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Luke 12:57–59
“As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny” (vv. 58–59).
Knowing the right time to take the proper action serves no useful purpose if one does not act. If we lack the will to act, our knowledge of the right moment serves no practical good. The very purpose of discerning the right time to act is so that we will act at that right time.
Let us keep that idea in mind as we look to the passage for today’s study. Luke 12:54–56 records Jesus’ chastening the crowds for not correctly interpreting the signs of the times, implicitly drawing their attention to His ministry, conveying that His work demonstrated His messianic office (see Luke 7:18–34). Having seen what time it was, the crowd had to make the choice that suited the moment lest they suffer the consequences of not choosing rightly.
In Luke 12:57–59, Jesus makes the point that it was the right time to make the right choice by drawing an analogy with a legal dispute regarding a debt. It is better for the accused to settle things with his accuser before they go to court, where the judge will convict the accused and send him to debtor’s prison. The accused will not get out until he pays the “very last penny,” an amount equivalent to one-eighth of one cent in modern currency. In other words, once the debtor is thrown into prison, there will be no way out until the debtor pays the debt in its entirety. None of the debt can be forgiven once the debtor lands in jail.
As is true of most parables, we are not to press every detail. Jesus simply means that God has brought a case against us who are sinners, and we have to settle that case before it is too late. Jesus came to settle the case—we can receive forgiveness from our Creator through repentance and faith in Christ (see Luke 5:17–32). But if we do not settle the case through faith in Jesus, we will have to pay the debt ourselves. Some people have said that this analogy in Luke 12:57–59 implies that the debtor can pay the debt, since it talks about the debtor’s getting out once the last penny has been paid; therefore, they argue, this means that hell is not everlasting, that people there suffer for a time before being annihilated or even being welcomed into heaven. This cannot be so, for it would contradict many other biblical texts that indicate that hell is eternal conscious punishment (e.g., Dan. 12:1–2; Rev. 20:7–15). Jesus means one thing: the Savior has come; therefore, we must trust Him now because we may not get another chance.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Hell is eternal because we owe a debt to a perfectly holy God and our suffering cannot possibly pay an infinite debt. Christ’s suffering is of infinite worth, so our only hope is to trust in Him. Matthew Henry writes: “Christ’s sufferings were short, yet the value of them made them fully satisfactory. In the sufferings of damned sinners what is wanting in value must be made up in an endless duration.” We must trust Christ today before it is too late.
for further study
- Psalm 95
- Matthew 18:21–35
the bible in a year
- Job 19–20
- Acts 9:23–43
- Job 21–25
- Acts 10