Dobra Family Blog

The Bible Knights Quest! - Bible Challenge 2010 - Week 15 - 07/18/2010

Week 15 - Luke Chapter 15
 
Knights and Ladies,
 
Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
Luke 15:1-2

How hard to remember how far we all are from God's standard, and how gracious God is even to the worst of us!

“. . . and such as these Christ 'receives': hence no man should be discouraged from coming to Christ, on account of sin; all that do come to him, should come as sinners, for he receives them as such; nor does he receive any for any worthiness there is in them”
(“John Gill's Exposition of the Bible”)

“these three parables which we have in this chapter, the scope of all of which is the same, to show, not only what God had said and sworn in the Old Testament, that he had no pleasure in the death and ruin of sinners, but that he had great pleasure in their return and repentance, and rejoices in the gracious entertainment he gives them thereupon.”
(“The Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible” 1706)

“I repeat, ... that God finds His own joy in shewing grace. What an answer to the horrid spirit of the Pharisees who made it an objection!

It is the Shepherd who rejoices when the sheep is found, the woman when the piece of money is in her hand, the Father when His child is in His arms. What an expression of that which God is! How truly is Jesus the one to make it known! It is on this that all the blessing of man can alone be founded. It is in this that God is glorified in His grace. . .

Thus God acts in the world, seeking sinners. The hateful and hating jealousy of self-righteousness finds no place in the mind of heaven, where God dwells, and produces, in the happiness that surrounds Him, the reflex of His own perfections. . .

Yet man's righteousness, which is but selfishness and sin, rejects grace. But God will not give up His grace. It becomes Him. God will be God; and God is love”
(“John Darby Synopsis of the New Testament”)

Commentaries:

www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries
 
Accept the challenge, take the quest!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)
 
A prayer for the use of Holy Scripture:
 
O Gracious God and most merciful Father, who has granted us the rich and precious jewel of Your holy word, assist us with Your Spirit, that it may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to Your own Image, to build us up, and to instruct us into the perfect building of Christlikeness, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
(adapted from the “1599 Geneva Bible” Tolle Lege Press, 2006-2007)