Luke 16:16 Commentary and Bible Study

Matthew 11:11-12 has a similar saying of the Lord, though even more strongly expressed. This is about the struggle to find God. This was something that the people could easily observe in those days. From the days of John the Baptist, the peak of his popularity as a preacher, immediately preceding the Lord, until the time that Christ spoke, he says, ‘the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence’, and ‘every man presseth into it’. He is not referring to the fact that the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees attacked the preaching of John the Baptist, and of Jesus Christ. What he is saying is that the kingdom of God is entered by force by those seeking to enter it. There was a tremendous movement among the people, and people everywhere were pressing to get into the kingdom of God. It's graphic language. You can't enter the kingdom of God by force, but you can have such an anxiety, and such a concern that you press to be received by God, and to have entrance into his kingdom. Salvation isn’t a group matter in the sense that thousands of people are all converted as a group. No, we come to God one by one, and we repent of our sins, and we're received by him, and forgiven, and blessed. But this happened on a tremendous scale in those days, just as it has happened many times in church history in times of revival. There is urgency, and a deep need in the hearts of many people. Apathy, and unbelief, and scorn, seem to be swept away: not for everyone of course, but for very large numbers of people. Now this is a great paradox, because entry into the kingdom of God is absolutely free. There is nothing you can do to earn it, or deserve it. There is nothing we can do to eradicate the record of our sin before God. We are under his judgment. We are totally dependent upon the fact that Jesus Christ has come into this world to suffer, and to die in indescribable agony, to pay the price on behalf of sinners who believe in him, and yet when we are converted, there is no doubt there is pain and concern, and we have to force our way forwards in repentance and faith. John’s preaching was distinctive. He wouldn't have it that all the Jews, by virtue of being Jews, were members of God's kingdom. That is what they thought. They thought God had a special covenant with them as an ethnic group, and that wasn't the case. God had given them great privileges, but each one needed to seek the Lord personally. John the Baptist would preach this, and at the time, many, many people were very convicted of their need, and they realized that, for all their Jewish prejudice, they needed to respond. But this was exactly what the proud Pharisees failed to do. They hated the preaching of John and of Jesus Christ, and they would do anything to keep it at bay. Christ therefore reminds them how far their hypocrisy has set them back. They have been overtaken by the publicans and the harlots who have entered the kingdom of heaven, while they were left behind. Their response was to speak derisively of the message, for what they were unwilling to receive, must be dismissed as of no value at all. There they are with all their precious reputation for piety to defend, but tragically, they completely lack any genuine religious experience.