salvation.(Chap. 8:22-19:27.) THROUGHOUT, Luke, as it presents the manhood of the Saviour, presents the grace that has come near in Him. We have seen that, as compared with the two former gospels, "grace," "peace," "Saviour," and "salvation" are new and characteristic words. The third part now declares the full character of the salvation now come for man.
I. (8:22-9:50.)The Fullness of Salvation.
(I) 8:22-25. From the power of circumstances. That which we have had in the two former gospels is repeated here, and in very similar connection. It is the same lesson of the Lord's control of circumstances through which we pass, Himself being with us, though faith be needed to discern His actual care. With God, whom all things serve, they serve us therefore, in His tender love toward us.
(2) 8:26-39. From the power of Satan and of sin.
(3) 8:40-56. Life out of death. These two sections follow almost in the words of the previous gospels, and the lesson I do not see to be different in the main from that in Mark. They are needed here to give us fully the features of that, salvation which is Luke's theme. The repetition of these things puts upon them a corresponding emphasis; and there are minor differences also, which surely have a meaning, if we have heart and wisdom given of God to find it.
(4) 9:1-17. Ministering and ministered to. We now see what the world is for those who are with Christ in it,-a wilderness, but where His grace and power are proved, and make those themselves the subjects of grace its instruments in blessing others. This is, in brief, what this section shows us.
(5) 9:18-36. Earth closed and heaven opened. Next, we have the Lord fully as the One rejected on earth, accepted of God, and glorified. And this for disciples also, as He declares, closes earth and opens heaven. In Luke we have, more than in the two former gospels, the heavenly things dwelt upon, and our portion in them. Thus, while Matthew and Mark say, "After six days," Luke dates the transfiguration as "about an eight days after" the Lord's promise. Luke also alone gives His decease in Jerusalem as what Moses and Elias spoke of with Him, and of their entering into the "bright cloud" of the "excellent glory," as Peter afterward calls it (2 Pet. 1:17). All this is in full accord with the grace which is the theme of this gospel; and here the full character of its salvation is displayed.
(6) 9:37-50. After this, it seems to me that we find a supplementary picture of a world in which those who are amazed and wonder at the power of God, owning it in Jesus, can yet crucify Him when delivered into their hands; and where disciples who have not power to cast out devils, because of their unbelief, would yet hinder him who has, "because he followeth not with us." The Lord Himself remains, the available source of power and grace, and who identifies Himself with a little child received in His name.
2. (9:vi-12:)The Ministry of Salvation.
In the last division, we were following almost entirely in the track of the two former gospels; in the two next we find what is almost entirely peculiar to the present one.
(I) 9:51-62. The spirit of the ministry. The Lord is now on His way to be delivered up. This gives character to all that follows. The Master of all is taking the path of absolute self-renunciation as Saviour of men, and His own must follow Him in this spirit, finding their freedom from the world as brought out of its sphere of death, to preach the kingdom of God among men. He is thus to be glorified by those who walk in the freedom of their privileged place, in the spirit of obedience to Him who has delivered them.
(2) 10:1-24. Its testimony and effect. The mission of the seventy is more connected than even that of the twelve with the person of the Lord Himself, nor are they restricted to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The power of the enemy is prostrate before the messengers of grace, and babes have revealed to them what wise and prudent cannot attain unto. The object of the testimony is the Son, who, inscrutable in the full glory of His person by man, alone reveals the Father to men. It is thus the kingdom of God becomes a reality in the souls favored with so wonderful a revelation.
(3) 10:25-42. Divine love to the sinner, and divine-fullness for the saint. The question of a lawyer gives occasion to the story which follows, in which "Who is my neighbor?" is seen as easily resolved by one who has in himself the heart of a neighbor. The story thus becomes a parable of Him who is alone man's neighbor fully, serving him in his deepest needs. Here the officers of law-the priest and Levite-have no succor for the conscience-stricken and helpless sinner, while the true helper is one outside of law and under its judgment (a Samaritan), yet the minister of divine compassion, bringing to him, where he is, effectual help. The oil and wine-the glad news of Christ's work made known by the Holy Ghost-heal the wounds of the conscience; the power of the Spirit brings him to the inn, the place of refreshment and ministry on earth, where the same blessed Spirit, as host, has him in charge until Christ comes again. The "two pence" signify the present recompense of those by whom He ministers to the need of souls, the witness of further recompense when Christ comes.
The latter part of the parable thus connects with that which follows to the close of the chapter, where Christ's fullness is seen to be the provision for the saint-the "one thing needful:" the "good part," therefore, to be sitting at His feet to hear His word.
(4) 11:Man’s dependence upon the Spirit, and responsibility and Judgment for resistance to Him. Christ is, then, the one sufficiency for the soul, the Holy Spirit the only power for ministering Christ to it. It is this latter truth that is now insisted on, man's responsibility as to it being dwelt on here, as before the Spirit's competence and grace. The chapter divides into four parts.
(a) In the first place, (from 5:1-13) urgency and confidence in prayer are set before us, while the model prayer itself shows what is to be the spirit of the suppliant. In 5:13, all good gifts are summed up, as it were, in one-the Holy Spirit. "If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit* to them that ask Him?" * We are not, I believe, to think here of that one gift of the Holy Ghost, as a Person dwelling in us, which constitutes the one indwelt a Christian:but, as the persons addressed and the whole context shows, rather of the help and ministry of the Spirit as daily proved. Our reception of the Spirit as indwelling is not dependent upon our prayers; nor having received it, do our prayers become less needed. The context of the passage is here, as mostly, its best interpretation*. As Christ's fullness is the one thing needful, so all gifts must be in fact included in this one, by which this fullness is communicated to us.
(b) From 5:14-28, man's rejection of the Holy Ghost is made the subject of the most solemn warnings. As the -Spirit glorifies Christ, so the devil will bring in Antichrist for the nation that refuses Him, and thus the unclean spirit (of idolatry) returns to its dwelling-place in Israel, out of which it had gone (5:26). And man, who loves independence, is in fact wholly dependent. For him, if it is not the Spirit of God, he is in the power of Satan to do with as he lists. Only Christ, by the Spirit of God, can effectually bind the strong man, who is not divided against himself. The kingdom of God was thus among men:blessed, above whatever natural relationship even to Christ Himself, were they who heard the word of God and kept it.
(c) The people sought a sign. They would find it in fact too late. For as Jonah (risen as from the dead) was a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man would be to that evil generation (comp. Matt, 24:30). He would be manifested (in the clouds of heaven) to their condemnation. For God had not put the light-its own witness-under a bushel:what was wanting was the eye to take it in.
(d) Then, to the close of the chapter, the Lord exposes the unholiness of the Pharisees and lawyers, the leaders of the people, whose cleansing of the outside only made the inner uncleanness more defiling, "as graves which appear not;" while the lawyers loaded men with burdens they would not touch themselves, and built sepulchers for the prophets whom their fathers slew. They would be tested by new prophets, whom they would slay and persecute, to bring upon that generation the blood of all the prophets.
(5) 12:A call to sitting loose to the world, as men that are waiting for their lord. The twelfth chapter contains evidently one discourse; and its burden is that we be free in spirit from the world, as those whose hearts have found another Master. The first twelve verses exhort to confession of Him, and against fear of the world. Thence, to the thirty-first verse, against love of the world and care, the soul being sweetly encouraged to confidence in the perfect love of God. Then, to the forty-eighth, we are bidden to be ready for the coming of our Lord. And finally, in the closing verses, we have the effect of His first coming through the unbelief of men, and Israel going with their adversary-Moses, to whom they appealed–unto the judge, not to depart from prison until they paid the very last mite.
3. (13:-16:) The Gospel as Manifesting both God and Man.
(I) 13:Conditions of divine holiness in order to salvation. Sovereign as is God's grace, there is yet a necessary method in God's rescue of a sinner. It must be such as shall maintain the holiness and authority of God. This involves the conditions of which this chapter speaks. There are two, which give the two divisions:-
(a) The condition of repentance. The law declares this absolutely as to all:"Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The woman with the "spirit of infirmity" then shows that for weakness there is abundant help; divine goodness never can be stayed by divine ordinances; and so evident is this, that only manifest hypocrisy could dispute it.
(b) The second condition is, Christ sought and known in a day of grace. When once the master of the house rose up and shut the door, it would be too late. Moreover, outward acquaintance with Christ, and external relationship with Him, would not be enough. Those who were far off would enter from all sides into the kingdom of God, while Jews, of Abraham's seed, would be shut out. Jerusalem, so long rejecting the sheltering wing of God, would now be left of God desolate, until she should say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
(2) 14:Man's supper and God's. The opposition of man to God in nature and will is now made manifest in the two suppers of which the fourteenth . chapter speaks. Resistance to God's grace is the first thing, not for the first time, brought before us ; then, man's self-exalting spirit, which He can only abase; then, his seeking his own, in a carnal way, without faith. Hence his refusal of God's invitation :the field, the yoke of oxen, the wife, are more, in his eyes, than all of God's offers; and God must send out to the outcasts,-to the highways and hedges,-and even then "compel" men to come in, that His house may be filled. Yet, if men will keep to their (thought, God must of necessity keep His own; and they must count the cost of discipleship, not take it up lightly.
(3) 15:God's heart told out in salvation. And now we come to the three parables so familiar to every Christian heart, but which continually disclose fresh beauty and blessedness to the eye opened to behold it. For it is the heart of God that is seen,-His joy in finding and receiving the lost soul, famine-pressed to seek the bread in a Father's house. Here, Father, Son, and Spirit have one mind in the pursuit of one object.* * As the "shepherd" is, of course, Christ, and the Father is spoken of as such, without any figure, so, though much more enigmatically expressed, the "woman" gives us the ministry of the Holy Ghost, acting, doubtless, through the people who belong to Christ, that is the woman. And here I would ask my readers to observe in what section of this book this wonderful display of God in His grace is found. How significant is it that it is placed in the third section of the third part of the third gospel! I would once more very earnestly beg all students of the divine Word to test the truth of these divisions by the meaning of numbers as I have given them in the commencement of these "Key-Notes." If they are indeed not human fancy but of God, it is hard to overrate their importance in the study of the Word. Every number given furnishes a means of testing if it is really so*. The sheep simply wanders, is lost, and brought back. The piece of money must of necessity be sought and found. And in the case of the lost son, while he does indeed set out on his way back to the father's house, yet it is as forced by a necessity in which we see, not the will of man, but God's will supreme over it. Coming to work for necessary bread at a servant's wages, he comes to find at once the wealth of a father's love poured out over him,-the kiss, the ring, the robe, the banquet, unconditionally made his own.
(4) 16:1-13. Another's and our own. The Lord now (to His disciples) speaks of the responsibility in earthly things of those brought into a heavenly portion. Turned off as steward for unfaithfulness as man is with regard to the earth, he yet has in his hands his Master's goods; and as the unrighteous servant in the parable used what he had with a view to his own advantage after he should be dismissed, so grace privileges the believer to use the natural things, from the stewardship of which death dismisses, with a view to what is his eternal interest after death. And this for him is not unrighteousness, therefore:it is in faithfulness to his Master that this eternal blessing is to be found. This the next section emphasizes and enforces by a glimpse of the contrasted portions of souls beyond death.
(5) 16:14-31. Here or hereafter. In answer to covetous Pharisees, the Lord draws this picture of Lazarus and the rich man. The latter's case is what is emphasized. To choose one's good things here is to give up eternal blessedness. But here, faith in the word of God-better authenticated than if one returned from among the dead to wit-ness-is what enables one to choose for one's self a portion else unseen. We see in this section that grace does not set aside the "holiness, without which none shall see the Lord; "nor the principle of faith the works which it produces.
4. (xvii-19:27.)The Practical Fruits of Salvation:the Kingdom of God.
(I) xvii-18:8. The presentation of the kingdom of God. The practical power of the gospel is this, that it establishes the authority of God over our hearts and lives. And it is in Christ He is revealed:grace introduces this kingdom into our hearts. Otherwise, there is but one alternative-the judgment of God. This gives the thread of the present chapter, which seems to have three parts. In the first (10:i-io), the grace which is the spring of all right action characterizes, therefore, the walk of the receiver of it. "He cannot with impunity despise the weak. He must not be weary of pardoning his brother. If he have faith but as a grain of mustard-seed, the power of God is at his disposal. Nevertheless, when he has done all, he has but done his duty." Secondly (10:11-19), it is by the relief of personal need that the glory of Christ is revealed to the soul, and the one who thus finds Him is delivered from the claim of law. Thirdly (10:20-37), the kingdom of God comes thus among men, (not yet as outward display,) to be received in the person of the lowly Son of Man. But the disciples would soon desire to see one of His days, and would not see it; for He must suffer many things, and be rejected of that generation. From thence, the Lord goes on to speak-of His return and the judgment connected with it.
(2) 18:9-34. The character suited to the kingdom. We have now put before us the character suited for the kingdom. First, the publican, stricken with the consciousness of sin, is contrasted with the self-righteous Pharisee, and goes down to his house justified rather than he. Then the little child, the type of helplessness, is received, "for of such is the kingdom of God;" while the ruler finds in his riches that which excludes him from it, although salvation is among the things possible with God, where impossible with men. Peter suggests their own having left what they had, to follow Him. And the Lord, in reply, declares that whosoever had left anything for the kingdom of God's sake should receive much more even in the present time, and in the world to come eternal life. But the Master's feet would be foremost on the path in which the disciples were called to follow. He was to be delivered to the Gentiles, put-to death, and then to rise again.
(3) 18:35-43. Light through faith. We now find one who owns the Lord as King-the Son of David,-receiving sight wherewith he follows Him. "Thy faith hath saved thee," says the Lord. The subjection of faith to Christ is that which gives a single eye; and "the light of the body is the eye." "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
(4) 19:i-io. God works, and salvation. The story of Zacchaeus then distinguishes carefully between good works and salvation. It is plain that Zacchaeus’ answer to the Lord is the repelling of the charge that he was (as they said) in a special way a "sinner." Yet He, while owning him a "son of Abraham," maintains "salvation" to be a thing apart from any question of works, and for the "lost." It had come with Himself that day to Zacchaeus' house.
(5) 19:11-27. The reward of faithfulness and judgment of unbelief. This section closes now with the reward of works at the coming of Christ. The judgment of the unfaithful servant shows unfaithfulness to be simply unbelief.