Luke 7:42

Luke 7:42

Our State of Debtorship before God.

I. What does the Saviour mean by representing sin as a debt? We can well understand in the abstract what a debt is. In looking at our state of debtorship towards God, we should take the simplest and the most meaning view of the subject first. We look simply at ourselves as being creatures of God's creation. "It was He that made us, and not we ourselves." Everything that we have comes from God our existence, our friends, our blessings, our indulgences, our faculties, our powers; everything that we have has come from the same hand, poured plenteously upon us by our God. And if all this be so, we have a foundation here of obligation. Let the relationship be admitted and the consequence follows, that we are placed in a state of subserviency to God, and that God has a simple right to our services.

II. Look next at man's state of utter insolvency. You will see at once that the parable is constructed according to the usages of the courts of law. There is a certain charge for a debt incurred lying against the debtor, and a demand that that debt should be paid. When we look to the question of the liquidation or the removal or satisfaction of crime, there are four ways in which it may be done: (1) we may traverse the indictment altogether; (2) we may plead palliation; (3) we may propose to offer an atonement; and (4) failing these three, we may throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. In none of these ways is it possible that man can be cleared of his offences. God can only afford to be merciful through Christ Jesus. There must be a compensation given to offended justice, otherwise God cannot be just and the Justifier of those who believe. When the Saviour came into the world and took our transgressions upon Himself, when He looked upon the mountain of iniquity that was crushing us down, and shed His own precious blood as an atonement, then justice was satisfied, and mercy was open to plead along with justice. It is in this way that the Gospel makes clear to us the only method by which any sinner can expect mercy.

A. Boyd, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 121.

References: Luke 7:42. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 93; Ibid., Sermons,vol. xxix., No. 1,730.