Posted by Searcher
on 7/3/2009, 3:17 pm, in reply to "Turning to Romans"
75.104.128.59
Dear Ray,
Man uses figures of speech all the time and they are frequently used in Scripture. If a teenager borrows his Dad's car and wrecks it, he might say, "I'm dead", This is a way of saying that he has fallen out of favor with his Dad (in a big way). If he goes home and his father goes into a rage, the son might say, "Okay, I'm out of here". The son would be referring to the present as future.
The father in the parable was using a figure of speech in Luke 15:24, He thought his younger son was never again to be seen. He was lost to him. His son had chosen to leave the father and go to a far country. He was dead to his father. When he lost everything he had and returned to his father in humility and thankfulness, his father rejoiced. His son was now found.
The elder son who had been with his father all the years that the other son was gone, was angry. Notice his words:
28-30 And he was angry... And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither have I transgressed at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gave ME a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for HIM the fatted calf.
31 And he [the father] said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet [right] that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost and is found.
Peter asked a question in Matthew 19:27 that is similar to the elder son's question, "Then answered Peter unto Him, 'Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?'"
Peter expected special treatment and reward. The Lord told Peter that the 12 apostles would sit on the 12 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then the Lord says in Matthew 19:29, "And EVERY ONE THAT HATH FORSAKEN houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands [i.e. all] FOR MY NAME'S SAKE, SHALL RECEIVE AN HUNDREDFOLD, AND SHALL INHERIT EVERLASTING LIFE. But many that are first shall be last, and the last first.
This leads directly into the parable of the owner of a vineyard and the laborers he hires. Those who came early in the day and worked all day were angry when those who came in at the eleventh hour were paid the same reward.
Matthew 20:10-12
But when the first came, they supposed that THEY should have received more, and they likewise received a penny. And when they received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house. These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto US, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
The murmuring and complaining sounds like the Pharisees and the elder son doesn't it?
Matthew 20:16
So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Ray, there is a danger in using an unscriptural expression such as "spiritual death" because it will invariably lead to more and more unscriptural purposes and become a little leaven that leavens the whole lump, We should conform to the sound of sound words. "Sound words" come from the Word.
Searcher
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