Today's reading brings us back once again to a passage connected with the theme of the apostolic proclamation. Unlike Matthew, Luke mentions a certain wider circle of apostles consisting of...
Today's reading brings us back once again to a passage connected with the theme of the apostolic proclamation. Unlike Matthew, Luke mentions a certain wider circle of seventy apostles about whom Matthew says nothing. But this does not change the essence of the matter: the seventy apostles receive from Jesus the same instruction that was given to the twelve closest disciples. Apparently, Jesus allowed no esotericism in His circle and had no special secret teaching for the “initiated.” And when the apostles returned, elated by their victory, and told their Teacher about the healings and exorcisms they had performed, He advised them to rejoice not in these successes, but in the fact that their names were “written in heaven” (vv. 17–20).
The point is, of course, not that the successes of His apostles in proclaiming the Kingdom were unimportant to Jesus. He simply considered it necessary to set the emphasis correctly in His disciples' spiritual lives. Visible successes always attract attention. And the apostles' attention was apparently fixed on the actions and manifestations of the Kingdom that accompanied their proclamation. Here there is always the danger of becoming absorbed in the process and forgetting what matters most. One can bear witness to the Kingdom only when one is rooted in it oneself. Such rootedness does not arise by itself; it is given by God and needs constant strengthening. For a person who physically lives in a world not yet transformed and lying in evil, abiding in the Kingdom is itself a distinct spiritual task.
But something else is important here as well. Bearing witness to the Kingdom is not an end in itself either. At first sight this sounds paradoxical, for Jesus Himself and all the apostles are occupied solely with bearing witness to it in word and deed! And yet bearing witness to the Kingdom is secondary. In the end it resembles an author displaying a work he has created: he himself, and sometimes some of his friends, invites everyone interested to look at what the author has managed to make. But what if such a work needed constant renewal and could exist only in this way? Then the chief task would clearly be not the display as such, but the creative effort directed towards renewing the work itself.
In the case of the Kingdom, the witness finds himself in precisely this position. One can bear witness to it only by manifesting it, and one can manifest it only by renewing one's own spiritual life through contact with it, a life that cannot be renewed in any other way. It then turns out, paradoxically enough, that the witness's chief work is not to bear witness to the Kingdom, but to live in it, and to live openly, in full view of everyone. This is how the chief task Jesus gives His disciples is accomplished: the growth of the Kingdom, which after His return will embrace the whole world.
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3:8 And the scripture - That is, the Holy Spirit, who gave the scripture. Foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles also by faith, declared before - So great is the excellency and fulness of the scripture, that all the things which can ever be controverted are therein both foreseen and determined. In or through thee - As the father of the Messiah, shall all the nations be blessed. Gen 12:3
3:9 So then all they, and they only, who are of faith - Who truly believe. Are blessed with faithful Abraham - Receive the blessing as he did, namely, by faith.
3:10 They only receive it. For as many as are of the works of the law - As God deals with on that footing, only on the terms the law proposes, are under a curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all the things which are written in the law. Who continueth not in all the things - So it requires what no man can perform, namely, perfect, uninterrupted, and perpetual obedience. Deu 27:26
3:11 But that none is justified by his obedience to the law in the sight of God - Whatever may be done in the sight of man, is farther evident from the words of Habakkuk, The just shall live by faith - That is, the man who is accounted just or righteous before God, shall continue in a state of acceptance, life, and salvation, by faith. This is the way God hath chosen. Hab 2:4.
3:12 And the law is not of faith - But quite opposite to it: it does not say, Believe; but, Do. Lev 18:5