Friday, February 17, 2012

What About the Ninety Nine?

Luke 15:4 KJV
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

At first glance this looks like a bad business model. What wisdom could there be in obsessing in the one that is lost to at the neglect and the risk of the ninety nine? Many a business, many a church, many a family has been completely obliterated by those who obsess on what they do not have and ignore what they do. While the shepherd is gone after the one could not a worse thing happen to the ninety nine?

The clue is found in the phrase "just persons which need no repentance." The ninety and nine then could only represent those saints who have already been glorified and are now in heaven. Only they need no repentance and they are completely secure. Christ left them in perfect peace to come to earth for those who are still lost. The picture then is of the extreme measure that Jesus took to win those who are lost. He left perfect security. He left absolute fellowship. He left what is sure to reach those whose security was unsure.

Jesus is not giving permission to be irresponsible with what He has given us in order to gain what we do not have; He is teaching us what price He paid in order to save those in peril.

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