May 11 Kingdom Urgency

Luke 12:57-59 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
 
THIS is a very appropriate way to conclude this section on Jesus’ pressing kingdom teachings. Have you decided about Jesus for your eternal life?
    This is Jesus’ urgent teaching here. The writer Luke has recorded in several verses how the Teacher has pointedly taught the Jews they must be accountable as true believers. Jesus has also urged the Jews to pay attention to him as God’s sign form Heaven. The day of reckoning before God’s Judgment Seat is approaching. 
    Thus, Jesus comes to this illustration to tell us all, “Decide now. Settle matters with your Plaintiff before you face the Judge.” In the Roman legal system of that day, one who owed money could be jailed and judged to remain imprisoned until the last penny – the least, smallest amount of money –  was paid. The debt must be totally cleared! Sometimes the debtor would become a slave to the one he owed. Other times, his friends and family might help him pay his debt. Potentially he would be imprisoned or be a slave for a very long time.
    In the Kingdom’s judicial system, Jesus is the Plaintiff. He is pointing to the Jews as his debtors to say, “Be reconciled to (the Father) on the way (to the day of Judgment).”  He passionately reminds them, “You owe your obedience and faith to your Father in Heaven. Settle your debts of disobedience now. Do not wait to stand before the judge. This will be too late. You will be imprisoned forever.”
    Mercifully, in the Roman system there was a way for one to settle his debt before he reached the judge. Graciously, in the Kingdom of God, our Lord has given you the way to reconcile your debt to him before you stand in the Father’s court.
    Jesus, the urgent Teacher, has become the Loving Savior. No plaintiff would die to settle the debts owed him and the court of law. But that is what Jesus has done. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. You and I are born in debt to God. We have no release from judgment and prison, into freedom unless the Judge makes a way. And so he did.
    Jesus was urgent then. He remains urgent now. Here is how you settle the matter with your Lord. Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
    If you hold back to take your sins to God, this will be your sentence: Revelation 20:14-15 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. 
    Repent and confess. Settle the matter now. Be reconciled, free of sin’s debt in Jesus’ reconciling blood. Live in the Father’s kingdom freedom forever. Revelation 22:3-5 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
 
Prayer: Forgive me my debts, Father, against you. Grant me freedom from sin through Jesus’ saving blood. Amen.