Thought for Thursday
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? Luke 10:25,26
Many years ago, a little girl was among the people attending a Gospel meeting in London. She had come under conviction, and wanted to be saved. So she approached the man who was to open the meeting and told him she wanted to be saved, and asked him to pray for her. But, being timid, she added, ‘But please, don’t mention my name’. When the man opened the meeting in prayer, he did as she asked. He said, ‘O Lord, there is a little girl who does not want her name known, but Thou dost know her; save her soul, Lord’. There was perfect silence for an instant, then away in the back of the room a little voice said, ‘Please, it’s me, Jesus – it’s me!’ Our hearts are touched at the earnest and sincere attitude of that girl. Such seeking sinners soon meet the Saviour. How very different the attitude of the lawyer in our text, insincere and seeking only to mock the Saviour.
The man was a lawyer, highly skilled and very knowledgeable in the Old Testament Scriptures. He knew the Bible far better than any of us do, in terms of familiarity with its words. So it was to the law that the Lord Jesus directed him. And that same law condemned him. Jesus went on to show that the lawyer was both unable and unwilling to keep the law. Of course, that could be said of us all. Although as Christians, we have a desire to be obedient to the Word of God, we confess that we stumble and fail every day. And before we were saved, we did not have even a desire to be obedient. We understand that the law is not an instrument that leads to life, but an instrument that proves we are worthy of death. It was this understanding that brought us to the place of repentance and of the acknowledgment of the only One Who could and did keep the law. It is obvious to us that the Lord Jesus, in His dealings with the tempting lawyer, was seeking to bring the man to an understanding of his sinfulness and his inability to keep the law. That is what we seek to do today as we preach the Gospel and witness to the lost. But the man was entirely lacking in sincerity and is almost certainly in hell today because of it. Most of the people we encounter today are no better than him, and will go to the same place that he did. So what hope is there for poor sinners?
The Lord Jesus was being honest and sincere when He directed the lawyer to the law. It was only by facing the holy demands of God that the lawyer could discover his sinful and lost condition. And it was only by acknowledging his sin that the man could discover that the Lord Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). That is the reason why the gate to salvation is so narrow – there are so few that find it. But there are a few. We found it, thanks to the strivings of the Holy Spirit. And so will others. That is why we must keep spreading the Gospel.
Among the many who will mock and despise the Gospel today, there will be one or two who are sincerely seeking eternal life. Let us help them to find Him. -Jim MacIntosh