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In this message we will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in Luke. Among the books of the New Testament, Luke occupies a particular place concerning Christ’s being our Savior. The subject of the Gospel of Luke is the Man-Savior and His salvation in the highest standard of morality. The intention of this Gospel is to present Jesus Christ as a real man with a proper humanity full of human virtues. As such a One, He is our human Savior.
Because Luke’s Gospel is one of the synoptic Gospels concerning the Savior’s humanity, its purpose is to present the Savior as a genuine, normal, and perfect man, revealing God among men in His saving grace to fallen mankind. This Gospel narrates a complete genealogy of the man Jesus, from His parents back to Adam, the first generation of mankind. This shows that He is a genuine descendant of man — a son of man. Its record of this man’s life impresses us with the completeness and perfection of His humanity. Hence, its emphasis is the Man-Savior.
“Because of the merciful compassions of our God, in which the rising sun will visit us from on high, to shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (1:78-79). These verses reveal that our human Savior came not from the earth but from “on high,” indicating that His source is the heavens. He came from the heavens as the rising sun.
As the rising sun Christ appeared to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Jesus the Savior was the dawning sun to the dark age. His coming ended the night of the Old Testament and began the day of the New Testament. As the One who is light to us (John 9:5; Matt. 4:16), He is the accomplisher and the center of God’s redemption that His people may obtain salvation.
Before Christ came, the earth was in a dark night. With His coming as the sun, there was the dawning of day, and the earth began to be enlightened by Him. If He had not been the rising sun dispelling the darkness that covered the earth, He could not have been our Savior. In order to be the Savior, He had to be the One full of light shining not from the earth but from heaven.
Christ has shined upon us in order to guide our feet into the way of peace. When we were in darkness and in the shadow of death, we were walking on a way in which there was no peace. However, now that we have been saved, having received Christ as our Savior, we can testify that we are in the way of peace. Our feet are being guided to take the peaceful way. The Christian life is a life of peace. This is altogether due to Christ’s shining.
The birth of the Man-Savior was announced to shepherds by an angel as good news of great joy to all people (Luke 2:8-10). In verse 11 the angel declared, “Today a Savior has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord.” In John 4:42 the Lord Jesus is referred to as the Savior of the world. Christ is the Savior in order to save us. He is the Savior of fallen mankind based upon His person and His redemptive work. He is the ever-existing Triune God who became a man to be our Savior, and He has accomplished full redemption for us, the sinners, through which He may now save us from God’s condemnation and from our fallen condition.
Luke 2:32 tells us that Christ is light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel.
It is not easy to understand the expression a light for revelation in verse 32. This refers to a kind of shining, a kind of enlightening, that brings revelation to us. Before we experienced this shining, we were in darkness, knowing nothing about the universe, human life, and God. In other words, we did not have any revelation. But after Christ came to us as a light for revelation, we knew where we came from and where we are going. We also knew the mystery and the meaning of human life. Many wonderful revelations have come to us, especially the revelation concerning the person and work of Christ.
We all have experienced and enjoyed Christ in this way. No matter where we were born, before we were saved, we were all in darkness and were without revelation. When Christ came to us, He came as the light for revelation to the Gentiles to enlighten us and to reveal to us so many secrets and mysteries of the universe. As the One who is a light for revelation to the Gentiles, Christ exercises Himself to bring us into His light and to reveal things to us concerning God, man, and the universe.
Christ is not only a light for revelation to the Gentiles but also the glory of God’s people Israel. In this verse the words glory and light are synonyms. To the Gentiles Christ is light mainly for revelation; to God’s people Israel Christ is light mainly for glory. The people of Israel have lost their glory because they have rejected Christ, the human Savior, who is to them the light as their glory. Due to their rejection of Christ, the Jews today do not have any glory. But when they receive Christ, He, the human Savior, will become their glory.
In 7:41 and 42 the Lord Jesus likens Himself to a moneylender. Simon, a Pharisee who had invited Him to his house, was troubled by the fact that He allowed a sinful woman to wet His feet with her tears, to wipe them with her hair, to kiss them affectionately, and to anoint them with ointment. Speaking to Simon, the Lord Jesus said, “A certain moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. But since they had nothing with which to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him more?” Simon considered only the woman, not himself, a sinner. However, the Savior’s parable indicated that He was the moneylender and that both Simon the Pharisee and the woman were sinners — debtors to Him — needing His forgiveness. Today we all are in debt to the Lord Jesus as the moneylender. We are His debtors, and He is our creditor.
In His parable the Lord said that since the two debtors had nothing with which to repay the moneylender, he graciously forgave them both. This indicates that sinners have nothing with which to repay their debt to God their Savior. Nevertheless, He forgives all His debtors graciously.
As the moneylender in this parable, Christ is the incarnation of the forgiving God; therefore, as the very God, He has the authority to forgive sins. The divine ability to forgive sins is expressed through the Savior’s human virtues, portraying Christ as the One with the highest standard of morality. As such a One, He is the moneylender who forgives His debtors.
From his debtors the moneylender did not receive repayment — he received love. In verse 42 the Lord Jesus asked Simon which of the debtors would love the moneylender more as a result of having been forgiven by him. This indicates that love to the Savior is the issue, not the cause, of His forgiveness. When we experience the Lord’s gracious forgiveness, we respond with love for Him. However, our love may differ in degree, depending on how much we have experienced His forgiveness. This was the reason for the Lord’s word to Simon in verse 47: “To whom little is forgiven, he loves little.” The woman’s loving much was a proof that her many sins had been forgiven; Simon’s loving little testified that he had been forgiven only a little.
Concerning the experience and enjoyment of Christ as a moneylender, we need to pay attention to the three matters of faith, love, and peace. The Lord’s word about love in verse 42 indicates clearly that love is the issue of forgiveness, that love comes after forgiveness instead of preceding it. The cause of the forgiveness of sins is faith. This is why the Lord Jesus eventually said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (v. 50). It was the woman’s faith that had saved her. Her sins were forgiven not because of her love but because of her faith. Therefore, faith comes before forgiveness, and love follows faith. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, our faith becomes the cause of the Lord’s forgiveness of our sins. Then as a result of having our sins forgiven, we begin to love the Lord. As we love Him, this love issues in peace. Then we may walk in peace, which means to live in peace, to have a life of peace. Thus, when we believe in the Lord, we love Him and live a life of peace. This is the Christian life.
In the parable of the good Samaritan (10:25-37) Christ is portrayed as a compassionate Samaritan saving the wounded. The Samaritan in this parable signifies the Man-Savior, who apparently was a layman of low estate. He was despised and slandered as a low and mean Samaritan (John 8:48; 4:9) by the self-exalted and self-justified Pharisees.
This Samaritan took care of the fallen and law-stricken sinner with compassion (Luke 10:30-33). Verse 30 says, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who having both stripped him and beaten him, went away, leaving him half dead.” Jerusalem means “foundation of peace” (cf. Heb. 7:2), and Jericho was a city of curse (Josh. 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34). The words going down indicate falling from the city of the foundation of peace to the city of curse. The man in this parable was taking the way of such a fall. The “robbers” signify the legalistic teachers of the Judaic law (John 10:1), who used the law (1 Cor. 15:56) to rob the lawkeepers. The word stripped signifies the stripping caused by the Judaistic teachers’ misuse of the law. The Greek word translated beaten literally means “laid blows on.” This beating signifies the killing by the law (Rom. 7:9-10). Furthermore, the robbers’ leaving the man half dead signifies the Judaistic teachers’ leaving the lawkeeper in a dead condition (Rom. 7:11, 13).
Luke 10:33 speaks of the compassion of a certain Samaritan who saw the man who had fallen among robbers. “But a certain Samaritan, who was journeying, came upon him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.” This Samaritan signifies that the Man-Savior, in His lost-one-seeking and sinner-saving ministry journey (19:10), came down to the place where the wounded victim of the Judaizing robbers was in his miserable and dying condition. When He saw him, He was moved with compassion in His humanity with His divinity. It is important to note that 10:33 speaks not of mercy but of compassion. Compassion is more inward than mercy, issuing from one’s tender, inward feeling.
Verses 34 and 35 describe the Samaritan’s actions in rendering to the stripped and beaten one tender healing and saving care, fully meeting his urgent need. All the aspects of the good Samaritan’s care for the dying one portray the Man-Savior in His merciful, tender, and bountiful care, in His humanity with His divinity, for a sinner condemned under law, showing to the uttermost His high standard of morality in His saving grace.
“He came to him and bound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on them” (v. 34a). The binding up of the wounds indicates that He healed him. Pouring oil and wine on the man’s wounds signifies giving Him the Holy Spirit and the divine life. When the Man-Savior came to us, He poured His Spirit and His divine life on our wounds. The Holy Spirit and the divine life are initial gifts received by all the believers (1 Cor. 1:7). Both of these gifts have been given to us for our healing. From the time we were saved, we have surely experienced the healing of the Holy Spirit with the divine life. The Spirit is the soothing oil, and the divine life is the element that cheers us up through the Spirit.
Luke 10:34b says, “Placing him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him.” This indicates that He brought him to the church and took care of him through the church. Today the local church is an “inn” through which the Man-Savior takes care of us.
