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The parable of the Two sons
1 Comment | Posted by Jeff Mercadel in Exodus, Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament, Righteousness
Today’s OT reading God is still giving out His very precise instruction of the pattern and layout of how He wants the tabernacle to be set up. So far God has explained and described very specifically how He wants the ark of the covenant, the showbread table, the lampstands of gold, curtains of linen, curtains of goats’ hair, the boards, and sockets, the veil and the screen the, bronze altar, the court of the tabernacle as well as the what the priest should wear. God is not quite finished with giving His instruction on the tabernacle layout, we will continue to follow.
This brings us to our new testament reading. Jesus is in the temple teaching and while teaching He is interuppted by the chief preists and the elders. They approached Jesus questioning his authority as if the authority was their’s to give. What’s incredible is that after they ask Jesus who gave Him the authority to teach, once He answers they are now under the very authority they question. The lesson plan has now been directed to them about them. In the parable of the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32) one of the sons says no to the father, later regrets it and does what the father asked of him. The other son says yes to the father and does nothing. Jesus tells these religious leaders that prostitutes and tax collectors will get into the kingdom of God before they do. He explains by saying that when John came and preached to them repentance the tax collectors and prostitute believed John, but the religious leaders did not. He then says that not only did you not receive John, but you didn’t feel remorse afterwards either and still didn’t believe him. My question is this: Have you really grabbed hold of the gospel? Have you allowed the gospel of Jesus Christ to come in change your life and renew your mind? Or have you decided to reject the gospel and just “do church”? Are you just dressing up on Sunday, carrying your bible, rembering a scripture to impress those that we see? If you have not allowed the gospel to change your life, no matter how righteous you may seem, Jesus was talking to you in this parable. Allow His words to penetrate your heart and change your life.
1 Comment for The parable of the Two sons
Javetta | February 1, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I would just like to add that there are those out there who have allowed the gospel to penetrate their heart and they are truly redeemed; yet, for some reason they have been struggling in their walk…they don’t feel redeemed and keep questioning their salvation and wondering if they are “doing enough” to qualify as one of God’s own….I’ve just discovered a possible reason for this.
I am going through “When I Don’t Desire God” by John Piper and he proposes that many have confused sanctification with justification. The process of being conformed to Christ’s image MUST NOT be mistaken for Christ’s redemptive work on the cross that granted us salvation by faith alone. When we truly grab hold to the meaning of our justification and thoroughly understand it’s implications, then and only then will we be in a position to accept AND experience the joy that is sanctification.
Pastors, preachers, teachers, leaders…if you are reading this: please, please, please TEACH justification and walk with your people until they truly understand it. It is a precious truth that is evidently not being fleshed out in the Church.