensational arrangements and barriers, and discern in the Person of Christ a glory far beyond aught that the Jewish system could present.
Faith does not attempt to disturb those arrangements, or to remove those barriers. That is no part of its business. God will do that in His own time and manner. It does not touch the barriers, but it soars above them on a vigorous pinion, and finds its place at the feet of Him who, in the glory of His Person, is above all dispensations.
Assuredly the Samaritan was right in turning back to prostrate himself at the feet of Jesus. His act was the act of faith. None but God could cleanse a leper; and hence he concluded that the One who had cleansed him was God; and if God was there, what more did he want? It was all well enough for those who had not eyes to see this, to travel on in the old grooves; but the Samaritan, through grace, had eyes to see in Jesus one who was above and beyond all ordinances and ceremonies, priests and sacrifices.
And, mark, he was a Samaritan stranger. This is in fine moral keeping with Luke’s gospel, where our Lord is pre-eminently set forth as the man, not merely a Jew. No doubt, we have similar touches in other gospels, as for example the Syrophenician in whom we see a lovely instance of faith rising above all dispensational barriers, and laying hold of the fullness of grace shining in the Person of Him who was not only Son of David, but Lord of all; and who, while he could not touch or alienate a single promise made to the fathers, or give to a stranger a single morsel of the children’s bread, yet could never refuse a crumb even to a dog under the table.
We have little idea of the way in which such exquisite touches of faith refreshed and delighted the heart of Christ. The centurion, in Luke 7; the Samaritan in Luke 17; and the Syrophenician in Mark 7 are all examples of faith soaring above and beyond all dispensational arrangements, and legal barriers, into a region in which the soul can bask in the very sunlight of sovereign grace, and drink into all the fullness of God.