UNITY – One spiritual body

LUKE 17

Christ into our hearts through the gift of spiritual life by faith

1) Removal of mammon
2) New life of Trust
3) Resurrection

1) Unity

All the disheartening conditions we face in this world are a result of our being shrewd in matters which belong to another ie., mammon instead of Christ.

This mammon does not only separate humanity but also causes death. It is the greatest evil in the world which separates humanity from one another. It is unthinkable to turn from Christ to mammon, from the gift of a spiritual life to a flicker of life.  Nevertheless, it is a world divided; the disciples on one side and the rest who are against Christ, but are for mammon, on the other side.

Woe unto him through whom this division comes. Better for him that a milestone be hanged around his neck and be cast into the sea than to offend the small little band of disciples (unity) existing at that time of Christ and now. This was prophesy about Judas who actually tied a rope round his neck leading to his death.

Among the disciples’ trespass

• is mammon, which causes hatred with one another
• but constantly Christ’s work washes away our trespasses, hence the order:

“Take heed to yourselves” Vs 3: ‘’if a brother trespasses against thee, forgive him” How many times? No need to count because Christ washes it all, although seven times are mentioned.

But the disciples counted it impossible to accept one another’s trespasses without demand for repayment. The disciples were blind to each one’s own sins. We are still so blind to the planks in our own eyes as disciples, which again only Christ can wash away.

The disciples exclaimed: “Increase our faith” counting on their own ability to accept one another’s trespasses. With faith or the spiritual gift, it is not a disciple’s ability but Christ’s divine power to wash our sins away, hence the reason for acceptance of one another.

If ye had faith as small as a grain of the mustard seed you can do the impossible; transplant a whole tree into the bottom of the sea, which demands greater power than the removal of trespasses or mammon. Faith in Christ is the removal of all our trespasses.

Our earthly life is mistakenly dependent on works. The purpose of the law is to reveal sin. When a man performs his tasks, he thinks and regards himself as righteous. This is a big mistake, a misunderstanding of the Scriptures.

Plowing, feeding cattle, preparing meals for the master, serving, etc., are the demands required from a servant. Does the master thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded him? The answer is No. The Law and our works reveal the mammon we all embrace. This is our prostitution from Christ, the giver of life and turning to the shrewdness in the things which belong to another.

Likewise, when you have done all those which are commanded to you, you should know and say: we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which is commanded, our duty to do. This is what should compel us to turn to Christ who alone gives us a new life of faith in him. He is our true master in charge because he cleanses us of all our sins.

Thus, as brethren we must forgive one another as Christ forgives, and accept Christ as our Master. This is the unity of brethren. One master who alone cleanses our sin. No one is better than the other. We are all one in Christ who saves us all by grace.

2) Spiritual life – the New life

Spiritual life is a gift of a new life to disciples because they have accepted Christ as their Master and Savior, it is a life where Christ washes away sin moment by moment due to the trust that one puts in Christ as opposed to mammon.

This new life is revealed again by the one leper out of the 10 lepers, and also with the woman with the ten drachmas. Going to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through the middle of Samaria and Galilee. And there in a small village, stood ten lepers who stood far off, because of their sinful condition. They all regarded Christ as their master, and they lifted up their voices and said;

“Jesus Master, have mercy on us”

“Go and show yourselves unto the priests” – Jesus said to them, we are told that only one out of the ten, healed turned to Christ and with a loud voice glorified God – meaning – accepted Christ as his Savior.

V17: Jesus said: “Were there not ten cleansed?”

They did not return to give glory to God, they exchanged this glory for mammon. He fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet giving thanks; and we are further told he was a Samaritan- meaning not of Jewish stock with their traditional religious worship of mammon.

The instant change or a spark of new life is revealed by the removal of a terrible physical condition, this completely opens the heart to Christ. The leprosy disappeared instantly.

And Jesus said to him

“Arise, thy faith has made you whole”. Spiritual life is faith in Christ which means abandonment of mammon; and this trust is our joy, no fear but trust as an act of a new life.

In other words, the difference between the spiritual life (Kingdom) versus the mammon is presented below in the next section.

• The disturbing events of our lives – is the sin of rejection of Christ, resulting into the enmity with God, hence enmity with one another.

3) The resurrection

The gift of the spirit in our hearts is our resurrection while mammon is death. Those of the (world) Mammon, death is already pronounced.

Vs 20: Show us when the Kingdom of God shall come – the Pharisees demanded. He turned to the disciples and said, not here or there, behold the Kingdom of God is within you and this is Christ in your heart by faith. But the disciples were not to understand this new life as yet, this new Kingdom until after the actual resurrection of Christ.

Jesus told them:

He must first of all suffer many things; he will be rejected by his own generation. This period of suffering (passion) in the grave will be the day when the disciples will desire to see one of the days he had spent with them but they shall not see him. He will be in the grave for three days and this will be their most difficult time. The disciples desired his power to be revealed during that difficult time.

The people will say to you – where is your Kingdom? See here or there, see him on the cross; and tell the people – Go no more after them, do not even fellow them. The disciples will be scared and will run away from their master.

But as for God’s Kingdom – that is Christ in the hearts of disciples – He will be the light that lighteth in their hearts after the three days revealing their sins by his death and resurrection; and then he will be the light shining through the whole world by the Word. It will indeed be the light shining in darkness.

The same light still shines in the whole world. This light in the hearts of the disciples still shines to this day by Christ’s written Word.

So those who have rejected Christ – he identifies them by mammon or the world. They all have one thing in common from the first generation to the end of the world.

The world is their everything – with the law as their guide, with all the pleasures which the world offers.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be in the days of the Son of Man with specific reference to the Jewish Nation and it shall also be in the current Gentile generation which will bring about the end of the world.

All generations have embraced mammon instead of Christ and they have the following character:

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, they bought, they sold, they planted and they built.

This is all the life they lived.

• During Noah’s generation – floods came
• During Lot’s time out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone.
• After the resurrection, the Roman army wiped out the Jewish nation.

Our current generation, now a mixture of fire, floods, war, hunger, epidemics, murder, etc., but one day it will be different – the earth will be no more. Those in Christ shall have life eternal, the resurrection, the gift of new life which is already within their hearts.

With the removal of mammon, the New life in Christ and our resurrection we are one body in Christ as due to the unity we have in Christ.