Author: Gary Witcher

Parables Sixteen

All of us recognize that credit buying is a mixed blessing.   For those who know how to manage their money wisely, a credit card can provide great convenience.  But for those who do not know how to manage their money wisely, buying on credit is a one-way street to financial disaster.
Since this is true about financial matters, what can it teach us about our spiritual lives?  Are there any people around who seem to be doing a lot of spiritual "credit buying?"  Do they continue to accumulate debts without attempting to put anything in the credit column?
The problem with material credit buying is that people don't stop to count the cost before entering into a contract.  The salesmen make it all sound so simple, don’t they?   "No money down,” they say,  "with low payments and plenty of time."  They would like for us to believe that we can get something of great value without having to sacrifice.   The big shock comes when the bill collector shows up at the door.
The same is true about spiritual credit buying.  The salesmen make it all sound so simple, don't they?  "No money down,” they say,  "with low payments and plenty of time."  They would like for us to believe that we can get eternal life without having to sacrifice.  "Do whatever you want to, however you want to, whenever you want to," they claim.  "Just call it Christianity and it will be all right."  The big shock comes when we find ourselves face-to-face with the Judge.
"Now great multitudes were going along with Him;” Luke 14:25,26 notes, "and He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple."
Is Jesus saying that we should hate all these people?   In Ephesians 6:1-3 Paul tells us to honor our parents.  Luke 2:51 informs us that Jesus was in subjection to His parents.  Looking at Jesus' statement in context, we realize that He is not saying to hate these people.  He is saying that we need to count the cost before following Him.
We must be willing to put Jesus first to the point that our feelings about others look like hatred by comparison.  Rather than saying something negative about our relationship with our family, this is saying something positive about our relationship with Jesus.  What meaning is there if we love Jesus more than someone we don't care about?  What meaning is there if we love Jesus more than the most important people in our lives?
"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple," the Master adds in verse 27.
When we say someone "has a cross to bear," what do we usually mean? Don't we usually mean that they have some inconvenience in their life that causes them problems?  Is that what Jesus is talking about here?
Find a Roman criminal who is carrying a cross and ask him about inconvenience.  He will point out that a cross is used to kill, not to cause inconvenience.
So what Jesus is talking about here is dying to ourselves.   We must be willing to do what He says, without trying to make things work out best for ourselves.
But when we look around us, we don't see many people who have died to themselves.  Could it be that they have not done what the Bible says they must do in order to die to themselves?
"How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"  Paul asks in surprise in Romans 6:2.
"Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" the apostle asks in the next verse.
No, this is not talking about what most people call baptism.   What most people today call baptism did not exist in the early centuries.   The word means to immerse, to cover, to bury.  What this passage is talking about is burial of adults who count the cost and pay the price.
"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death," Paul continues in verses 4,5," in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the rather, so we too might walk in newness of life.
"For if we have become united with him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection."
After telling His followers they must die to themselves if they are going to following Him, Jesus presents a couple of parables to explain His point.

"For which one of you," Jesus says in Luke 14:26-32, "when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
"Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
"Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace."
The Lord then makes the application in the next verse.
"So therefore," He points out, "no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."
What stands between you and Jesus?  Is it pride?  Is it your job?  Is it some material possession?  Is it your family?  Is it worth it?
Jesus makes one more observation in the final two verses of the chapter.
"Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?  It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
The interesting thing about salt is that it does not lose its taste. It does not lose its taste, that is, unless it is contaminated.   As always, Jesus chooses a perfect comparison.  The same is true about our spiritual condition.  We lose our flavor when we become contaminated.
In the next chapter of Luke Jesus gives three parables dealing with lost things that are found.  We have already discussed the one about the lost sheep when we encountered it in Matthew 18.  The second parable in Luke 15 involves a woman and some coins.
"Or what woman," Jesus asks in Luke 15:8-10, "if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!'
"In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Why did Jesus come to the earth?
"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost," the Master replies in Luke 19:10.
What did it cost Jesus to carry out this mission?
"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus," Paul admonishes in Philippians 2:5-8, "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
What did it cost God to seek and save us?
"In this is love," 1 John 4:10 teaches, "not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
"But God demonstrates His own love for us,” Paul writes in Romans 5:6, "in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
God gave His Son and Jesus gave His life in order to seek and save us.  Now what excuse is it that we are giving for not wanting to be found?
Jesus left heaven to save us.  What excuse are we giving for not being willing to get up out of our easy chair to follow Him?
God is searching for us.  But He is going to call off the search some day.  Are we going to be among the "lost" or among the "found?"
God is going to close our account some day.  Have we been doing a lot of credit buying?  Is it about time we started ringing up some entries in the "credit" department?
Those who write bad checks and make charges without paying eventually end up in prison.
Isn't it time we started listening to and obeying the truth that will set us free?
 
Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."