In His gospel message in Luke 12:15-21 the Lord Jesus gives a warning concerning covetousness. Someone in the crowd had asked Him to tell his brother to divide the inheritance with him (v. 13). To divide the inheritance is to pay attention to material things. The Lord said, “Take heed and guard yourself from all covetousness; for no one’s life is in the abundance of his possessions” (v. 15). Here the Lord indicates that we should pay attention not to material things but to life, to the soul, for one’s life does not consist in material things. Then He spoke a parable about a certain rich man whose land brought forth well, who decided to build larger barns (vv. 16-18), and who would say to his soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take it easy, eat, drink, be merry” (v. 19). The rich man intended to rely on his material possessions so that he might rest, eat, drink, and be merry. He did not know that on that very night God would require his soul (v. 20). This was his foolishness. “So,” the Lord Jesus said, “is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (v. 21). The point here is that as those who would enjoy God’s salvation, we should not hold on to material possessions as an earthly treasure. Rather, we should lay up treasures for ourselves in the heavens.
In 14:16-24 we have Christ’s teaching about the acceptance of God’s invitation. “A certain man was making a great dinner and invited many; and he sent his slave at the dinner hour to say to those who had been invited, Come, for it is now ready” (vv. 16-17). This great dinner is for God’s full salvation. God, as the certain man, has prepared His full salvation as a great dinner and sent the first apostles as His slaves to invite the Jews. But because they were occupied by their riches, such as land, cattle, or a wife, they refused His invitation (vv. 18-20). Then God sent the apostles to invite the street people-the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Because of their poverty and misery, they accepted God’s invitation (vv. 21-22a). Yet God’s salvation still had room for more; therefore, He sent His slaves to go out further to the Gentile world, as the roads and hedges, to compel the Gentiles to come in and fill up the room of His salvation (vv. 22b-23; Acts 13:46-48; Rom. 11:25).
In this parable the Lord’s intention was to let the Pharisees know that God had invited them to His great feast, but they had rejected God’s invitation. This made it necessary for God to go to those of the lower class-to the poor, crippled, blind, and lame. After that, because there was still room in God’s salvation, God sent His slaves into the Gentile world to gather more people into His feast. Therefore, eventually those who had first been invited by God-the Pharisees, the scribes, and the lawyers-will not be able to enter into the kingdom of God.
This parable is an excellent parable concerning salvation. In order to be saved it is not necessary for us to do anything. We simply need to answer God’s invitation. To be saved all we need to do is come and receive what God has prepared for us. As long as we answer His invitation and accept what He has prepared for us, we shall be saved.
The Lord’s word in Luke 15:3-32 unveils the love of the Triune God toward sinners. In answering the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes, who condemned Him for eating with sinners (vv. 1-2), the Lord Jesus spoke three parables, unveiling and depicting how the divine Trinity works to bring sinners back, through the Son by the Spirit, to the Father. The Son came in His humanity as the shepherd to find the sinner as a lost sheep and bring it back home (vv. 4-7). The Spirit seeks the sinner as a woman seeks carefully one lost coin until she finds it (vv. 8-10). And the Father receives the repenting and returned sinner as a certain man receives his prodigal son (vv. 11-32). Hence, the divine Trinity treasures the sinner and participates in bringing him back to God.
The three parables in 15:3-32 emphasize the love of the divine Trinity more than the fallen condition and repentance of the penitent sinner. The divine love is fully expressed in the Son’s tender care as the good Shepherd, in the Spirit’s fine seeking as the treasure lover, and in the Father’s warm receiving as a loving father.
The sequence of the Trinity in Luke 15 is different from that in Matthew 28:19. In Matthew 28:19 the sequence is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But in Luke we first have the Son as the shepherd, then the Spirit as the woman, and finally the Father as the father receiving his returned son. This sequence is the same as that in Ephesians 2:18: “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” According to this verse, through the Son and in the Spirit we have access unto the Father.
The reason the Son is mentioned first in Luke 15 is that in God’s salvation the One who comes, practically speaking, is the Son. The Son comes to accomplish redemption, the foundation of our salvation. Then the Spirit comes to seek us and find us. Because of the Spirit’s finding of us, we repent and come back to God the Father. According to the third parable in Luke 15, the Father is waiting for us to come back. This wonderful sequence is according to the steps of God’s salvation, the salvation based on Christ’s redemption. God’s salvation is by the Son, through the Spirit, and unto the Father.
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