Interpreting the twenty-first chapter of Luke can be challenging. The chapter begins with Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple, including his call for discernment and warning of what would come. This leads us to begin interpreting the passage through that one historical event. But the destruction of the temple may also serve, as Charles Spurgeon puts it, as “a kind of rehearsal of what is yet to be,” like “the uprolling of the curtain on the great drama of the world’s doom.”[2] Jesus tells of what was to come and through it what is to come before he comes again.
Tag Archives: God’s Wrath
The Peace Christ Gives
For faith in Christ reveals God’s covenantal favor upon you, grace bestowed before the foundation of the world, love predestining you for adoption, and peace made perfect in Christ.[5] And what can we say of the grace that enables us to believe the gospel while others, even our loved ones don’t? What can we say of the gift of faith that justifies us as righteous before God? While we may wonder, “Why me?”, but surely we can say with all the saints before us, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33, 36).
