APPLYING PARABLES PERSONALLY
by Peter MastersFROM SWORD & TROWEL 2001 No
2
Presenting the evangelistic arguments from the Lord’s parables
And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new
garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was
taken out of the new agreeth not with the old (Luke 5.36).
THE PARABLES and miracles of the Lord usually contain personal
application for lost souls, and these must be gleaned for evangelistic sermons. Sadly, there
is today much hesitation concerning this use of parables and miracles, because preachers
have been trained, and rightly, to avoid allegorical preaching. But the personal, evangelistic
applications inherent in the Saviour’s parables and miracles do not come into the category
of allegorical interpretation.
Our Lord’s parables were expressly designed to picture themes of grace and
salvation, and His miracles were intended to portray the far greater work of spiritual
healing. The latter were ‘signs’ of Who He was, and also of what He had come to do for
souls. Some of the most powerful evangelistic arguments, and the most compelling vehicles
for their presentation, are lost if preachers are not effective in preaching salvation from
parables and miracles.
This brief article aims to show the validity of personal application, and how
it may be discerned. To add interest we have chosen a miniature parable found in three
Gospels, but seldom used (it seems) these days for evangelistic preaching.
Our specimen is the parable of the new cloth on an old garment, as recorded
in Luke 5.36. There are two garments in this short parable: one is old and
threadbare, while the other is new. (This is plain from the form of words employed in
Luke.)
To a former generation of preachers the old garment suggested the ruined life
of the unconverted person, while the new pictured the new life in Christ. The old preachers
would show that many people attempted to patch the garment of an ungodly life with a few
pieces of Christian belief, or with spasmodic good deeds.
It is not widely appreciated today how full and rich this style of application
can be, and how many strands of evangelistic reasoning it yields. We shall explore some of
these.
However, before pursuing this line of approach, we should take note of the
parable’s ‘external’ and primary meaning. A new garment is being raided to
patch the old. What is the Lord suggesting? His basic message is that the prevailing
religious outlook needed total change, and any compromise would fail. It was the message
that faith and works don’t mix.
There is an ‘institutional’ insight here, namely, that the Jewish leaders, at
first, may well have been delighted to ‘adopt’ the miracles of Christ, but not His doctrine.
They may readily have accommodated His miracle-working power into the structure of the
Jewish church, having lacked authenticating miracles for four centuries. The Jewish leaders
of that time had drifted a thousand miles from the religion God had given them, which was
about free salvation, not proud works. They would have been pleased to possess a wonder-
working prophet, provided that he knew his place and deferred to their priesthood,
leadership and teaching. Such an arrangement would have greatly enhanced Judaism.
Many believe that this was what lay behind the conciliatory mission of
Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night. (Such a scheme would also have fitted the proposal
of Satan at the time of Christ’s tempting, that the Lord should take earthly honour and
celebrity in exchange for being subject to Satan’s programme.)
For the Lord to have compromised with Judaism would have dignified a
corrupt institution with credibility and esteem, while His own kingdom, having its saving
purpose ripped from it, would have become useless. To authenticate the old order would
have produced an ugly sham. Jesus Christ could never be an ornamental appendage to the
old system.
The primary application of the parable, therefore, is that the Jewish order is
corrupt and cannot be improved, while the Christian Gospel cannot be taken in part only,
but must be embraced as a whole.
This scenario extends naturally to the personal application,
namely, that the individual’s old nature must be replaced by Christian conversion. This
personal application was surely intended by the Lord to challenge lost souls through the
unfolding centuries.
Certainly, even the primary or ‘institutional’ application is to be articulated
by Gospel preachers today. Forty years ago and more, we often heard evangelical preachers
denouncing society for taking the ethic of Christianity while rejecting the
religion. Those preachers would refer to this parable, and speak of taking a patch
from Christianity while rejecting most of the garment, namely, the way of salvation.
In the 1960s, however, we saw the beginning of the ‘permissive society’,
when even the ethical teaching began to be ridiculed and rejected.
The primary and institutional application may be helpfully extended,
especially in the introductory portion of an evangelistic sermon, to show how some
churches (and many individuals) believe in the person of Christ, and want Him, along with
a place in Heaven, but reject His provision of free salvation to hopeless sinners. They
believe that they can earn and deserve His blessing. They take a patch from the garment of
Christ’s message, and sew it on to their own ‘good’ lives and works. ‘Salvation by my own
works’ becomes their creed. But what good is a patch? What good will it do to respect Jesus
Christ, if I never ask Him for free forgiveness, and spiritual life? I will remain condemned
by my sins.
We return, therefore, to the personal application of the old garment as
representing the old nature and the old life before conversion. One of the special virtues of a
parable is that it enables the preacher to describe the ugliness of human nature in a
somewhat indirect manner, thus avoiding inflicting deep offence. (Some preachers make the
mistake of almost spitting and growling these themes to their hearers, who promptly close
their minds.)
Of course, sinful nature cannot be preached smilingly. It is a serious matter
to expose the folly, weakness and wilful sinfulness of the human heart. But the Lord, in
parables, gives illustrations that provide effective lines of reasoning, while softening
slightly the harsher edges of the message. Instead of saying, ‘You are evil,
you are deceitful, you are proud,’ we may tell our listeners how Jesus
Christ shows in this soiled garment what our lost souls are like.
Here are some obvious parallels suggested by the soiled garment. (We shall
come to the big surprise and special theme of the parable shortly.)
The old nature, only fit to be discarded, is our worst possession, and will
bring us into condemnation. It is also threadbare, depicting people tragically insubstantial in
spiritual knowledge and virtues. It lacks warmth, and our souls have no inner joy. All our
happiness must come from outside us, from sources such as entertainment.
Worst of all the garment of our unconverted nature is deeply stained and
soiled with all our guilt, and these stains cannot be washed out. In Bible times they took
their garments to the washing stone, but sometimes, no matter how hard they beat them, the
stains were too entrenched to move, and this is the problem with our sin-stained souls. We
can do nothing to remove our guilt, and mend our ways.
So far, the spiritual application provided by the parable is
straightforward, but there is an unexpected twist when it tells us that another garment
is available, a perfectly good, new one. Now this presents the element of surprise and
highlights a very interesting problem. Why is the owner so ready to ruin this new
garment by cutting a patch out of it and sewing it into his threadbare, stained
garment? Why would anyone do such a thing?
We can understand the need for patching if a person does not have anything
better available, but the parable describes the ruin of a new garment. (The Lord’s parables
often have an unrealistic element that commands special attention, and gives a unique
message.) An equally important question is - Why does the person not want to wear the
new garment?
Let us say that salvation is proclaimed, and the new garment of
life described. It is described as being available in Christ, and easy to procure. Belief,
repentance and submission will obtain it. The new garment gives forgiveness (it is clean), a
new nature, spiritual life and eternal life. Yet the listener wants only a bit of it, and the
question is why?
For this parable, much of the preacher’s sermon preparation will need to be
devoted to working out answers which will help lost people understand themselves and
their reluctance to accept the Gospel. These answers cannot be identified without thought.
Nor can they generally be found in the commentaries, for few commentaries tackle the
evangelistic application of parables, except at a superficial level. A preacher must spend
time teasing out his own valid and credible points.
Why, then, is the unconverted person so attached to the old garment of his
present state?
1. The first answer is that he cannot see what is the matter with
it. Imagine someone walking round in a foul, stained, smelling, threadbare tunic,
unable to see its deficiencies! He thinks it is a fine garment. (This is a reasonably
sympathetic yet challenging way of telling the lost person that, in the sight of God, he is not
the fine personality he imagines he is, and so spelling out Gospel home- truths.) Self-
blindness is surely the soul’s greatest internal enemy.
We will need to speak about unrecognised (or minimised) sins of deed, word
and thought. We may wish to identify lying, hostility, temper, greed, unclean desires and the
perpetual selfishness and pride of the old life. We may wish also to identify the sins toward
God, namely the wilful withholding of love, obedience, worship and service. We must see
ourselves as God sees us, rather than excusing our sins and boosting our imagined good
deeds - seeing ourselves through spectacles of pride. When we see the state of the old
garment, we shall long for the new.
2. The second reason why the sinner clings to the old life is that he
cannot see the superiority of the new. He does not see the splendour of the new
garment. He has the idea that the Christian life is a chore and a bore, and we will have to
convey the contrasting reality to him. The great events and changes associated with
conversion, and all its ongoing and future blessings, including the new nature, new
integrity, spiritual light, answered prayer, and the constant interventions and guidance of the
Lord, need to be appreciated and longed for.
3. The third reason for clinging to the old garment is that the person
has never grasped the holiness and majesty of God. We may suppose that the person
of the parable is invited to the royal court. It would be entirely inappropriate to wear an old
garment with a patch. Nothing less than the new one will do. But he will not wear the new
because he has not appreciated the importance and stature of the king, or the insult of his
appearing in near rags.
Our hearers do not see their need of a new nature because they don’t
understand the absolute purity and glory of God. They have an undersized view of God.
They think that they will get by in His sight without any changes. They have the idea that
God will not mind them as they are; all He wants is that they use a bit of effort, or just a
patch or two. A parent may ask a teenager, ‘Are you going to a job interview dressed like
that?’ As preachers we have to demonstrate the impossibility of acceptance by God, except
by the forgiving and converting blessing of Christ.
4. The fourth reason why some may not put on the new garment of salvation
is that they hate the idea of coming under the lordship and rule of Christ, and
leaving their present sins and self-based lifestyle. They want to keep the old garment of self-
determination, doing what they want to do.
5. The fifth reason why many will not have this new garment of new life is
that they are scared of what people may think of them.
Some people in everyday life are very reluctant to wear new things
because they think they will be conspicuous, and observers will talk about
them. They have a new coat or suit, but soldier on with the old one to avoid
embarrassment. Similarly, many people think that if they respond to the message of the
Gospel, and their interests change, their friends and colleagues will hold them in contempt.
Such a fear keeps many from the goodness of God, and from transformation, deliverance
and Heaven. But the ultimate cost of faint-heartedness is terrible, and our hearers need to
consider which is worse - the offence of the cross, or a lost eternity.
In the view of this writer such applications as these are entirely in line with
the intention of the parable. They correctly elaborate on the theme, and this was surely the
original intention of the Lord. None of these applications is forced, or only slightly related
to the elements in the parable, and all are readily identified with a little serious thought.
Returning to the patch analogy, we must stress that to take a part from
Christianity and sew it into our unconverted life would result in an unhappy ruin. If we were
to be half converted (although this is, of course, impossible), then new-found
honesty might have to live alongside ruling selfishness and greed. Or a capacity for love,
generosity and kindness might be placed alongside entrenched cruelty and violence. Even if
possible, this would be pointless because we would still be eternally condemned on account
of the uncleansed parts. It would certainly produce an inconsistent monster. The entire heart
and nature must be pardoned and renewed.
Every part of the garment of Christianity is needed. The main tunic may be
said, for the sake of illustration, to represent Calvary. (We recognise that this marks a
considerable extension of the parable.) We must believe in and depend
upon the Cross of Jesus Christ. The arms of the tunic, and the skirt may be said (loosely) to
represent the new spiritual life, and the new character. To tear out only a part for grafting on
to the old garment would not produce conversion. Christ must be Saviour and Lord and the
Provider of new life to lost souls.
The scope of this miniature parable arises from the divine genius of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We repeat that we are not falling into medieval allegories, or to the style of
interpretation which makes each of the coins in the parable of the Good Samaritan stand for
something no one would ever have imagined. We are drawing out rather obvious
applications, most of which closely honour the graphics of the parable.
True repentance may be defined here as the taking of a new garment,
provided by Christ. The seeker sees all that is wrong in his life, not literally every sin ever
committed, but he sees that he is offensive to God in head, heart, and hands. His thoughts,
desires, affections and deeds must all be forgiven and renewed, as salvation is taken wholly
and sincerely.
There are some further parallels which make sensitive and powerful
reasoning to lost souls.
It is the easiest thing in the world to put on a coat. Who would buy a coat
which had such heavy material and complex fastening, that it was an ordeal to don? To
approach the Lord for the garment of salvation involves no ritual or elaborate preparation,
only genuine need and childlike faith.
Like any garment, the garment of salvation must be put on in a single act. In
the case of a literal garment, no one puts an arm into the left sleeve one month, and into the
other the following month. The new life that comes with conversion is not given over a
lifetime, but all at once when we approach the Lord in sincere repentance and dependence
on Calvary.
It may be that some hearers are genuine seekers who, in some sense, have
already donned half the garment of salvation while the rest trails along the ground behind
them. Perhaps they are completely convinced of the Christian world view. They see and
believe the biblical view of the human condition. They believe in the Creator. They grasp
the logic and necessity of atoning love, and are even moved by it. They believe in Heaven
and hell, and desire Heaven. They have good intentions about coming to Christ - but have
never yet truly submitted to Him. They must take the whole of the garment, and put it on,
and so yield to Him, in repentance and trust.
This garment will never wear out - it is eternal. The person who puts it on
feels entirely new, and the smile of the Lord is upon him.
The whole garment may be said to represent all the aspects of the Gospel on
which the seeker must depend. Thus, the parable of the garments is a beautiful and
comprehensive analogy of salvation. The Lord has undoubtedly provided the sermon notes,
but the preacher must think out the applications.
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